Hope Against Hope Hope Against Hope
Jeff Koons and the art of blissful idiocy; Kara Walker’s art of subtlety.
Aug 27, 2014 / Books & the Arts / Barry Schwabsky
Shelf Life Shelf Life
Trevor Winkfield is a connoisseur of the original, spare and strange.
Aug 12, 2014 / Books & the Arts / Barry Schwabsky
The Birth of Bad Taste The Birth of Bad Taste
Why Italian Mannerists like Rosso Fiorentino were painting’s first avant-garde.
Jul 2, 2014 / Books & the Arts / Barry Schwabsky
Favorite Hallucinations Favorite Hallucinations
Did Chris Marker think history to be not only an infinite book but a sacred one?
May 21, 2014 / Books & the Arts / Barry Schwabsky
Higher Beings Commanded Higher Beings Commanded
A quartet of shows at MoMA decoct enlightenment from the banal.
Apr 30, 2014 / Books & the Arts / Barry Schwabsky
Sculpting With Color Sculpting With Color
Ed Clark and Lynda Benglis are still making art on a grand scale.
Apr 22, 2014 / Books & the Arts / Barry Schwabsky
Past, Present, Futurism Past, Present, Futurism
The Guggenheim’s Futurism exhibition and the Whitney Biennial offer competing visions of present-mindedness.
Apr 2, 2014 / Books & the Arts / Barry Schwabsky
Whistler’s Battles Whistler’s Battles
Ambitious beneath his pose of indolence, James McNeill Whistler was the most contradictory of artists.
Feb 19, 2014 / Books & the Arts / Barry Schwabsky
Letters Letters
Hunger games?… Snowden: necessity defense… “permission to fail”… “Czars & Samovars” redux…
Feb 19, 2014 / Letters / Our Readers and Barry Schwabsky
Permission to Fail Permission to Fail
MFAs aren’t a problem: it’s artists being content with what they know.
Jan 22, 2014 / Books & the Arts / Barry Schwabsky