The Whitney Biennial’s Flimsy Promises The Whitney Biennial’s Flimsy Promises
The show claims to explore questions of sincerity amid a world of fakes, but the shallow results end up reinforcing long-held problems about the museum as an institution.
Jul 22, 2019 / Barry Schwabsky
Photographing the Otherworldly and the Abject Photographing the Otherworldly and the Abject
Barbara Ess’s lo-fi photos, which pluck scenes from our culture’s surveillance regime, make the banal seem terrifying and mystical.
Jun 14, 2019 / Barry Schwabsky
Lincoln Kirstein’s Intimate Modernism Lincoln Kirstein’s Intimate Modernism
A new show at the MoMA illustrates how one of New York’s great cultural impresarios and writers espoused a more magical realist vision of modern art history.
May 23, 2019 / Barry Schwabsky
Jack Whitten’s Journals Are a Future Classic of Art Writing Jack Whitten’s Journals Are a Future Classic of Art Writing
Notes From the Woodshed, a recent collection of Jack Whitten’s journal entries and writings, give an invaluable peek into the artistic process.
Mar 19, 2019 / Barry Schwabsky
Where Does Art Belong? Where Does Art Belong?
A trio of recent shows—from Hilma af Klint, Warhol, and Bruce Nauman—propose radically different answers to that question.
Feb 4, 2019 / Books & the Arts / Barry Schwabsky
The Last Great Literary Painter The Last Great Literary Painter
The legacy of Eugène Delacroix.
Jan 7, 2019 / Barry Schwabsky
The Triumph of the Brooklyn Museum’s ‘Soul of a Nation’ The Triumph of the Brooklyn Museum’s ‘Soul of a Nation’
The landmark exhibit captures the revolutionary spirit and powerful introspection of black art in the 1960s and ’70s.
Dec 14, 2018 / Books & the Arts / Barry Schwabsky
In Praise of Underdogs In Praise of Underdogs
Three recent New York gallery shows offer a glimpse into the wonderful work happening in the shadows of the mainstream art market.
Oct 29, 2018 / Books & the Arts / Barry Schwabsky
A History of Salvage A History of Salvage
The Met’s “History Refused to Die” exhibition rewrites the art history of the American South through a group of self-taught practitioners.
Oct 18, 2018 / Books & the Arts / Barry Schwabsky
The Women of Impressionism The Women of Impressionism
Mary Cassatt, Elizabeth Nourse, Berthe Morisot, and Rosa Bonheur were as central to Impressionism’s shifting and often contradictory currents as their male counterparts.
Aug 30, 2018 / Books & the Arts / Barry Schwabsky