Art
Stephen Westfall Unscrews His Grids Even More
Ten years ago, in an interview that I did with Stephen Westfall, he said that he was interested in a skewed grid because it looked as if “the whole thing could tremble and be knocked over.”
Review
Art
Naked in the Berkshires: 'Splendor, Myth and Vision' at the Clark
Art and power have a strong mutual attraction; in the West, their passionately shared interest is the nude body – particularly the female one.
Film
The Lobster in Brief: Doctor Moreau and B.F. Skinner Captain the Love Boat through Orwell's Dreams
Like the diabolical spawn of Franz Kafka and Michael Haneke, the Greek filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos sets unfortunate humans loose in mazes of arbitrary, absurd authority and films them with an indifference that borders on cruelty.
Music
They Might Be Assholes: Jake Bugg, Panic! at the Disco, The 1975, Drake
The artists featured below have little in common beyond deeply questionable, occasionally revolting public personas and a stubborn willingness to produce compelling art from these personas. Why do some succeed and others fail drastically?
Art
Austria’s Oswald Oberhuber: A Lifetime of Unstoppable Art-Making, Observed
VIENNA, AUSTRIA — Achtung, baby! The time has come for a comprehensive examination of the wildly diverse, voluminous oeuvre of the Austrian modern artist Oswald Oberhuber.
Art
When Art Spills Beyond Its Curatorial Frames
There has been a good deal of conversation in the last few years around the subject of Congressional district gerrymandering, a process by which the boundaries of an electoral constituency are manipulated to favor a political party or a class.
Art
JR's Photoshop Trompe l’Oeil at the Louvre
PARIS — We have long loved our illusions.
Art
What Urban Landscapes Leave Behind
In some ways it makes sense that Valeri Larko, a committed plein air painter, would have an exhibition, Bronx Focus: Paintings by Valeri Larko, at the Bronx Museum of the Arts that essentially chronicles the changing landscape of the borough.
Art
Weaving Together Current Events, with a Touch of Fantasy
Here we are, it’s June — exam time. A prompt from the art history final: “Discuss an example of a ‘history painting’ that depicted current events. What would ‘history painting’ look like in the present?”
Art
The 9th Berlin Biennale: A Vast Obsolescent Pageant of Irrelevance
BERLIN — BB9 is so vacuous, ideologically apathetic, ahistorical, sarcastic, and dehumanizing, it’s a wonder it hasn’t been blacklisted solely on account of its conformity to commodity fetishism.
Art
The Hazy Chronicles of a CIA-backed Coup
Historical exhibitions tend to consistently draw large audiences — the curious, scholars, or just those who like a cracking good story.
Art
A Digital Reboot of Félix González-Torres's Memorial to Victims of Gun Violence
Artworld polymath Greg Allen has made an odd, ritualistic, perhaps metaphorical memorial.