Category: Idle Chatter

Field notes on arts, culture, and everything else from our critic-at-large.

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04/15/2013

Heart of Lightness

The late Chinua Achebe leveled some serious criticisms at Joseph Conrad — but perhaps, the two authors are simply opposites.

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03/19/2013

Art at the Altar

Piero della Francesca, painter and mathematician, used every trick he had to move his viewers, both literally and figuratively.

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02/25/2013

Do Not Open Until

An exhibit encapsulating 1993 also captures the freedom, and the anxiety, of post-historical art.

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02/13/2013

Transcending Matter

The Ashcan painters may have “lost” most battles during their time, but we should remember them by their goal: to paint the force of life.

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02/04/2013

Outside the Lines

The Abstract painters blurred the boundary between science and spiritual, and aimed to portray the essence of reality through color.

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01/02/2013

The Mystery of Faith

In creating a work that portrays real internal struggle and transformation, Caravaggio converted painting.

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