This week, the world’s biggest Pokémon card collector, how a photojournalist was killed in Afghanistan, Dan Hancox and Kasia Tomasiewicz, writing for Coda, discuss how children’s toys may be normalizing surveillance, coopting “woke,” and much more.
Weekend
Posted inArt
Revisiting the Joy of Pattern and Decoration
The Pattern and Decoration movement was a hard-charging assault on traditions both ancient and oppressive. It was also an explosion of joyously liberated impulses.
Posted inArt
The Art of Not Communicating
Caroline Kent’s installation practically vibrates with the energy of near-connection and near-signification.
Posted inBooks
Making Poetry From Mallarmé’s Mistakes
Ellen Dillon’s verdict on Mallarmé’s pedagogical text? Pretty shaky.
Posted inFilm
Brilliant? Hatable? Annette Is Both (and Neither)
It remains to be seen whether future critics will see the film as contrarian triumph or empty provocation.
Posted inArt
David Driskell’s Wheel of Action
A retrospective pays homage to the pioneering artist and curator, who passed away last year.
Posted inBooks
A World Made of Words
Garielle Lutz’s sentences are among the most original in modern English, their linguistic specificity making them virtually untranslatable.
Posted inArt
Required Reading
This week, the battle over book reviews, Alice Neel’s populism, Herat’s history with the Taliban, considering cultural appropriation, and more.
Posted inArt
An Icon of Unconventional Abstraction
Serge Poliakoff: Gouaches 1938-1969 furthers the case for Poliakoff’s importance and continuing relevance to abstract painting.
Posted inArt
Paula Rego’s Raging Women
Rego’s women are always independent spirits, and they are often raging.
Posted inArt
Two West Coast Art Communities Outside the Mainstream
One thing seems pretty clear about both groups: they separated themselves from mainstream culture, including the art world. This is practically unheard of today.
Posted inFilm
Ema’s Visuals Ignite the Screen, but Its Story Ultimately Flickers Out
Director Pablo Larraín doesn’t trust his own filmographic brilliance, and lets the story take over in the end.