Time-Traveling Art Critics

Time-Traveling Art Critics

In times like these it’s tempting to fantasize what life might have been like in another century, another culture, among a coterie of friends and acquaintances who had things on their minds other than the pandemic and insane politicians. I’ve occasionally wondered...
Art Critics in the Time of Covid-19

Art Critics in the Time of Covid-19

What does an art critic do when the museums and galleries are closed? When classes are canceled (if you teach)? When your book spirals into limbo (if you have a publication in the works)? What does the future of art criticism look like as works migrate steadily to...
Ripe for Rediscovery: Pat Passlof

Ripe for Rediscovery: Pat Passlof

The last few years have witnessed a surge of interest in the women of Abstract Expressionism, a loosely affiliated group of artists who came of age in the shadow of the male titans of the movement—Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollock, Robert Motherwell, Mark Rothko, et...
They Cried. They Gasped. But No One Fainted.

They Cried. They Gasped. But No One Fainted.

How Critics and Curators Respond to Memorable Works of Art In a recent issue of The New Yorker, actress Allison Janney reported of her first encounter with Wassily Kandinsky’s Black Lines (1913) in the Guggenheim Museum: “I felt an energy go through my chest.” I...
Karen Wilkin: Critical Thinking

Karen Wilkin: Critical Thinking

Karen Wilkin Critical Thinking   SoundCloud Facebook Karen Wilkin has had a long and varied career since growing up in New York City in the 1950s and ‘60s. “Artists made me an art critic,” as she tells us in describing her early adventures as a curator in...