Critic’s Notebook
The Venice Biennale and the Art of Turning Backward
Every art institution now speaks of progress, justice, transformation. What if all those words hide a more old-fashioned aim?
By
Art and Design
Highlights
CreditCasey Kelbaugh for The New York Times For Sale: A Rare Klimt Portrait, Valued at $32 Million. But of Whom?
The painting’s re-emergence after decades has come with a swirl of questions about its subject, one of three related teenage girls.
By
Creditim Kinsky Britain Memorializes a Queen, With Smiles and Bronze Corgis
Sculptors have immortalized past British monarchs with imposing, stern-faced statues. For Queen Elizabeth II, they’re taking a different approach.
By
CreditJoshua Bright for The New York Times Archie Moore, Australian Artist, Wins Top Prize at Venice Biennale
Moore, an Indigenous Australian artist, won the Golden Lion for “kith and kin,” which draws on what he says is 65,000 years of family history.
By
CreditMatteo de Mayda for The New York Times
These highlights drew the big crowds in the early days, from a sonorous symphony made by fruit, to an underwater spectacle to a modern-day Tintoretto.
By Jason Farago, Alex Marshall, Julia Halperin, Jillian Steinhauer, Zachary Small, Casey Kelbaugh and
CreditCasey Kelbaugh for The New York Times Roni Horn: a Restless Artist With 4 Shows and More Identities
The spring exhibitions display Horn’s work across many mediums — a reflection of how the artist, known for her serene glass sculptures, sees herself.
By
CreditJeanette Spicer for The New York Times Books Bound in Human Skin: An Ethical Quandary at the Library
Harvard’s recent decision to remove the binding of a notorious volume in its library has thrown fresh light on a shadowy corner of the rare book world.
By Jennifer Schuessler and
CreditJeenah Moon for The New York Times A Millennial Weaver Carries a Centuries-Old Craft Forward
Melissa Cody mastered a weaving tradition dating back millenniums, but her eye-dazzling patterns joyously venture beyond it.
By
CreditRebecca Smeyne for The New York Times What to See in N.Y.C. Galleries in April
Blake Gopnik reviews Richmond Barthé’s celebrated sculptures, Claude Viallat’s paintings on fabric and Maarten Baas’s one-of-a-kind “Sweeper’s Clock.”.
By Blake Gopnik, Roberta Smith and
CreditArtists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP, Paris; via Claude Viallat and Templon, Paris, Brussels and New York; Photo by Charles Roussel
Advertisement
Carrie Robbins, Costume Designer for Dozens of Broadway Shows, Dies at 81
She made a classic wig and poodle skirt for “Grease” (using a bath mat and a toilet cover) and turned actors into Spanish inquisitors, British highwaymen and more.
By Alex Traub
Critic’s PickReview: Noche Flamenca, Raising the Dead With Goya
In “Searching for Goya,” at the Joyce Theater, the troupe uses the painter’s images as frames for flamenco dances.
By Brian Seibert
Long-Lost Klimt Painting Sells for $37 Million at Auction
The portrait was left unfinished in the painter’s studio when he died, and questions persist over the identity of the subject and what happened to the painting during Nazi rule in Austria.
By Scott Reyburn
Turner Prize Shortlist Leans In to Artists’ Identities
This year’s four nominees are Claudette Johnson, Jasleen Kaur, Pio Abad and Delaine Le Bas, whose works draw on personal history and cultural interpretations.
By Alex Marshall
IN THE GARDENHow Do You Turn ‘Urban Decay’ Into a Garden?
Apiary Studio in Philadelphia works with whatever a site holds to create landscapes that match the city’s aesthetic: “gritty, punk, improvised, layered with history.”
By Margaret Roach
A ‘Wonderland’ Adventure in the Bronx
A show at the New York Botanical Garden, inspired by Lewis Carroll’s books, will explore his fictional and real worlds through plants, art and artifacts.
By Laurel Graeber
Art Seeks Enlightenment in Darkness
Many artists are dimming the lights of their museum shows, for a mix of symbolic and spiritual reasons.
By Jori Finkel
A Mississippi Exhibition Takes on a Provocative Topic
A 183-canvas painting by Noah Saterstrom explores mental illness, his family’s struggle with it — and the state’s response to those impaired by it.
By Jane L. Levere
Manuel Mathieu Finds His Way Through Haitian History, on Canvas
The young artist interweaves the personal and the political, asking such questions as, “How can we build when we are inhabited by rage?”
By Pierre-Antoine Louis
A Celebrated Artist Finds Joy in a Return to New York
In his biggest exhibit since a 2013 retrospective at the Guggenheim, Christopher Wool has created his own show in a unique space.
By Alix Strauss
Page 1 of 10
Advertisement
Advertisement