by Ann Landi | Oct 10, 2021 | Features
Talk about “Surrealism” in conversation with artists and art lovers you are most likely to think of works by Dalí, Magritte, Tanguy, Ernst, or possibly Paul Delvaux. Mention “American Surrealism,” and the terrain gets tricky. Didn’t Adolph Gottlieb, Mark Rothko, and...
by Ann Landi | Sep 26, 2021 | Features
The first in a series of reports on the art world. In May, it seemed like we were almost entirely out of the woods with Covid-19, and then along came the Delta variant and the post-pandemic euphoria rapidly dissipated. Still, as long-time observers of the Los Angeles...
by Ann Landi | Sep 26, 2021 | Features
A new novel recalls a famous heist. I’ve just finished reading Jonathan Santlofer’s hugely entertaining thriller The Last Mona Lisa, a lively yarn that taps into our present-day fascination with all things Leonardo and takes the reader into the sometimes violent...
by Sandra Filippucci | Sep 13, 2021 | Features
Reminder to those unfamiliar with what a non-fungible token or NFT is: NFTs are stamped with a unique bit of code that marks their authenticity and stored on a blockchain, the distributed ledger system that underlies Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies like Ethereum....
by Ann Landi | Aug 2, 2021 | Features
I opened up an intriguing cauldron of worms when I asked a bevy of art writers (call them critics, journalists, or simply reviewers) on what it means to have an “eye.” Why did they consider their judgments superior to those of the average museumgoer or art lover? The...
by Ann Landi | Jul 18, 2021 | Features
Why is an art critic’s judgment better than yours—or maybe not? A few months back I did a stupid thing on Facebook and opined that I did not think Amy Sherald’s portrait of Breonna Taylor was very good (check out the hands and drapery), and that I found her pose in a...
