Politics Literature Arts Ideas

Arts

Visual Arts Performing Arts Film & Television Music Society & Culture

John Banville

His Own Worst Enemy

In Van Gogh’s letters, his tone is consistently that of a man still aflame after a violent argument.

May 13, 2021 issue

Ingrid D. Rowland

Light in the Palazzo

Hidden away and neglected for decades, works from the world’s greatest private collection of ancient sculptures are finally on public display in Rome.

May 13, 2021 issue

Hilton Als

Remembrance of Things Past

Catherine Opie is interested in where her subjects are on the inside at the moment she’s taking a photograph.

May 13, 2021 issue

Sanford Schwartz

Young and in Love

Salman Toor’s absorbing show at the Whitney depicts the pleasures, tensions, and small moments of gay life.

April 8, 2021 issue

Jacqueline Woodson

‘The Tools We Have’: A Photo History of African Women

A new book offers a striking visual history of African women from 1870 to 1970.

January 23, 2021

Leo Rubinfien

‘My Eyes Are Infamously Greedy’

Japan’s energetic culture of the photobook, from 1912 to today.

February 11, 2021 issue

Susan Tallman

Philip Guston’s Discomfort Zone

How is it that the artist, dead these forty years, is still pushing our buttons?

January 14, 2021 issue

Colin B. Bailey

Suffering, Unfaltering Manet

Even in ill health, the painter continued to shock his audience.

December 3, 2020 issue

The Latest

Naman Ahuja

Open Letter: A Halt to New Delhi’s Demolitions

The Indian government’s Central Vista Redevelopment, pressing ahead amid a pandemic surge, is tearing down vital parts of the country’s cultural heritage without proper consultation or adequate provision.

May 13, 2021

Sasha Frere-Jones

The Paranoid Style in Adam Curtis

His films choreograph archive footage, charismatic pop, and portentous commentary in pursuit of a dark, totalizing narrative—all the seduction of conspiracy theory without the substance.

May 8, 2021