The whys of art
by Robert Conquest
An excerpt from Robert Conquest’s The Dragons of Expectation published by W. W. Norton & Company.
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Features
MOMA reopened
by Michael J. Lewis
On Yoshio Taniguchi’s architectural design of the recently refurbished MOMA.
A conversation with Philip Pearlstein
by David Yezzi
In New York this fall, David Yezzi, The New Criterion’s poetry editor, interviewed the painter Philip Pearlstein.
Reflections on taste
by Marco Grassi
On the art critic Roger Fry and his “veritable torrent of provocative judgements, insights, and comparisons.”
Recollections: Greenberg & Frankenthaler
by Andre Emmerich
Excerpts taken from Mr. Emmerich’s nearly completed memoir titled My Life with Art dealing with the art critic Clement Greenberg and the color-field painter Helen Frankenthaler.
Pictures from an institution
by James Panero
James Panero consults Randell Jarrell’s classic novel upon revisiting his own Benton.
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Poems
Theater
Purrs of self-satisfaction
by Mark Steyn
On Stephen Sondheim’s production of Twelve Angry Men at New York’s American Airlines Theatre & Joanna Settle’s Nine Parts of Desire at the Manhattan Ensemble Theatre.
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Art
Maillol at Marlborough
by Karen Wilkin
On “Aristide Maillol: Maillol and America” at the Marlborough Gallery.
Exhibition Notes
by Eric Gibson
On “The Art of Romare Bearden” at The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.
Exhibition Notes
by Peter Pettus
On “The Aztec Empire” at The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York.
Exhibition Notes
by James Panero
On “Calder, Miro” at The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.
Music
New York chronicle
by Jay Nordlinger
On the Great Performers Series at Avery Fisher Hall with pianist Mikhail Pletnev and the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra conducted by Herbert Blomstedt; the St. Petersburg Philharmonic conducted by Yuri Temirkanov at Carnegie Hall with featured soloists including Hélène Grimaud, Vadim Repin and Lynn Harrell; & Charles Wuorinen’s Haroun and the Sea of Stories at the City Opera, New York.
out of interstitials
The media
Cutting moral corners
by James Bowman
On the post-election media coverage and the questions regarding morality and intelligence as a deciding factor.
out of interstitials
Verse chronicle
One if by land
by William Logan
Reviews of Danger on Peaks, by Gary Snyder; American Smooth, by Rita Dove; Gilgamesh, by Derrek Hines; Gilgamesh: A New English Version, by Stephen Mitchell; The Prodigal, by Derek Walcott & Second Space, by Czeslaw Milosz.
out of interstitials
Books
Barbarity without vigor
by Anthony Daniels
A review of The Strange Death of Moral Britain, by Christie Davies.
Our Black Jeremiah
by Mark Bauerlein
A review of Democracy Matters: Winning the Fight against Imperialism, by Cornel West.
Composer on the couch
by R. J. Stove
Summer reading
by Stefan Beck
Shorter notices
by Roger Kimball
A review of Weathering the Storm: Inside Winslow Homer’s Gulf Stream, by Peter H. Wood.
Shorter notices
by Stefan Beck
Stefan Beck on The Case for Democracy: The Power of Freedom to Overcome Tyranny and Terror, by Natan Sharansky & Ron Dermer.
Shorter notices
by James Panero
A review of Wodehouse: A Life, by Robert McCrum.
Notebook
The saddhu of sodomy
by Theodore Dalrymple
A review of Surrender: An Erotic Memoir, by Toni Bentley.
Notes & Comments
The New Criterion on art
by The Editors
On this month’s special art section and a few thoughts on the reopening of MOMA.
“An examplar of rehabilitation”?
by The Editors
On the recent appointment of Susan Rosenberg to the Hamilton College faculty as “artist- and activist-in-residence.”
Business as usual
by The Editors
On some predictable responses to a Symposium at the Frankfurt Book Fair.