William S. Smith
Editor’s Letter
by William S. Smith
It’s hardly possible to imagine Donald Trump and the crowds who gather at his rallies finding much to value in the contemporary art that is discussed and celebrated in these pages. Still, Trump’s supreme tackiness, his know-nothing world of gold veneer, masks a more complex relationship between the American far-right and the art world. .. Read more
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Writing in the nineteenth century, British art critic John Ruskin argued that an artist’s work is invariably shaded by his moral fitness. .. Read more
How could cultural integration happen without flattening productive differences? To what extent are networks of artistic exchange conducive to expanding markets? What would a postcolonial museum look like?.. Read more
In “The Creative Act,” a short essay from 1957, Marcel Duchamp argues that artmaking is never truly a solitary activity. .. Read more
There was a distinct feeling that art market actors had run headlong off a cliff but had not yet mustered the courage to look down. .. Read more
There are many Andy Warhols, some at odds with each other... Read more
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By identifying the unique aspects of a given city, the Atlas column shares something with biennials and other recurring exhibitions... Read more
The art world has a carbon problem. Long-haul air travel—the lifeblood of biennials and art fairs—contributes to climate change like few other activities... Read more
Though we publish this magazine every month for readers of the present, it’s also true that we are producing a document for posterity... Read more
Though much maligned, the white cube offers something singular: an environment for presenting and contemplating new forms and ideas... Read more
Stan Douglas’s massively scaled images bear the weight that history paintings once did. .. Read more
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Some artists don’t wait for institutions to interpret and label their work... Read more
The social gains of the postwar period were not bestowed by especially generous plutocrats. People fought for the city they wanted. .. Read more
It would seem that no object could be more at home in the center of the art world, more secure in its identity as art, than a painting. Yet stories in this issue by Kirsty Bell and Stephen Westfall highlight painters whose work remains productively out of step. .. Read more
At the core of her project is a concern with how ideas are transmitted from the past to the present, from the dead to the living... Read more
