How, as an African-American visual artist, do you represent something that no one wants to think about, much less look at? Kara Walker’s solution is ultimately an aesthetic one.
Visual Arts Review: The National Academy of Design — Another New Chapter?
This fascinating exhibition surveys the entire history of the National Academy membership and, almost incidentally, provides a potent cross-section of the history of American art and its discontents.
Book Review: A Concise, Conscientious Guide to the Life and Work of Alfred Stieglitz
The book will stand as a good first stop for anyone interested in Alfred Stieglitz, 20th-century photography, or American modern art.
Book Review: “Exposed” — Between Two Incompatible Worlds
Jean-Philppe Blondel’s books are especially praised by critics for their charm and smoothly-shaped prose.
Book Review: “Little Dancer Aged Fourteen” — A Kind of Apotheosis
In more pedantic hands, Little Dancer Aged Fourteen could easily have been a tedious and frustrating read. Instead, despite the dense and ultimately inconclusive source material, the book is continuously fascinating.
Visual Arts Review: Surrealism — One of America’s Favorite Art “isms”
Despite its serious treatment of surreal art, Monsters & Myths is a real delight.
Visual Arts Review: “Life, Death & Revelry” at the Gardner Museum
Life, Death & Revelry explores the aura of the Farnese Sarcophagus from several points of view, including those of the conservators who recently cleaned it of decades of accumulated grime.
Visual Arts Review: “Frederic Church — A Painter’s Pilgrimage”
To modern sensibilities, Frederic Edwin Church’s field sketches and early studies, with their virtuoso spontaneity and unmediated naturalism, may have more appeal than his epic paintings.
Visual Arts Review: Mary Lee Bendolph’s Amazing Quilts
Mary Lee Bendolph’s designs are stunning works of contemporary design, lacking any taint of provincialism, with as much visual sophistication as you would find in any New York gallery.
Visual Arts Review: A Delightful View of Edward Gorey’s World
The delightful Wadsworth installation is a fitting setting for the beloved artist and illustrator and the work he himself loved.