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MOST RECENT ARTICLES BY:

Mark Stevens

  1. The Great American PessimistDon’t be fooled by the veneer of friendly nostalgia. Edward Hopper was ahead of his—and our—time.
  2. How I Made It: Cindy Sherman on Her ‘Untitled Film Stills’“When I moved to New York, in the summer of ’77, I was trying to think of a new way to take pictures and tell a story.”
  3. The AristocratPhilippe de Montebello’s triumph of strategic snobbery.
  4. Nether World The Met embraces Rembrandt and his Dutch peers as only it can.
  5. Instant ClassicThe Met’s new Greek and Roman galleries are perfect for scholars and Byronic dreamers alike.
  6. Water PeopleVenice and Barcelona could accept impurity and flux better than most places—and were all the richer for it.
  7. The History of HerstoryThe Brooklyn Museum’s new feminist-art center shows us that sisterhood can be both powerful and clichéd.
  8. Britney Spears, Outsider ArtistThe real, albeit unwitting, meaning behind Brit’s acting-out.
  9. Remain in LightJeff Wall is the most exciting kind of contemporary artist—one who engages the past, and lives up to it.
  10. Plato’s RetreatContemporary art is reflexively cynical. But a cynic is nothing without a utopian ideal.
  11. The Endless Fifteen MinutesTwenty years after his death, Andy Warhol refuses to fade away. His darkness is his legacy.
  12. The Rich Were DifferentA century ago, they really knew how to spend money.
  13. The Way of All FleshYes, Kiki Smith’s art can shock. But she’d rather make you a little sad.
  14. Émigré From Another PlanetTwo fresh looks at Saul Steinberg’s perfectly off-kilter urban landscape.
  15. The Year in ArtIt was a year of gigantism: A huge show of Dada. Norman Foster’s diamond-faceted 46-story tower. A $135 million Klimt. The Lower East Side galle […]
  16. The Spanish ExpositionOnce again, the Guggenheim tries to cram an entire culture—this time Spain’s—into one sweeping show. But, oh, those Goyas.
  17. Life’s Not a Cabaret, My FriendsAt the Metropolitan, those vicious, vulgar Weimar portraits get to bare their teeth.
  18. Chelsea MorningNew York needs a museum that really knows how to deal with contemporary art, and the downtown Whitney could be it—if it has the nerve.
  19. The Imperial War MuseumManet’s Execution of Maximilian is the exceedingly rare piece of political message art that really delivers.
  20. The Big ChillBrice Marden saw how to cool down Abstract Expressionism without quenching the fire.
  21. The Allure of the Garret“Americans in Paris” recalls the years when, if you wanted to paint, you moved to Montmartre.
  22. Bossa Nova on the ConcourseThe Bronx Museum dedicates its shiny new home by taking a trip to sixties Rio.
  23. At the Bull’s-EyePicasso, the devouring father who gave birth to so much American art.
  24. Earth in the BalanceIn “Ecotopia,” we face up to our cold war against nature—and our deep unease about its potential result.
  25. Buy Low, Sell Very HighThe dealer who brought us Van Gogh, Cézanne, Gauguin, and Picasso, revealed at the Metropolitan.
  26. The Reign From SpainThe Whitney recalls a moment when there was Picasso and then everyone else.
  27. Season of ChangeChelsea—now with a shiny new Frank Gehry tower—heads into a white-hot fall.
  28. You Don’t Know PareeCafés, flaneurs, artists in garrets: “Americans in Paris” shows us why that romantic image refuses to fade away.
  29. The $135 Million QuestionIs the Neue Galerie’s new Klimt worth all that gold?
  30. It’s the Little ThingsIn petite portraits of princes and princesses—and even of himself—Liotard found depths of personality.
  31. The Anxiety of InfluenceNinety years later, Dada should give Chelsea the willies.
  32. Green PartyA spiffed-up Madison Square Park gets the kind of summer visitors that New Yorkers actually like.
  33. Drizzle With DazzlePollock’s works on paper are more intimate than his giant paintings, but no less artful in their freedom—and control.
  34. Le FreakThe Metropolitan rediscovers Girodet—and Enlightenment France never looked so kinky.
  35. Urbane OrganicA retrospective recalls the short, productive career of Eva Hesse, where Surrealism met Minimalism.
  36. Inner BeautyRenzo Piano’s Morgan Library looks blah from the street—but it may be the city’s only walk-in reliquary.
  37. Race and Gender on Fifth AvenueTwo shows—one of ancient art, one contemporary—prove that the Met knows its way around modern obsessions.
  38. MoMA in Middle AgeCritical opinion has jelled: The new Modern is too safe. Can it become more than just a museum again? Should it?
  39. What Does Africa Look Like?A new photography show at ICP reminds us to reexamine the clichés of the Western eye.
  40. Puppy LoveIt’s easy to dismiss William Wegman as “oh, that dog guy.” So why do we keep looking?
  41. Radical MeekAnother Whitney Biennial that was supposed to break the mold turns into a solid, stolid survey.
  42. No SurrenderAs old age consumed Goya, his art grew purer and ever more closely observed.
  43. Silent ScreamA retrospective at MoMA proves that Edvard Munch was more about muffling emotion than about letting loose.
  44. The Biennial QuestionEvery two years comes the critical sniping: “deplorable,” “childish,” “occasionally repulsive.” Have the curators of this year’s Whitney Bie […]
  45. Moral MinorityWhy is the art world so drawn to William Kentridge? Because he’s the rarest of political artists: a subtle, funny one.
  46. Mr. Smith Goes to New YorkThe Guggenheim figures out how to evoke the graceful sculptural groupings that David Smith favored.
  47. Collage EducationRauschenberg’s Combines, now at the Met, are rich and dense in a way that has to be seen to be believed.
  48. ArtIn 2005, the bubble didn’t burst, and the Chelsea gallery scene kept expanding—while heavies like Matthew Marks and Damien Hirst called attent […]
  49. Insider OutsidersTwo shows remind us why museums need to look beyond their marquee names.
  50. Deadpan AlleySure, Richard Tuttle’s work is art about art. But it also makes you want to keep looking.
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