Art
Required Reading
This week, the best of the architecture biennial in Venice, Kerry James Marshall on Charles White, the problematic "Glendale Biennial," telling the story of the Chinatown Art Brigade, and more.
Weekend
Books
For the Love of Leonardo
A slew of new books rethinks the Renaissance in general and Leonardo da Vinci in particular.
Film
An Artist’s Film Not Like the Others
We watch Ellen Berkenblit drawing. She is left-handed and uses charcoal. She rubs lines out and never looks at the camera.
Art
Terry Winters Draws the Shape of Space
In his best drawings, everything is keyed to the way that Winters attains difference while doing the same thing over and over.
Art
This Black Cloud Called Trump
Fifteen months ago, Trump was just beginning to embrace power; now he’s well into the dismantling of our democracy.
Art
When the Spirits Guide the Hand
An intriguing exhibition focuses on art whose makers were compelled to create it by forces greater — and far beyond — themselves.
Art
The Art that Flourished Under Mussolini
While unquestionably autocratic, Mussolini did not oppose the proliferation of unofficial artistic styles.
Art
Looking at Renoirs, Moving and Still
Not only did Pierre-Auguste and Jean Renoir share DNA, but also a muse, who was the father’s last model and the son’s future wife.
Art
Required Reading
This week, Lorna Simpson collages, two very different stories about Saudi art, the politics of photo sharing, Dia:Beacon satire, Detroit Techno history, Trump as Charlie Brown, and more.
Art
David Bowie, the Nobel Prize, and Panic in Stockholm
The current drama around the Swedish Academy has reached Shakespearian proportions, and might even flip the way we look at contemporary culture.
Art
Natalie Frank's Fairy Tale for Adults Only
Her drawings of animals and people in costume give insight into the darker side of human lust and longing.
Art
Nathaniel Robinson Questions America’s Feckless Policies
Robinson picks subjects for his sculptures that are disposable and forlorn, belonging to no one.