Elon Musk’s defenders were quick to claim that his hand motion was actually an ancient “Roman salute” — but that gesture never existed.
Editor’s Picks
Posted inArt
Frida Kahlo’s Elegy to Heartache
Despite the fact that most of humanity has shared the devastating emotional turmoil of a breakup, the topic is strangely elusive in the history of art.
Posted inOpinion
Why I Refuse to Make Art for Prisons
What purpose does this creative enrichment serve when the buildings that host it are harmful?
Posted inComics
A Prospect Heights Ghost Story
The final part of our NYC Housing Stories series focuses on its creator, who was displaced from his Brooklyn brownstone.
Posted inOpinion
My Small Gallery Lost Money at an Art Fair. It Hurt.
When sales are robust, it confirms that producing and selling art is actually a viable activity. When sales falter, our world begins to feel untenable.
Posted inBooks
Why Isn’t Slavery Depicted in Dutch Painting?
Netherlandish art is remarkably coy about the whole colonial endeavor. A new book seeks to uncover those connections.
Posted inNews
This Hanukkah, Let’s Bring Back Judith Menorahs
The legendary heroine was once widely recognized with fried ricotta pancakes during holiday celebrations. What’s responsible for her erasure?
Posted inArt
Revisiting Botticelli’s Evocative “Mystic Nativity”
The painting re-emerged in the 1800s after centuries of obscurity, revealing a complex composition rife with symbolism and subtle premonitions.
Posted inOpinion
The Canonization of St. Luigi
The authorities inadvertently transformed a perp walk photo of the accused killer of a healthcare CEO into a Renaissance painting of the arrest of Christ.
Posted inBooks
Why Don’t We Talk About Race in Fairy Tales?
Characters in fairy tales “are white not by chance, but by design,” Kimberly J. Lau writes in a new book.
Posted inBooks
Sarah Lewis on Ways of Seeing Race in America
“When it comes to the unspeakable facts in the history of America, it’s largely the artists who’ve been willing to show us what others would not,” the art historian said in an interview with Hyperallergic.
Posted inOpinion
Nativity Scenes Have Never Been Neutral
To criticize the Vatican’s nativity with a now-removed Jesus in a keffiyeh would be to dismiss the artistic history of crèches centering marginalized people.