This Novel Is the Art World’s Black Mirror

I started reading Italian novelist Vincenzo Latronico’s Perfection (2022) splayed out languidly on the beach. Then I was sitting up, nerves ablaze, and then on the train, the world outside whizzing past unnoticed, and then in bed that night, my Kindle having...

How Liberty Fabrics Weaves Design and Art History

In an 1889 Woman’s World article edited by Oscar Wilde, one writer called Liberty “the chosen resort of the artistic shopper.” Known for its bold floral fabrics since the late 19th century, the luxury department store on Great Marlborough Street continues to be...

Ruth Asawa Proved That Mothering Is Inherently Artistic

In 2008, I gave birth at home, in the bed I still sleep in today, to my second child; and instead of marveling at their vernix-covered scalp and the fact of their being born in the caul during a full moon, I had an extended anxiety attack, convinced I wasn’t a...

How Helen Chadwick Took the Piss Out of Art

Helen Chadwick, latex costume used in “Domestic Sanitation” (1976) (© Estate of Helen Chadwick) It is perhaps a testament to the enduring power of the titular British artist’s oeuvre that, even at a substantial 272 pages, Helen Chadwick: Life Pleasures...

The Friendship That Transformed Frida Kahlo 

Frida Kahlo, “Self-Portrait with Cropped Hair (Autorretrato con pelo cortado)” (1940), oil on canvas (Digital Image © 2025 MoMA, N.Y.; © 2025 Banco de México Diego Rivera Frida Kahlo Museums Trust, Mexico, D.F. / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York)...

The Woman Behind the Iconic Glass House

The history of photography has made it clear that the camera is a subjective tool. The glass lens frames the story differently depending on who is doing the looking, and how. So what are we to make of the images of a woman in a glass house, the history of which has...