Applying “Applied Art”: Gropius Bau Mines Old Division Under New Direction
The term “applied art” can only read as a misnomer in 2019, when the line between strictly functional and purely aesthetic art practices has…
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“What Makes Great Art?”: Momus: The Podcast with Osei Bonsu (Episode 9)
In continuing our season-long exploration of the question “What makes great art?” co-hosts Lauren Wetmore and Sky Goodden speak to essential voices about what…
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“But Can a Spirit Burn?”: Alternatives for Art Under Capital
We were reprimanded before the meeting even began. The guard, a tough looking woman employed at the Lisbon Tropical Botanical Garden, told us that…
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Deeper Wounds: Nep Sidhu and Aestheticizing Trauma
To reconstitute memory that has been violently suppressed, we often turn toward the monumental, hoping to fill a discursive void with a profusion of…
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“So Many Glaring Absences That Were Very Loud to Me”: An Interview with Titus Kaphar
Titus Kaphar came into the limelight soon after Time magazine commissioned him in 2014 to make a painting for one of its “Person of the Year”…
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The Substance of Grief: Nelson Henricks Deepens the Black Page
In the course of my grieving, I lost my capacity to represent my grief to others. There were no useful tools to properly describe…
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The Architecture of Exclusion: Storytelling Hannah Hoffman’s New Home Through Paul Williams and Tony Cokes
Architect Paul Williams used to sketch out plans, virtuosically, upside down. He became famous for this skill – most writing about him mentions it….
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More Culture than Capital: Modesty and Ambition at the Atlanta Biennial
Every year, more cities mount biennials. Over a century of variations on a similar theme, and the purpose of this recurring model remains unclear…
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“What Makes Great Art?” with Jeanne Randolph and Sheila Heti (Episode 8)
What makes “great art”? How do we account for what Gertrude Stein called the “itness” of art, and what are we seeking –…
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Ceramics in the Expanded Field: The Art World, the Clay World, and the Case for John Mason
Let’s suppose that ceramic art, done by artists who were clay handlers before anything else, got accepted as sculpture proper – that and nothing…
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