Modern culture has some ’splaining to do. Climbing out of the Renaissance/Elizabethan age through to the late eighteenth century, an increasingly enlightened society emerged into the industrial wonders of the nineteenth century and... Read More

Agnes Martin got a late start in her art career, struggled with relationships at a time when she couldn’t live openly, dealt with mental illness, and still became an important figure in the art world where her work was a bridge between... Read More

Jan Yoors achieved international fame as a tapestry artist in the bohemian New York scene of the 1960s, but that barely qualifies among the most interesting parts of his life. In "Hidden Tapestry", Debra Dean dives into the artist’s... Read More

Stark persuasively draws unlikely connections between skyscrapers and sexism, grid cities and loneliness, the internet and sustainability. Lois Farfel Stark’s "The Telling Image" is a wondrous and sweeping book that accomplishes a... Read More

Natalie Hopkinson makes an impassioned case for artists to have a more central role in rethinking societal problems in "A Mouth Is Always Muzzled". The book brilliantly recounts the history of the sugar and slave trades, as well as the... Read More

This rare theological gift tugs at the curtain fixed between Islam and Christianity. Navid Kermani’s "Wonder Beyond Belief" is a work of artistic inquiry that is rife with spiritually edifying morsels, made all the more piquant by the... Read More

What is American history other than a record of stuff that happened somehow related to the people and places of this country. Everything in the past is history, and no matter how insignificant, it factors into the character and identity... Read More

Facing a blank canvas, most artists strive to paint a pretty picture under the guidelines (however loose) of Impressionism, Expressionism, or some other style or technique, while a rarer few seek to use their paintings to address... Read More