The Enduring Popularity of Fictional Critic “Madame Realism”
Even self-assured egos have their sensitive spots. This was certainly true of Madame Realism, a fictional critic who, from 1984 until 2007, analyzed art…
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An Elegy for Beau Dick (1955–2017)
Beau Dick was given the name “Walis Gwy Um,” which means “big, great whale” in the Kwak’wala language. His carvings tap into the supernatural,…
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How To Write a Review
Go see an exhibition at a museum, a gallery, a studio. See a show skywritten above the arroyo, tucked under a bridge, in virtual…
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Abrasion and Collision: On History’s Steps with Robert Rauschenberg, at the Tate
Three quarters of a lifetime ago, in the early spring of 1964, I saw an exhibition at the Whitechapel Art Gallery. Who exactly was…
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The Double-Bind in Raqs Media Collective’s Institutional Critique
Longing we say, because desire is full of endless distances …
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What Is an Art Fair Doing Asking “What Is To Be Done?”
Tented within Manhattan’s industrial piers, and under a cold sweep of wind, the Armory Art Fair rounded out its latest edition (under new director,…
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“A Self-Implicated Search”: Reviewing Robert Linsley’s Final Book
At an artist talk several years ago, I asked Robert Linsley to explain why artworks should be treated as human beings. Seemingly embarrassed, he…
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Interrupting Business as Usual: A Close Reading of MoMA’s Muslim Ban Intervention
New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) recently rehung its prized Modern galleries, swapping out works by greats like Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso for…
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Cassils and the Complicated Rhetoric of the Hero
I used to have a student called Sarah Kench. Older than her peers, she was already in her 30s when she started at Syracuse…
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The Many Faces of Brian O’Doherty
A common theme haunts descriptions of the Irish artist Brian O’Doherty; to many, he is a protean ghost, transcendent of categories and heedless of…
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