Gretchen Bender’s Video Art Predicted the Bleak Future of Mass Media Gretchen Bender’s Video Art Predicted the Bleak Future of Mass Media
A retrospective of her art looks at the Pandora's box television unleashed and how we continue to reckon with the effects of an unrelenting, 24/7 visual culture.
Jun 17, 2019 / Hannah Stamler
Photographing the Otherworldly and the Abject Photographing the Otherworldly and the Abject
Barbara Ess’s lo-fi photos, which pluck scenes from our culture’s surveillance regime, make the banal seem terrifying and mystical.
Jun 14, 2019 / Barry Schwabsky
Lincoln Kirstein’s Intimate Modernism Lincoln Kirstein’s Intimate Modernism
A new show at the MoMA illustrates how one of New York’s great cultural impresarios and writers espoused a more magical realist vision of modern art history.
May 23, 2019 / Barry Schwabsky
The Legend of the Spider Woman: Imagining the Mind of Louise Bourgeois The Legend of the Spider Woman: Imagining the Mind of Louise Bourgeois
Jean Frémon’s book about her life and art is a perceptive but flawed attempt to understand the inner workings and inspirations of the brilliant artist.
May 15, 2019 / Jillian Steinhauer
Museums’ Recent Tech Obsession Does Not Compute Museums’ Recent Tech Obsession Does Not Compute
A spate of recent shows, including one at MoMA about the material and cultural role of 21st-century technology, shows how little the art world understands its buzziest new interest...
May 6, 2019 / Sophie Haigney
The Transfixing Spell of Edward Gorey’s Life in Art The Transfixing Spell of Edward Gorey’s Life in Art
Mark Dery’s Born to Be Posthumous meticulously tells the story of the unconventional author and artist, who amassed an ardent following yet remains unknown to many readers.
Apr 16, 2019 / Books & the Arts / Jillian Steinhauer
What to Do When Art Leaves You Speechless What to Do When Art Leaves You Speechless
Optic Nerve, the debut novel from Argentine writer María Gainza, is an exquisite and intimate look into one person’s idiosyncratic vision of art history.
Apr 8, 2019 / Dustin Illingworth
Jack Whitten’s Journals Are a Future Classic of Art Writing Jack Whitten’s Journals Are a Future Classic of Art Writing
Notes From the Woodshed, a recent collection of Jack Whitten’s journal entries and writings, give an invaluable peek into the artistic process.
Mar 19, 2019 / Barry Schwabsky
Hearing the Trauma You Can’t See Hearing the Trauma You Can’t See
Kevin Beasley’s new Whitney show, built around a massive, whirring cotton-gin motor, argues for a new way to listen to the horror and beauty of history.
Feb 13, 2019 / Tiana Reid
Where Does Art Belong? Where Does Art Belong?
A trio of recent shows—from Hilma af Klint, Warhol, and Bruce Nauman—propose radically different answers to that question.
Feb 4, 2019 / Books & the Arts / Barry Schwabsky