A sidelong glance reveals as much as a direct gaze—which Hans Holbein the Younger humorously demonstrated in The Ambassadors (1533) by depicting a skull at the bottom of the painting that can only be deciphered at an oblique angle. Aptly titled A Sidelong Glance after the eponymously titled essay by art historian Krista Thompson, John Edmonds’s first solo museum exhibition…
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“Alice Neel: People Come First” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Alice Neel: People Come First, on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art through August 1, 2021, could be an unexpectedly emotionally intense experience for those unfamiliar with her work. Visitors wind though rooms filled to the brim with large canvases, the portraits’ faces filled with uncomfortably mixed emotions. Even when ambivalent, the expressions are as vivid as the colors…
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“Whose Utopia” – Cao Fei at the Museum of Modern Art
Factories always fascinate me, as I often wonder how the things I eat, use, or consume are manufactured by workers or machines: transforming raw materials into final products. Since the Industrial Revolution, factories have become a prominent subject of art history. Some artists depict them as a spectacle, some express concerns about their environmental impact, and others simply appreciate the…
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“About Time: Fashion and Duration” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
About Time: Fashion and Duration is the biggest exhibition of the year for the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and part of the Met’s 150th anniversary celebrations. The simplicity of both its design and the garments on view is a refreshing change after years of exhibitions that have only grown in scale and complexity, culminating in 2019’s…
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The works speak for themselves: Tishan Hsu at SculptureCenter
Recently, the artist Tishan Hsu, who had largely retreated from public view since first emerging in the New York scene during the late 1980s, resurfaced in 2020.
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On wingless birds and permeable cages: Petrit Halilaj at the Palacio de Cristal, Madrid
In "to a raven and the hurricanes which bring back smells of humans in love from unknown places," Petrit Halilaj’s vivid celebration of transcendent queer love takes on new resonance in the context of the global pandemic.
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Making Medieval New: “Gothic Spirit” at Luhring Augustine
Gothic Spirit: Medieval Art from Europe, on view through March 7, 2020 at Luhring Augustine and presented in partnership with London-based gallery Sam Fogg, features around thirty pieces of medieval art from private collections. These objects are exhibited against a backdrop typically seen in modern and contemporary art galleries. The blank walls and clean, bright lighting of this setting, as…
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Charlotte Perriand: Pioneering Design in a Man’s World
Pictured on street corners and plastered throughout the metro system, an eye-catching image announcing the Fondation Louis Vuitton’s current exhibition Charlotte Perriand: Inventing a New World has bombarded Parisians for weeks. In the advertisement, a photograph shows the architect-designer Perriand (1903–1999) silhouetted against her native French Alps, sparsely outfitted in only pants and a pearl necklace, thrusting a pair of mittens…
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Reworking Spaces: “Elective Affinities: Edmund de Waal” at The Frick Collection
Walking into The Frick Collection, one is met with a historic setting in which to view a wide range of paintings, sculptures, decorative arts, and currently, contemporary British artist Edmund de Waal’s Elective Affinities: Edmund de Waal at The Frick Collection. The exhibition was curated by Charlotte Vignon, Curator of Decorative Arts. A unique, exciting element of this exhibition is…
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A Daring Balancing Act: “Programmed” at the Whitney
Drawing heavily from the Whitney Museum of American Art’s permanent collection, Programmed: Rules, Codes, and Choreographies in Art, 1965–2018 includes a broad range of works that spans fifty years of instruction-based artistic practice. In a groundbreaking collaboration, the exhibition was co-curated by Christiane Paul, Adjunct Curator of Digital Art, and Carol Mancusi-Ungaro, Melva Bucksbaum Associate Director for Conservation and Research.…
