Film
In 1940s Japan, a Trophy Wife Becomes a Spy
In Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Wife of a Spy, a woman becomes embroiled in exposing Japanese war crimes in Manchuria.
Reviews
Books
A View of Oxford That Evades Its “Ethos of ‘Intellectualism’”
“Oxford has a complex social divide that tends to be ignored,” says photographer Arturo Soto.
Art
Tomashi Jackson Rediscovers Long Island’s Beleaguered Past
Jackson’s exhibition The Land Claim began an extensive dialogue with local Indigenous, Black, and Latinx families on Long Island’s East End.
Art
Nikolai Astrup’s Enchanted Norway
There is not a hint of psychological trauma in Astrup’s art, despite the parallels in his own experience to that of his countryman Edvard Munch.
Art
Altarpieces and Shrines Shaped From Found Objects
Inspired by her foremothers’ recycling of materials, Jan Wade creates altarpieces, shrines, and memory jugs out of found objects.
Art
The First Museum Exhibition of Brazilian Modernist Photography Outside Brazil
This retrospective of the work from a São Paulo photo club is a reminder that Modernism was not solely a European phenomenon.
Film
For Udo Kier in Swan Song, Flamboyance Is Its Own Redemption
Todd Stephens’s new film is a celebration of willful, collective flamboyance that flourishes within small cities.
Books
A Medieval Mystic as a Muse for Two Poets
Some 600 years later, Margery Kempe’s disquieting sobs continue to confound and provoke.
Art
Shahzia Sikander Draws the Immeasurability of Women
The artist uses her technical and artistic gifts to render a clear vision of women who defy stereotypes.
Art
The Indigenous and Female Roots of Harvesting Flax
Christine Borland looks at one of the oldest known forms of fabric in the world.
Art
The Silent Lives of Found Photographs
The mind works desperately to fill the gaps in these lost stories.
Film
There Are Now Not One But Two Documentaries About the Salvator Mundi Saga
Both The Lost Leonardo and Savior for Sale dig into how museums and galleries are not merely complicit with the unregulated art-industrial complex, but are necessary to it.