Art
The Timeless Blackness of Balenciaga’s Dresses
An exhibition at the Musée Bourdelle showcases some 60 pieces designed by Cristóbal Balenciaga, highlighting his sculptural manipulations of black fabric.
Review
Performance
Fruits of a Fictitious Expedition Fill the Oldest Built Museum in the United States
H.T. Darling's Incredible Musaeum in Baltimore's 1814 Peale Museum, the first built museum in the United States, offers visitors a complex narrative of time travel and colonialism.
Art
Sculptor Camille Claudel Finally Gets Her Own Museum
In the French town of Nogent-sur-Seine, the Musée Camille Claudel opened last month with 43 of the artist’s sculptures, the largest collection anywhere in the world.
Books
A Designer’s 1977 Road Map to Better Visual Literacy Gets Rereleased
A new edition of George Nelson's How to See shows that his guide to the human-made landscape is as relevant as ever.
Film
A Documentary Introduction to the Art World, with Star Power and Obvious Ideas
Blurred Lines: Inside the Art World, showing at the Tribeca Film Festival, is a successful crash course in the forces shaping the art market that fails to go deeper.
Art
Imagining the Portraits of African American Women Erased from History
In The Evanesced at the California African American Museum, Kenyatta A.C. Hinkle confronts society’s compulsion to reframe, mitigate, or eliminate the role of black women in the US.
Art
A Sports-Inspired Exhibit That’s Not Quite a Slam Dunk
March Madness at Fort Gansevoort cleverly presents the appurtenances of sports: the equipment, trophies, and objects that adorn athletic bodies.
Art
The Hidden History of Wakashu, Edo-Era Japan's "Third Gender"
An eye-opening exhibition at Japan Society closely examines representations of wakashu in woodblock prints from the collection of the Royal Ontario Museum.
Art
The Drawings Ida Applebroog Made During a Breakdown
In 1969, the artist committed herself to San Diego's Mercy Hospital. While there, she made work grappling with her depression.
Art
An Exhibition That Feels Like Sitting at Simone de Beauvoir’s Desk
From the Desk of Simone de Beauvoir includes an informal archive of the great feminist philosopher’s works, as well as those of her inspirations and the people influenced by her.
Art
Discovering Honoré Sharrer, an Eclipsed 20th-Century Surrealist Painter
A survey at the Columbus Museum of Art spotlights the remarkable work of the American artist, who was dogged in her convictions and a master of her medium.
Books
A Painter Speaks, so that His Paintings Can Remain Silent
When René Magritte wrote “This is not a pipe,” he wasn’t negating the pipe so much as he was negating the language with which we attempt to grasp it.