Can an Unfinished Piece of Art Also Be Complete? Can an Unfinished Piece of Art Also Be Complete?
An exhibit at the Met Breuer explores the differences between completing and finishing an artwork.
Apr 14, 2016 / Books & the Arts / Barry Schwabsky
The Need of the Forgotten The Need of the Forgotten
The novelist and poet Carmen Boullosa talks about her obsession with lost stories and found textual objects, and how rereading gives books new faces.
Apr 8, 2016 / Books & the Arts / Aaron Bady
Hopes of Coexistence in Syria Hopes of Coexistence in Syria
Does Samar Yazbek’s diary of the Syrian civil war merely represent the dreams of an exile?
Apr 7, 2016 / Books & the Arts / Frederick Deknatel
My Erasures My Erasures
My erasures were featured. * I collected debris to sell as crash art, crush porn. * “Say goodbye to Lonesome George,” the last Galapagos tortoise. * I was a pushover for the laws o…
Apr 7, 2016 / Books & the Arts / Rae Armantrout
Reconstruction Reconstruction
We don’t know which came first, the chicken— naturally unsalted (enough to make a grown man cry, remembering sweet nothings) — or the hapless egg, who sat on a wall that may or may…
Apr 7, 2016 / Books & the Arts / Amanda Jernigan
The Cathedral at Ground Zero The Cathedral at Ground Zero
Understanding the prosody of the World Trade Center Transportation Hub’s construction also requires an accounting of its extravagance.
Apr 6, 2016 / Books & the Arts / Michael Sorkin
‘Everybody Wants Some!!’ Has Just Enough Gravity ‘Everybody Wants Some!!’ Has Just Enough Gravity
If you’re determined to do it, you can wring a story, some themes, and even a moral out of Richard Linklater’s new movie.
Apr 6, 2016 / Books & the Arts / Stuart Klawans
Less Is Moore Less Is Moore
Observations is one of the great verbal works of art of the 20th century, in part because of Marianne Moore’s infectious devotion to everything small.
Mar 31, 2016 / Books & the Arts / James Longenbach
Joseph Brodsky, Darker and Brighter Joseph Brodsky, Darker and Brighter
A spellbinding new biography rescues the poet from sentimentality and kitsch.
Mar 24, 2016 / Books & the Arts / Cynthia Haven
After the Last Astronauts Had Left Us, II (Laika) After the Last Astronauts Had Left Us, II (Laika)
Yes, they had been brave in the face of it. The Geiger counter at navel-gazing. Down here, Earth vespers nothing but its tinfoil sermon. How to Survive These Extrao…
Mar 24, 2016 / Books & the Arts / Safiya Sinclair