Film
From MLK to Whistleblowers, the FBI’s Trouble with Dissidents
The films MLK/FBI and Enemies of the State offer contrasting looks at government oppression.
Reviews
Film
David Byrne and Spike Lee Consider the Oxymoron of "American Utopia"
American Utopia, Lee's film of the stage show, recontextualizes some of Byrne's greatest hits as musings on modern life.
Art
The Wonderfully Unsettling Paintings of Charles Garabedian
Garabedian gave himself over to his instincts, pretensions, and mistakes, unafraid to explore and even embrace what others considered to be “bad.”
Film
The Curious Lives of the Russian Stray Dogs That Traveled to Space
Space Dogs explores the lives of Moscow street dogs past and present, including the ones used in the Soviet space program.
Books
Yayoi Kusama Gets Her First Graphic Novel Biography
In this excerpt of Kusama: The Graphic Novel, illustrator Elisa Macellari time travels to Kusama’s life in 1960s New York City, when the artist became “the high priestess of love and pacifism.”
Art
Tauba Auerbach's Sculptural Art Books
Much like her bookworks, Auerbach's catalogue S v Z deserves to be examined as a sculptural object before we unfold its cover and consider its contents.
Books
The Life of an Anti-Establishment “Rock Star”
In a first-ever biography of the recently deceased, Polish-born sociologist and theorist, there are lessons for creative people — and everyone else — about perseverance and personal truth.
Books
New Art Books for the New Season
An autumnal offering of Artemisia Gentileschi, Dorothea Tanning, Henri Matisse, and Guston galore, among much, much else.
Art
Red Flags Are Flying at Rockefeller Center
Andy Goldsworthy's installation seeks to signal anti-imperialism at a notoriously capitalist site.
Art
How Robert Kobayashi Elevated the Tin Can
For all the sameness of material and process, Kobayashi was able to attain a wide range of nuanced feeling and subtle pictorial conventions in his tin artworks.
Books
Step Into the Colony Room, the Raucous Haunt of Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud, and the YBAs
Tales from the Colony Room, an oral history of London’s most infamous bar, delves into the artistic collaborations, affections, cruelties, and regrets of the club’s patrons.
Film
A Comedic Look at How Capitalism Has Warped Chinese History and Culture
In Jia Zhangke’s short film The Hedonists, finally available to stream, laid-off miners become theme park reenactors.