Film
Surveying Queer Art and Literature from Before the Term “Homosexuality” Was Invented
The documentary Before Homosexuals seeks to educate those whose knowledge of queer history doesn't go further back than the 20th century.
Review
Art
The Every Woman Biennial Defies Critical Evaluation
The salon-style biennial, featuring over 600 women and non-binary artists, is neither hierarchical nor overly precious.
Art
The Colorful Waves Generated by Mohamed Melehi and the Casablanca Art School
Artists in postcolonial Casablanca created a specifically Moroccan form of Modernism, merging the influences of Pop art and Hard-edge painting with the rich tradition of abstraction in Berber craft and architecture.
Books
The Cult of Jean-Michel Basquiat
What happens when an artist's mythologized life distracts from his work?
Art
An Exhibition Tells the Tragicomic Story of a Former Gallerist’s Collection
Memories of Travel: The Antoine de Galbert Collection takes us to a thrilling world of outrageous abnormality, which positivist art history had ignored and repressed.
Film
What New Yorkers Are Too Afraid to Say About the Future and Climate Change
In the documentary The Hottest August, director Brett Story interviews sweaty bystanders about how the world is changing.
Art
Two Women in a Man’s Art World
You are not likely to find the work of Mimi Gross and Marcia Marcus in the permanent collections of any major New York City museum. I find that both predictable and troubling.
Books
Why Matisse Thought “A Picture Should Always Be Decorative”
For Matisse, decoration was never a secondary matter.
Art
How Do Artists Get Into the Whitney Biennial?
I made a spreadsheet to find out what the participants in the Whitney Biennial have in common.
Art
Paradise Lost: Paul Davies's Fictive California
The painter's depiction of breezy palm trees and picturesque mountain ranges contain eccentric, discordant details.
Art
The Ideas Hidden in One Artist's Embroidery
Elaine Reichek uses hand-embroidery to emulate the handwriting of authors whose ideas she makes her own.
Art
A Silver Exhibition's Classist Undertones
Despite the artistry on display in this Gorham Silver exhibition, I found it difficult to suppress a kernel of class hatred in looking at it.