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‘A Painter Not Human’

No one, not even Leonardo or Piero della Francesca, has ever paid such penetrating attention to the way light works as Antonello da Messina

Antonello da Messina

an exhibition at the Galleria Regionale della Sicilia di Palazzo Abatellis, Palermo, December 14, 2018–February 10, 2019

Antonello da Messina

an exhibition at the Palazzo Reale, Milan, February 21–June 2, 2019


Kidnapping: A Very Efficient Business

Kidnappers perform research, assess risks, manage costs, and, if they’re in it for the long term, build reputations for orderly resolution.

We Want to Negotiate: The Secret World of Kidnapping, Hostages, and Ransom

by Joel Simon

Kidnap: Inside the Ransom Business

by Anja Shortland


Houdini with a Brush

Charline von Heyl: Snake Eyes

an exhibition at the Deichtorhallen Hamburg, June 22–September 23, 2018; the Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens, Deurle, Belgium, October 14, 2018–January 13, 2019; and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C., November 8, 2018–April 21, 2019


How Our Politics Broke

If We Can Keep It: How the Republic Collapsed and How It Might Be Saved

by Michael Tomasky


Nasty & Nice

Bouguereau and America

an exhibition at the Milwaukee Art Museum, February 15–May 12, 2019; the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, June 22–September 22, 2019; and the San Diego Museum of Art, November 9, 2019–March 15, 2020


Serengeti on the Seine

Europe: A Natural History

by Tim Flannery, with Luigi Boitani


Tintoretto’s Wildness

‘Tintoretto: Artist of Renaissance Venice’ at the National Gallery of Art, through July 7, 2019

Tintoretto: Artist of Renaissance Venice

an exhibition at the Fondazione Musei Civici, Palazzo Ducale, Venice, September 7, 2018–January 6, 2019; and the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., March 10–July 7, 2019


Sex, Art, and Misogyny

‘Against Our Will: Sexual Trauma in American Art Since 1970’ by Vivien Green Fryd

Against Our Will: Sexual Trauma in American Art Since 1970

by Vivien Green Fryd


Dialectics of Enlightenment

‘Irrationality: A History of the Dark Side of Reason’ by Justin E.H. Smith

Irrationality: A History of the Dark Side of Reason

by Justin E.H. Smith


Early Developments

Blue Prints: The Pioneering Photographs of Anna Atkins

an exhibition at the New York Public Library, New York City, October 19, 2018–February 17, 2019

Sun Gardens: Cyanotypes by Anna Atkins

by Larry J. Schaaf, edited by Joshua Chung

Monumental Journey: The Daguerreotypes of Girault de Prangey

an exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, January 30–May 12, 2019


Spain’s America

América: The Epic Story of Spanish North America, 1493–1898

by Robert Goodwin

El Norte: The Epic and Forgotten Story of Hispanic North America

by Carrie Gibson


The Pure Portraitist

Moroni: The Riches of Renaissance Portraiture

an exhibition at the Frick Collection, New York City, February 21–June 2, 2019


Dons of the Gulag

The Vory: Russia’s Super Mafia

by Mark Galeotti


Berger’s Ways of Being

If Berger’s ultimate vision is bleak, his way of seeing, together with the power of his prose, has leapt across the years to give hope to new and younger generations.

A Writer of Our Time: The Life and Work of John Berger

by Joshua Sperling

Landscapes: John Berger on Art

edited and with an introduction by Tom Overton


The Rabelais of Naples

The Tale of Tales, or Entertainment for Little Ones

by Giambattista Basile, translated from the Neapolitan and with an introduction by Nancy L. Canepa, with illustrations by Carmelo Lettere and a foreword by Jack Zipes

Tale of Tales

a film directed by Matteo Garrone


Yearning for the Absolute

Lincoln Kirstein’s Modern

an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, New York City, March 17–June 15, 2019

The Young and Evil

an exhibition at the David Zwirner Gallery, New York City, February 21–April 13, 2019

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