Frightfully Askew

What asymmetry in art can tell us about the way we view sickness and health, life and death

Sex and Secrets

Rare is the Hitchcock film that celebrates desire without disaster

If You Can’t See the Stage, Turn to the Page

With theaters shut during the pandemic, reading plays has shed surprising light on works both familiar and strange

The Inheritance of Nations

To what extent does a work of art belong to the people of the world?

Raising Mank

The Academy Award–winning film about the making of Citizen Kane is really a window into the tumultuous, brutal side of Hollywood’s golden age

Obscura No More

How photography rose from the margins of the art world to occupy its vital center

The Baddest Man in Town

On the trail of a historical figure immortalized in African-American folklore

The Annotated “Stacka Lee”

Comments on the famous murder ballad’s oldest known lyrics

Swinging Into the Future
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Kansas City of the 1930s witnessed a style of American music inspired by the wonders of the industrial age

Long-Distance Punishment

Could a landmark work of conceptual art be an emblem for the Covid era?

When the Angry Lion Roared

Pierre Boulez and the piece that marked his breakthrough as a composer

Latitude for Error

The maps of the 18th century were beautiful works of art, but they sometimes led to disaster

Fischer v. Spassky

A legendary chess match hits the screen

Southern Exposure

Inspired by the structures and landscapes of rural Alabama, photographer William Christenberry has spun
a narrative that is long, rich, and universal

Cold Truths

The Iceman Cometh and the destructiveness of dreams

Strong but Quiet

The achievement of Andrea del Sarto

Great Escape

On Normandy’s coast a century ago, Claude Debussy fled the war and composed his final piano masterpiece

In Search of Mister Gustave

Who is the inspiration for the Grand Budapest’s concierge?

Road Show

The woodblock prints of Utagawa Hiroshige

States of Change

The new American quarter and the decline of civilization

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