The New Criterion

23/07/2024

Our critic’s pick: “Morning Journal,” written and directed by Matthew Gasda, at the Brooklyn Center for Theater Research (July 24).

https://newcriterion.com/2024/07/the-critics-notebook-16/ #5

23/07/2024

Our critic’s pick: Giacomo Meyerbeer’s “Le prophète,” at the Fisher Center, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York (July 26–August 4).

https://newcriterion.com/2024/07/the-critics-notebook-16/ #4

23/07/2024

Our critic’s pick: “Met Expert Talks at The Met Cloisters—Medieval Materiality” (July 26).

https://newcriterion.com/2024/07/the-critics-notebook-16/ #3

23/07/2024

Our critic’s pick: “The Art of Trains: Highlights from the Peter & Christine Mosse Collection of Railroad Art,” at Hirschl & Adler, New York (through August 23).

https://newcriterion.com/2024/07/the-critics-notebook-16/ #2

23/07/2024

Our critic’s pick: “This Fierce People: The Untold Story of America’s Revolutionary War in the South,” by Alan Pell Crawford (Knopf).

https://newcriterion.com/2024/07/the-critics-notebook-16/ #1

23/07/2024

“Dorrance enters and exits as choreographer and coach, an approach that can’t help but reflect her own family background as the daughter of a ballet teacher and soccer coach.”

Read “Step & repeat,” by James Panero.

A monthly review of the arts & intellectual life

22/07/2024

“We often look at our great achievements and assume they were always here. They were not.”

Read “Protecting America’s promise,” by Ronald S. Lauder.

On combating anti-Semitism & anti-Americanism.

22/07/2024

“It has a content warning, naturally, reminding the visitors that ‘this exhibition contains images of war, violence, injury, and death, as well as sounds of explosions.’”

Read “The great war of 2024,” by Julia Friedman.

On “Imagined Fronts,” at LACMA, California.

22/07/2024

“No doubt the period of high modernism in America saw its share of folly and shenanigans.”

Read “Exhibition note,” by Franklin Einspruch.

On “Glory of the World: Color Field Painting (1950s to 1983)” at NSU Art Museum, Fort Lauderdale.

22/07/2024

“María Teresa’s treasure trove of dresses came in a rainbow of delicate hues and a veritable thicket of flower-themed motifs.”

Read “Fashionable politics,” by Leann Davis Alspaugh.

On Spanish Fashion in the Age of Velázquez: A Tailor at the Court of Philip IV by Amanda Wunder.

22/07/2024

“Law or no law, a tyrannical regime enacts control in many different ways.”

Read “Prague calling,” by Emina Melonic.

On Red Tape: Radio and Politics in Czechoslovakia, 1945–1969, by Rosamund Johnston.

22/07/2024

“This beautifully produced exhibition—a journey of exquisite colors—is a welcome antidote to a Paris that has become ever more harrowing.”

Read “Something old, something blue,” by David Platzer.

On “At the Heart of Color: Masterpieces of Chinese Monochrome Porcelain (8th–18th Centuries),” at the Musée Guimet, Paris.

19/07/2024

“This musical interlude turns out to be one of several during the run, which adds space, and no doubt some breathing room, to what would otherwise be a full hour of motion.”

Read “Step & repeat,” by James Panero.

On Shift., performed by Dorrance Dance at the Joyce Theater.

19/07/2024

“Freeman chooses to look at Julian as a tragic hero, and like all tragic heroes he had a fatal flaw.”

Read “Last of the pagans,” by Warren Frye.

On Julian: Rome’s Last Pagan Emperor by Philip Freeman.

19/07/2024

“Painted with a sugary impasto, this masterly work can seem fresh and ready to melt in the summer sun.”

Read “Summer lights,” by James Panero.

On “Klimt Landscapes” at Neue Galerie, “Wayne Thiebaud: Summer Days” at Acquavella Galleries & “Paul Resika: Ode to the Moon” at Bookstein Projects, New ...

19/07/2024

“The authors seem to forget that false consciousness is now a tired talking point of the new Democratic Party.”

Read “All the rage,” by Victor Davis Hanson.

On White Rural Rage by Tom Schaller & Paul Waldman.

19/07/2024

“Rather than building tension or suspense, Underneath left the viewer with a series of pretty yet fleeting impressions, perhaps inspired by the transience of spring flowers.”

Read “Triple feature,” by Jane Coombs.

On Dig the Say, Underneath, There is Light, and Rubies at the New York City Ballet.

19/07/2024

“Philosophy and politics are distinct, perhaps even impossible to combine, rather in the way that comedy and tragedy cannot be combined.”

Read “Lear’s tragedy, & ours,” by Glenn Ellmers.

On Shakespeare, Plato & politics.

18/07/2024

“Perhaps Ruys fell through the gaps between design and horticulture, or perhaps, in Britain at least, the legacy of the Arts & Crafts garden is simply too strong to compete with.”

Read “Ruys garden,” by Frederick Hervey-Bathurst.

On Mien Ruys: The Mother of Modernist Gardens by Julia Crawford.

18/07/2024

“The nation was dedicated, Lincoln said, ‘to the proposition that all men are created equal.’”

Read “What to ‘The New York Times’ is the Fourth of July?” by James Piereson.

On The 1619 Project & the Declaration of Independence.

18/07/2024

“In an incisive and swiftly flowing biography, Harss describes the varied influences that have shaped Ratmansky into one of the foremost classical-ballet choreographers working today.”

Read “Ballet archaeology,” by Robert Steven Mack.

On The Boy from Kyiv by Marina Harss.

18/07/2024

“The sculpture shows the embrace of two lovers, their slender arms interwoven so closely that the pair seems to blend into one.”

Read “Studio artist,” by David Platzer.

On “Brancusi: Art is Just Beginning,” at the Centre Pompidou, Paris.

18/07/2024

“Some shortcomings of presentation notwithstanding, the Cluny exhibition offers a dazzling and absorbing window onto four decades of French art, history, and culture.”

Read “Exhibition note,” by Gregory T. Clark.

On “The Arts in France in the Time of Charles VII (1422–1461)” at Musée de Cluny, Paris.

17/07/2024

“Along with ‘The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,’ it stands as one of the great satires of world literature.”

Read “The masterpiece of our time,” by Gary Saul Morson.

On The Gulag Archipelago at fifty.

17/07/2024

“This exquisitely nuanced piece reopens the door to a lesser-known historical figure who, in Klingenstein’s able portrait, embodies the nexus of romance and power politics.”

Read “Salmon run,” by Kyle Smith.

On Our American Queen, by Thomas Klingenstein, at the Flea Theatre.

17/07/2024

“It’s an association of forms that belongs to anyone—as an artist, the challenge is to make them yours, which Uchiyama does.”

Read “Phalanxes & temples,” by Dana Gordon.

On “Kim Uchiyama: Loggia,” at Helm Contemporary, New York.

17/07/2024

“Trumbull understood well that he was singularly equipped to record the great deeds of his lifetime.”

Read “Painting from life,” by Jonathan Leaf.

On Glorious Lessons: John Trumbull, Painter of the American Revolution, by Richard Brookhiser.

17/07/2024

“Under William Spaulding’s masterful direction, the Royal Opera Chorus delivered in top form.”

Read “Revolution at the Royal Opera,” by Paul du Quenoy.

On Umberto Giordano’s Andrea Chénier at the Royal Opera House, London.

17/07/2024

“The exhibition shows that Chinese monochrome pottery had symbolic meanings that an ignorant barbarian such as myself might never guess.”

Read “Something old, something blue,” by David Platzer.

On “At the Heart of Color: Masterpieces of Chinese Monochrome Porcelain (8th–18th Centuries),” at the Musée Guimet, Paris.

16/07/2024

“Caravaggio cast a novel paradigm of beauty, allowing new representations of savagery, labor, calloused palms, and feet ingrained with dirt.”

Read Martyrs & murderers,” by John Chaves.

On “The Last Caravaggio,” at the National Gallery, London.