Art
Revisiting the Joy of Pattern and Decoration
The Pattern and Decoration movement was a hard-charging assault on traditions both ancient and oppressive. It was also an explosion of joyously liberated impulses.
Review
Art
The Art of Not Communicating
Caroline Kent’s installation practically vibrates with the energy of near-connection and near-signification.
Books
Making Poetry From Mallarmé’s Mistakes
Ellen Dillon’s verdict on Mallarmé’s pedagogical text? Pretty shaky.
Film
Brilliant? Hatable? Annette Is Both (and Neither)
It remains to be seen whether future critics will see the film as contrarian triumph or empty provocation.
Art
David Driskell’s Wheel of Action
A retrospective pays homage to the pioneering artist and curator, who passed away last year.
Art
Step Into a Pantry of Ceramic Groceries
Stephanie H. Shih’s selection came from Asian American social media followers, who helped pick the top “Western products which ‘feel’ Asian.”
Books
Hilma af Klint Gets an Exquisite Seven-Volume Catalogue Raisonné
The latest volume of af Klint’s catalogue raisonné reveals the artist exploring the spiritual world with quasi-scientific deliberation.
Film
Candyman Skewers the Art World’s Exploitation of Black Pain
Writer/director Nia DaCosta and producer/co-writer Jordan Peele update the horror film franchise with a critical look at the commodification of Black trauma.
Art
A Painter’s Delicate, Sexual, and Clinical Visions of Birth
Bridget Mullen draws a line between the act of birth and the act of making art.
Film
Fall in Love with a Puppet Baby in the Arthouse Musical Annette
The newest feature from Leos Carax, a tempestuous romance between Adam Driver and Marion Cotillard, is gleefully strange and metafictional.
Books
A World Made of Words
Garielle Lutz's sentences are among the most original in modern English, their linguistic specificity making them virtually untranslatable.
Art
An Icon of Unconventional Abstraction
Serge Poliakoff: Gouaches 1938-1969 furthers the case for Poliakoff’s importance and continuing relevance to abstract painting.