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Christopher Benfey

credit: Jim Gipe

Christopher Benfey

Christopher Benfey is the Mellon Professor of English Emeritus at Mount Holyoke. His most recent book is If: The Untold Story of Kipling’s American Years. (December 2023)

Resistance Pottery

Resistance Pottery

Two recent exhibitions of the work of Black potters find political acts in the placid history of nineteenth-century American stoneware.

Hear Me Now: The Black Potters of Old Edgefield, South Carolina

an exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, September 9, 2022–February 5, 2023; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, March 4–July 9, 2023; the University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor, August 26, 2023–January 7, 2024; and the High Museum of Art, Atlanta, February 16–May 12, 2024

Crafting Freedom: The Life and Legacy of Free Black Potter Thomas W. Commeraw

an exhibition at the New-York Historical Society, New York City, January 27–May 28, 2023

May 11, 2023 issue

‘A Searing Bolt of Turquoise’

‘A Searing Bolt of Turquoise’

Hummingbirds, whose psychedelic feathers cover even more remarkable physiological adaptations, are dying out at alarming rates owing to climate change, but humans have long had a deadly fascination with these startling creatures.

The Glitter in the Green: In Search of Hummingbirds

by Jon Dunn

Hummingbird Salamander

by Jeff VanderMeer

Cross Pollination: Heade, Cole, Church, and Our Contemporary Moment

an exhibition at the Cummer Museum of Art and Gardens, Jacksonville, October 28, 2020–January 17, 2021; the Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, February 23–May 23, 2021; the Thomas Cole National Historic Site, Catskill, and the Olana State Historic Site, Hudson, June 12–October 31, 2021; and the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, November 20, 2021–March 21, 2022

On Edward Hicks

by Sanford Schwartz

August 19, 2021 issue

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