Literature Is Ahead

Literature Is Ahead

Viktor Nyström

Literature is not dead, but it is changed forever. For the better.
John White
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Recent Notes

Line Hachem

Art Desk.

The Spinning Room

Carnevale

Profile: Adrianne Rubenstein

Floating Fruit, 2026, oil on canvas, 60 × 72”

Painter Adrianne Rubenstein on humor, Canadian landscapes, and self-discovery.
John White Adrianne Rubenstein
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Bookshop

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How to Enjoy Florence, with Filippo Fargna and Kim Jansch

James Duffield Harding, Ponte Santa Trinità, Florence, before 1832. Watercolor. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Public domain.

A guide to Florence through Casa G. Hotel Firenze, local artisans, old institutions, and the city’s quieter forms of belonging.
Madina Tulakova Kim Jansch Filippo Montani Fargna
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Auctions and the Psychology of Collecting

Paul Signac, La Salute (Venise), 1906. Sold at Koller in Zurich on 26 June 2026 for about $4.4 million.

Koller’s Karl Green discusses how taste, timing, and desire shape the auction world.
Madina Tulakova Karl Green
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Art Heist: Pushkin Editions Stolen From European Libraries

Alexander Pushkin, watercolor attributed to S. G. Chirikov, 1810. Source: Central Museum of A. S. Pushkin / Wikimedia Commons.

A Paris trial traces the theft of rare Russian books from libraries across Europe.
Bob Loblaw
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Fun City Editions: The Joy of Rescuing Forgotten Films

Goodbye, Columbus (1969)

A conversation with Jonathan Hertzberg on rescuing overlooked films, physical media, and the second lives of great neglected movies.
Jonathan Hertzberg John White
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Susan Sontag Was a Bridge

Joel Meyerowitz, New York City, 1969.

Sontag as a bridge between old New York criticism and the theory-driven culture that followed.
Bob Loblaw
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Willem Dafoe Seeks the Amateur Spirit, via the Old Tale, as Artistic Director of La Biennale di Venezia

Domenico Tiepolo’s Punchinellos at work, from his late series on the commedia dell’arte figure.

Dafoe’s Biennale program looks at theater’s origins.
Pina Lomb
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The Editra Manifesto of Primalism

Yellow relief by Ellsworth Kelly

Manifesto for a new artistic movement.
Pina Lomb
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Bourdelle, Without the Museum Machine

Bourdelle's Studio. Musée Bourdelle, Paris Musées. Photos by Pierre Antoine

A conversation with Ophélie Ferlier Bouat on intimacy, monumental sculpture, and the lasting spirit of Bourdelle in Paris.
Madina Tulakova Ophélie Ferlier-Bouat
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Classical Art: Raphael Presented In Toto at Met

Detail of Raphael’s Lucretia, a monumental drawing from his early Roman period, 1508–10. Currently on view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 899

A preview of the most comprehensive U.S. exhibition ever dedicated to Raphael, open at the Met 29 March to 28 June.
Marguerite de Ponty
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Anthology Film Archives To Expand

At the opening of Anthology Film Archives, November 30, 1970. Michael Chikiris, courtesy Anthology Film Archives.

A conversation with Kevin Bone, Architect, and John Mhiripiri, Executive Director, on preservation, popcorn, and the future.
Clara MacMeekin John White John Mhiripiri Kevin Bone
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The Eternity of the Dance Shoe

Leather Ballerinas. Pier Gagne

A conversation with fifth-generation Northampton shoemaker Chris Woodford on whole cuts, jazz shoes, and Japanese minimalism.
John White Chris Woodford
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Interview: Kamel Mennour’s Art of Presence

Mennour Archives at 47 Rue Saint-André-des-Arts

Paris gallery founder Kamel Mennour on artists, archives, and the work of building a contemporary program across generations.
Madina Tulakova Kamel Mennour
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Short Story: The Big Man

Nicolas Poussin’s Blind Orion Searching for the Rising Sun, 1658.

A YouTube expedition in search of an immortal Viking drifts from performance into paranoia.
John White
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Interview: Stone Carver Massimiliano Pelletti On the Virtue of Imperfection

Silver cave, 2023, travertine silver. Edition 1/1. Photo by Nicola Gnesi.

An interview with Massimiliano Pelletti on geology, imperfection, and sculpture as dialogue.
Madina Tulakova Massimiliano Pelletti
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Existentialism and Womanhood with Lack

Photo via Abdullah Al Bakri

An exclusive excerpt from Cecilia Knapp’s forthcoming novel, exploring memory, inheritance, and family distance.
Cecilia Knapp
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Unseen Helmut Newton Photographs to Be Exhibited in Caraglio

Ferdinando Scianna, Marpessa, Caltagirone 1987 © Ferdinando Scianna

A preview of a major exhibition bringing together previously unseen works by Helmut Newton in northern Italy.
Simona Alberi
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Flats

Comme des Garçons Mary Jane ballet flats, Spring 1999

A quick look back at a small but unmistakable moment from Spring 1999.
Cici Thompson
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Works on Paper: Renoirs at The Morgan

Auguste Renoir, Study for The Great Bathers (1884 to 1887). Photo: The Morgan Library & Museum.

An overview of a major exhibition examining Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s works on paper, opening at The Morgan this fall.
Richard Aubern
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Essay: Should Artists Be Committed?

Christ's Descent into Hell by Hieronymus Bosch. Fig. 6. Detail of Sisyphus in 26.244. On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 613

An examination of artistic commitment, doubt, and the dangers of moral absolutism.
Pina Lomb
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Cherry Lane and the New Small Theaters

Illustration by Lynn Lieberman – AFineLyne

How A24’s renovation brings the Cherry Lane Theatre back into public use.
Bob Loblaw
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When the Pasta Queen Visited New York

Loredana Bertè. Photo by Achilleoliva.

A look at Loredana Bertè’s time in New York and the making of Made in Italy.
Bob Loblaw
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Louise Giovanelli and the Afterlife of the Film Still With Metrograph and Grimm Gallery

Louise Giovanelli, Arena, 2020

An overview of a cross-institution collaboration between Grimm Gallery and Metrograph centered on Louise Giovanelli’s work.
Bob Loblaw
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Monica Vitti Honored at Lincoln Center

Monica Vitti. AFP. Colorized.

Monica Vitti’s career revisited through a 14-film retrospective at Film at Lincoln Center.
Tasmin Blake
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Popes and Dancers With Francesco Messina

Francesco Messina

Sculpture, drawing, and continuity in the career of Francesco Messina.
Marguerite de Ponty
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Art Focus: Elegance in a Post-Ironic Era

Slip House, the brand new gallery opened at the base of a 19th-century, three-story former carriage house at 246 East 5th Street.

On beauty, restraint, and a potential return to elegance after decades of irony.
Cici Thompson
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Lina Wertmuller’s Love and Anarchy Deserves More Love

Love and Anarchy (Lina Wertmüller, 1973)

Why Lina Wertmüller’s Love and Anarchy deserves a central place in film history.
Pina Lomb
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The Sustainability of Bamboo With Gucci

Image courtesy of Gucci.

Tradition, adaptability, and contemporary design in Gucci’s Bamboo Encounters.
Cici Thompson
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The Use of Heritage With What We Ask of a Statue Is That It Doesn’t Move

Still from What We Ask of a Statue Is That It Doesn’t Move

Greek auteur director's hybrid portrait of youth, music, and daily life in contemporary Athens.
Dalia Morgan
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Pynchon Returns With a Big Band Mystery

Thomas Pynchon in 1955, before he disappeared from public view. Photograph: Bettmann/Bettmann Archive

Pynchon's latest novel brings big band rhythms to paranoia, espionage, and disappearance.
Richard Aubern
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Grief in the Idea Economy With Invention

Still from Invention by Courtney Stephens

Courtney Stephens and Callie Hernández explore grief through capitalism, belief, and found footage.
Dalia Morgan
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First Reading of The Wolf Is an Endangered Species

A recovered 1973 one-act returns through a downtown reading and a cross-disciplinary cast.
Pina Lomb
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The Geometry of Motion and Zadie Smith

Photograph by Erich Höhne. Courtesy of Deutsche Fotothek.

Writing and dance as parallel systems of form, tension, and release.
Marguerite de Ponty
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The Spinning Room Wants You to Send Your Mixtape

The Spinning Room. Photo by Adam Stech.

The Spinning Room is always looking for sound advice.
Richard Aubern
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Fashion In the Post-Avant-Garde Era With Kostas Murkudis

Photo by Christian Colomer. Styled by Anais Codina. Shown at 90º

On turbo-capitalism, decadence, and fashion’s refusal to respond.
John White Kostas Murkudis
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Why Are You Ashamed of Being Human? A Dear John To Auto Tune

The Mamas & the Papas on ABC's The Song Makers, 1967

An essay on pitch, technology, and the quiet erasure of the human voice.
Pina Lomb
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The Hand in the Waves

Photo by Lena Be

On a night at sea, usefulness becomes fantasy, effort becomes ordeal, and salvation arrives misaligned.
Rupert Taylor
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Music EDIT RAdar 1

Music Edit RAdar 2

EDIT RAdar 1.
Editors
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The Joy of Magical Realism With La Chimera

16mm still from La Chimera.

Rohrwacher reaches for enchantment and originality, brushing up against melancholy and miscasting along the way.
Dalia Morgan
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The Poetry of Materials

A gown by Charles James. Photographed by Cecil Beaton.

From silk and rationing to code and looms, textiles as a record of power, labor, and desire.
Pina Lomb
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Interview: Franco Maria Ricci’s Elegant System of Beauty

Franco Maria Ricci in 1984, at the launch of FMR U.S.A. at the New York Public Library.

A final conversation about art, mortality, geometry, and memory.
John White Franco Maria Ricci
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Identity, Capitalism and the Future of the Novel

Via The Photo Desk

Alexandra Kleeman on on identity, capitalism, ecology, and the future of the novel.
Alexandra Kleeman John White
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To Live and Die In Dime Square

Photo by Ernst Haas

An essay about place as performance.
Melissa Mesku
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