Art
The Elegant and Affordable Prefab Architecture of Jean Prouvé
An exhibition at the LUMA Foundation in Arles features 12 of the socially-minded architects buildings made from easily assembled prefabricated parts.
Reviews
Art
The Anti-Fascist Tapestries of Hannah Ryggen
Ryggen's massive allegorical tapestries attest to the artist’s strong condemnation of violence as the world burned through World War II, and later, the Vietnam War.
Art
The Lesser-Known Photos of Gordon Parks, from Fashion to Artists' Portraits
A two-part exhibition at Jack Shainman Gallery sheds light on relatively obscure works by the master photographer, from colorful fashion imagery to portraits of Muhammad Ali, Helen Frankenthaler, and others.
Art
The Museum of Failure Lives Up to Its Name
The Museum of Failure presents over 100 flops, bombs, and fiascos of innovation, including cars and boats, food and drink, tech gadgets and sex toys.
Books
The Reluctant Surrealist
Guy R. Beining's poems appear disjunctive but are in fact carefully constructed in ways that call to mind André Breton, Luis Buñuel, and Paul Delvaux.
Art
Two More Women to Add to Modernism’s History
The absence of Mary Callery and Peter Miller (Henrietta Myers) from the history of the 1940s New York art scene does not reflect well upon the city’s museums or their curators.
Art
Thomas Nozkowski, a Master Improviser
It is possible to imagine an essay devoted solely to the myriad ways Nozkowski uses paint.
Books
A Russian Poet Recounts Literary Life in 1966
Soviet-era poet Igor Kholin describes social realities of life among the writers living in cultural exile outside Moscow.
Art
A Mega-Gallery Marks a Quarter Century
I remember David Zwirner Gallery back in the 1990s, before Chelsea, when the New York art world was much smaller and more manageable.
Art
A Portrait of the Lives of Workers in New York City's 2,483 Chinese Restaurants
A look at the daily lives of immigrants who make the city's ubiquitous Chinese restaurants possible.
Film
The Creativity of Pre-Digital Animation in the 1970s and ’80s
A program of experimental American animation at the Quad is a gift, and a riotous romp through a pre-digital creative movement.
Art
Treasures of the Master Drawings Fair, from a Surprising Portrait to a Strange Dreamscape
I have developed some affection for the enterprise, which is much more diffuse than other New York fairs.