Art
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Notes Toward the Definition of Kitsch March 13, 2025
The term “kitsch” seems to have made its debut in Munich art circles around 1870. Whatever its origin,1 the word was first used to describe a species of genre painting then in vogue with the prospering middle class....
The Magic Eye March 13, 2025
A couple years ago, I got the idea that I should spend a week in Paris by myself. Considering I have a boyfriend who could have gone with me and that, perhaps more pertinently, I don’t speak French, the decision was confusing to a handful of people I...
The Sensitive Young Meme March 12, 2025
One of the most beautiful paintings in the Caspar David Friedrich show The Soul of Nature, on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art through May 11, shows a roiling ocean crashing against a rocky coast by moonlight. The tiny figure of a monk stares o...
Say ‘I Do’ to the Divorce Memoir March 12, 2025
Divorce writing may be the toughest thing a memoirist can do other than covering a war,” writes Mary Karr in The Art of Memoir. Yet the divorce memoir — and its shy cousin, the autofictional divorce novel — has experienced a resurgence over the past ...
Yes, Beauty Matters. Now What? March 11, 2025
Great ideas are a splendid thing, and those that are true, even better. But ideas are embodied things, rooted in the real world — and reality has a knack for breaking the mould of ideology. In the arts, grand concepts are often treated like a game of...
‘Mickey 17’ Review March 10, 2025
Parasite, 2020’s Best Picture winner, is director Bong Joon Ho’s second-best film about the depredations of capitalism.Don’t get me wrong: Parasite’s a solid movie, particularly through the first 90 or so minutes. Bong does an impeccable job of intro...
Can James Bond Be Licensed to Thrill Again? March 07, 2025
James Bond has stared down plenty of villains over the years—garden-variety megalomaniacs, faceless henchmen, Soviet killers with weird skills—but his latest mission may be the most unexpected: proving that the espionage genre still has a pulse....
The Artificial Culture March 06, 2025
I'll start with a simple premise. If we now have direct evidence that the federal government was funneling millions of dollars into supposedly free market press organs (such as Politico, which has received federal subscription payments from agencies ...
Stand Up for Better Oscar Bait! March 05, 2025
The mother of all costume dramas.Conclave starts with a simple, can’t-miss premise. We will stick ourselves in the Vatican for two hours. What we have to spend on the elaborate set will be offset for by never having to change locations. We will be su...
Why Does Every Play Seem Political Now? March 05, 2025
IT’S ALWAYS BEEN a good argument starter to contend that all theater is political, even if the claim sometimes depends on stretching the definition of “political” to its vaguest outer limits. For one thing, unlike movies or television or books, theat...
Do You Want to See? March 04, 2025
We have moved on. Ours is the era of looking.We visited galleries and heard lectures, watched arts programming and read criticism, all that time like we were wandering a highway gas station in search of a piece of fruit. Is any substance to be found ...
Toward Good Art, and Art Itself March 03, 2025
Last year, the New York Times published a list of what its critics deemed the best books of the 21st century. (So far.) Offices and book clubs across the country chattered about which books made it and which got snubbed, which were ranked higher and ...
Making the Arts Great Again February 24, 2025
The nation’s arts community is suddenly aflutter with apprehension, doubt, and some mild public protests over President Donald Trump’s recent decision to overhaul the leadership of Washington, D.C.’s John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. In...
Perfecting the Art of Pedantry February 21, 2025
Who exactly is Eduardo Torres?Any proper answer would have to come in phases. For starters, Torres is (or was—his existential standing is a matter of debate) a provincial literary critic hailing from San Blas, Mexico; an enemy of some and and mentor ...
Make the Kennedy Center Honors Great Again February 21, 2025
All sensible and right-minded people can agree that the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts is in need of a serious infusion of greatness, but what about the Kennedy Center Honors?Yes, President Donald Trump has made a compelling case for the pauc...
Why ‘The Brutalist’ Is Brutal to Watch February 20, 2025
There’s no brutalist architecture in The Brutalist. This terrifically named film—directed by former child actor turned would-be auteur Brady Corbet; cowritten by him and his partner in life and work, the director Mona Fastvold; and production-designe...
The Lana Del Rey Presidential Library For Girls & Gays February 19, 2025
To be a Language Arts fan is to be a Lana Del Rey fan. Ahead, we pair each of her albums with a must-read book....
What Was Woke Art: Elite Interiority February 19, 2025
Part one of who knows.The whole of Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign was twisted around. “I’m With Her.” Shouldn’t it be the other way around? Isn’t a politician supposed to be with us?And when she lost, a lot of women took it personally. This ...
Where Love Goes to Die February 17, 2025
Universities used to be some of the best places in America to find a date. Sometimes they still are. At the University of Chicago, where I am a student and famously “where fun goes to die,” most of my peers are interesting, attractive, and bright. Th...
From Mishima to Mangione February 13, 2025
The Japanese writer Yukio Mishima, who lived from 1925 to 1970, styled himself as an “aesthetic terrorist,” and carried out one actual act of terror in 1970, leading a far-right coup against the Japanese government. When the coup failed, he committed...
Transmitting Western Civilization February 13, 2025
“What is civilization?” When confronted with what appears to be civilizational disintegration, many writers and scholars have attempted to answer this question. For instance, Kenneth Clark’s “Civilisation” mini-series, which aired in 1969, celebrated...
Classical Music as Art—and Play February 12, 2025
It is customary for rising musical stars to begin their recording careers with the tried-and-true works of their genre. A pianist will, for instance, record Mozart and Brahms before attempting MacDowell or Tippett, and a cellist will tackle the Dvořá...
Kendrick Lamar’s Meta-Performance at the Super Bowl February 11, 2025
A sense of abasement hovers over the performer of the Super Bowl halftime show. It is slight, but it is there. The musician selected must be an internationally recognized star, and yet that star also has to submit to stipulations and standards set by...
Give the NEA Back to the Public February 10, 2025
For decades, Americans have become increasingly alienated from the American arts establishment. The main source for their discontent is clear: Academics and their allies have successfully insisted upon first modernism, then postmodernism, and finally...
‘Love Hurts’ Review February 07, 2025
Considering the matchup in this weekend’s Super Bowl, it’s a propitious moment to release a movie titled “Love Hurts.” Philadelphia Eagles fans fond of quarterback Jalen Hurts will nod vigorously in agreement. If only the movie displayed the skill se...
