Art
Vera Neumann, the Artist Who Transformed Her Paintings Into Wearable Objects
“I’m an artist who prefers to paint things for people rather than for walls,” Neumann explained in 1971.
Review
Art
The Urgent and Necessary Images of Shahidul Alam
At the Rubin Museum of Art, Truth to Power spotlights Alam's tireless documentation of over 40 years of struggle and change in his native Bangladesh.
Art
Fernanda Gomes Creates a Surreal Domestic Space With Her Abstractions
Gomes, who lives in Rio de Janeiro, often works from home, where daily, mundane objects are not distinguished from sculptural pieces.
Film
50 Years Later, Watching Jimi Hendrix Onstage (On Film)
I’ve often forgotten Hendrix’s impact on me, but attending a fleeting screening of Gerry Goldstein’s long-unreleased The Jimi Hendrix Experience: The Royal Albert Hall in the titular venue presented a rare opportunity to experience those feelings afresh.
Art
An Unlikely Scottish Archive Sheds Light on Romanian Art During Socialism
The exhibition 24 Arguments,which emerged from research conducted by the Institute of the Present, offers works that are heavily influenced by newly forged global dialogues.
Art
An Overdue Spotlight on Michelangelo's Tutor
The Frick Collection presents the work of Bertoldo di Giovanni, an understated yet pivotal figure during the Renaissance, long described as a disciple of Donatello and a tutor of Michelangelo.
Art
Julie Mehretu's Sublime Abstractions of History
Packed with traced and freehand marks, Mehretu’s artworks inspire awe of what might be called an informational sublime, a 21st-century twist on the artistic tradition.
Books
A Gripping Memoir Dives Into LA’s Graffiti Subculture of the ’90s
Artist and scholar Stefano Bloch has written a story that is personal, but also a primer on graffiti’s history and artistic and social import.
Books
Rhythm, Divination, and Naming in Jay Wright's Poetry
In Wright's poems the name of the absolute is scrawled in a host of esoteric tongues.
Books
Articulating a New Kind of Class Struggle
Capital Is Dead: Is This Something Worse? illustrates that Capital is actually dead. Something new and much worse, involving what author McKenzie Wark calls "the vector" has usurped it.
Books
The Poet as a Dream Guide
In Joseph Donahue’s Wind Maps I-VII we are led out of sleep by the poet, just as he has been led out of sleep by a dream guide, into a renewal of mythic or storied truth.
Art
The Power and Limits of Ai Weiwei's Irreverence
While his political commitment comes through in many works, it’s hard to square talk of “revolution” with Ai Weiwei’s staggering mainstream US success.