Music for the End of Time Music for the End of Time
A new biography examines the life and work of composer and theorist Olivier Messiaen, who moved French music out of the cafes and back to the cathedrals.
Jan 25, 2006 / Books & the Arts / David Schiff
Soul Eyes Soul Eyes
Fra Angelico's genius for depicting the interior life--states of love, spirituality or anguish--is stirring the interest of contemporary artists.
Jan 19, 2006 / Books & the Arts / Arthur C. Danto
Cruel and Unusual Punishment Cruel and Unusual Punishment
Michael Haneke's Caché is a stylish thriller that scrapes away at the surface of polite European affluence to lay bare the moral rot beneath.
Jan 11, 2006 / Books & the Arts / Stuart Klawans
Of Queers and Kong Of Queers and Kong
From Brokeback Mountain's closeted cowboys to King Kong's embrace of Anne Darrow, Hollywood has queered cherished icons of masculinity. But the two films paint a bleak picture: Lov...
Jan 5, 2006 / Books & the Arts / Richard Goldstein
Live Flesh Live Flesh
In no other body of work is the sexuality of human flesh explored as truthfully as in the transgressive, erotically charged images created by Egon Schiele.
Jan 4, 2006 / Books & the Arts / Arthur C. Danto
A History of Violence A History of Violence
Munich is a first-rate spy thriller featuring an assassin who reveals his soul. Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain gives two extraordinary actors time and space to develop a rare emotion...
Dec 20, 2005 / Books & the Arts / Stuart Klawans
Wartime Lies Wartime Lies
As Nazis dropped bombs in Warsaw, poet Czeslaw Milosz wrote a collection of literary criticism that sought to trace the rise of totalitarianism by deconstructing the mythologies of...
Dec 20, 2005 / Books & the Arts / Timothy Snyder
Rembrandt’s Year Rembrandt’s Year
2006 marks Rembrandt's 400th birthday, and an array of exhibitions, from the sublime to the silly, will open in Amsterdam, Washington and beyond. As the aesthetic hype escalate...
Dec 19, 2005 / Books & the Arts / Abigail R. Esman
Fear and Laughing in Las Vegas Fear and Laughing in Las Vegas
Lenny Bruce was a lone voice at a time when irreverent comedy could land him in jail on obscenity charges. But the spirit of Lenny Bruce hovered over the first annual Comedy Festiv...
Dec 15, 2005 / Books & the Arts / Paul Krassner
Harold Pinter: Art, Truth and Politics Harold Pinter: Art, Truth and Politics
The pursuit of truth in drama is elusive, but in life it is mandatory, wrote Harold Pinter, who died Wednesday at 78. When he won the 2005 Nobel Prize for literature, he condemned ...
Dec 8, 2005 / Books & the Arts / The Nation