Art
Martha Friedman’s recent work marks a significant shift away from the sculptures that first gained her attention. Working within a territory that includes Rene Magritte, Claes Oldenburg and Vija Celmins, Friedman became known for casting enlarged versions of commonplace items; nails, cantaloupes, wa
Art
In an article published on Wednesday in the International Herald Tribune titled “The Impoverished Connoisseurs,” longtime art and auction correspondent Souren Melikian recalls an era that lasted from the mid-1950s through the mid-1970s, when European art buyers “who went in for small Medieval object
Art
There is a 12,000-pound steel sculpture by Tony Smith sitting in the cavernous space operated by the Matthew Marks Gallery at 522 West 22nd Street. It is sleek, black and decked out with an art historical pedigree. But that’s not the Tony Smith that interested me.
Art
Sun Tzu’s Sixth Century treatise, The Art of War, is one of the precursors to Gertrude Stein’s How to Write (1931). Written in different epochs, under different dark clouds, war either in progress or just around the fork in the road, these manuals are invaluable to an understanding of writing and th
Books
Here is a fun literary experiment: substitute the words ill or illness in Virginia Woolf’s essay “On Being Ill” (1930) with the words hung-over and hangover . It works, right? “Hangover is the great confessional”; “In a hangover words seem to possess a mystic quality”; “Incomprehensibility has an en
Art
On Sunday, my Hyperallergic Weekend colleague Claudia La Rocco published a piece in The New York Times titled “Museum Shows With Moving Parts,” which explored the expanding presence of dance in museum settings.
Opinion
This week, real estate as art, Design Museum app, Damien Hirst is a disgrace, online bids doing well at Christie's, Rem Koolhaas profile, Instagram pic cliches, African fashion blogs and more.
Performance
It’s a hot Friday afternoon. Inside the LAVA Studio in Brooklyn, six bodies take turns tumbling on a large blue mat: forward rolls, cartwheels, back handsprings, backward rolls into handstands. They cheer each other on throughout the warm-up. Their bodies are strong, their energy joyfully palpable.
Art
There is a rather large and forbidding object currently on display on the second floor of the New Museum. More than 9 ½ feet tall and 6 ½ feet wide, it is made up of two sections: an upper level composed of three cabinet doors, one of which is open to expose a set of gearwheels, and a mattress with
Art
A studio visit prompted these thoughts about Josephine Halvorson’s paintings, which Nancy Princenthal has characterized as “resolutely airless and mute.” Halvorson depicts close-up views of largely flat surfaces, often with a rectangle framed within the painting’s rectangle. In addition to conveying
Music
This month, reviews of Curumin, Tyga, Rye Rye, Waka Flocka Flame, Clams Casino, Patti Smith, The Gaslight Anthem and A Place To Bury Strangers.
Art
Josef Albers’ paintings and prints have always left me cold. Maybe it’s because I’ve never been that much of a color guy. I instinctively side with Florentine disegni over Venetian colori (though I routinely melt in front of a Titian or Tintoretto), and I would take an Analytical Cubist Braque or Pi