In Part 2 of Andrea Kirsh’s annual roundup of the best in art books, there is something for everyone on your holiday gift list from lovers of figurative painting to abstract sculpture fans. There’s also something for everyone to learn, whether it’s about a previously under-appreciated regional artist or the most famous self-promoter in the history of Modern Art.
Read MoreAnd perhaps this last is one of the most significant points the exhibition makes: despite an international interest in the commercial vernacular and the visual impact of the media, the works in the exhibition can only be truly understood within the cultures that produced them. This leaves serious viewers with the realization that the information in many of the introductory labels is insufficient background for a real understanding of the art and how it functioned in its native territory.
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On a day of tragedy in Baltimore, caused by a container ship’s collision with the Key Bridge, the ensuing bridge collapse and loss of lives, we are thinking of the city and its people, and about other cities and peoples that depend on infrastructure that is fragile. How vulnerable we all are! Our Baltimore contributor Dereck Mangus, in a review written before this tragedy, will tell you about an exhibit that touches on tragedy — human and ecological.
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