Karen Wilkin is an independent curator and critic. She is an art historian, curator, and critic, educated at the High School of Music and Art, Barnard College, and Columbia University. After living and working in Italy and Canada for some years, Ms. Wilkin returned to her native Manhattan in 1985. She lives near the Empire State Building with her architect husband and two Maine Coon cats. A specialist in twentieth century modernism, Ms. Wilkin has written monographs on David Smith, Helen Frankenthaler, Anthony Caro, Kenneth Noland, Stuart Davis, Giorgio Morandi, Wayne Thiebaud, and Georges Braque and organized exhibitions of their work internationally. She  is the co-author, with Clifford Ross, of The World of Edward Gorey. She contributes regularly to The New Criterion, The Wall Street Journal, and Hudson Review.