A Beat of His Own
Our newest Artwork Biography comes from musicologist Rebecca Bodenheimer.
How To Objectively Identify Beauty
A philosopher explains the importance of form and freedom in aesthetics, juggling included.
Staying Afloat
One of the first paintings of the Arctic landscape offers lessons in fortitude and resilience.
Art Is Essential March 2021
Writers on the art that matters to them. #ArtIsEssential
Explore The Latest Stories
Art Across America
The Sound of Jeanne Lee’s Voice
Jeanne Lee (1939-2000) was a poet and vocalist of wide-ranging musical talents who pushed the...
Can Sports Be an Aesthetic Experience?
Contingency and unpredictability can elevate a football game into a kind of theater....
Vanguard Voices
"If creative music is under celebrated and under documented compared to other eras in jazz, the...
Winnowing The Wynn
A critic surveys the Wynn Las Vegas art holdings and asks, "What can compete with a hanging parasol...
Art Is Essential
In March 2020 Critical Read began the Art Is Essential flash nonfiction project. We asked writers to describe the art that they are turning to during these uncertain times. Since then, we’ve heard from over 300 writers across the country.
– Adam Zucker on Mierle Laderman Ukeles’s Touch Sanitation
There's nothing quite like the warmth of oil on canvas. #ArtIsEssential
Isolation can drain us but art offers nourishment. #ArtIsEssential
I no longer felt so alone, and this was when I first learned the power of poetry. #ArtIsEssential
We may console ourselves that our isolation -however long, however uncertain- will also contain its treasures. #ArtIsEssential
Hidden Histories + Criticism
Art In-Depth
Between Parlors and Oceans
Edward Hopper’s ‘Rooms by the Sea’ captures the psychic tension resulting from conflicting states of mind. The visible ambivalence of the painting is particularly relatable during Covid.
Art has history
Online since 2016, Critical Read is a nonprofit, non-partisan publisher dedicated to making American art and art history more inclusive and discoverable.
We tell the true stories of the fine, literary, and performing arts. Browse our Artwork Biography e-books, available in MOBI, EPUB, and PDF files.
Memoir + Essay + Travel
First Person Stories
Family Portrait
Portraits of distant relatives survive a married couple's home reorganization, the subjects'...
The Monster Within
Psychiatrist and art critic Deborah Kostianovsky explains why she can't turn away from a portrait...
Snow in the Concert Hall
Composers John Cage and R. Murray Schafer sculpt sound into moments that evade on-demand...
Greenhouse in the Desert
"If you revisit the things that once interested you, you can return to that period of your life....
Graphite Insomnia
“A deep black square can be an object or an opening. Sometimes you can get a surface so deep,...
Walls Covered in Basquiat
"What might be if he lived? What does it mean that his image is defined and further commoditized...
Trending
Georgia O’Keeffe in New Mexico December 23, 2019 Lessons from a master in living with beauty: Georgia O’Keeffe’s…
Seventeen Ways of Looking at the Mona Lisa May 2, 2019 We asked writers and artists to show us what the…
Family Portrait March 2, 2021 Portraits of distant relatives survive a married couple's home reorganization,…
The Lewis Chessmen, Deer Antler, and a French Bulldog June 23, 2020 "What could I make with antler?" I recalled the Lewis…
Winnowing The Wynn December 4, 2020 A critic surveys the Wynn Las Vegas art holdings and…
How to Tell a Dance on Film July 8, 2020 Elliot Caplan and Mirra Bank watch dance with eyes and…
Vanguard Voices January 19, 2021 "If creative music is under celebrated and under documented compared…
Walls Covered in Basquiat August 31, 2020 "What might be if he lived? What does it mean…
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What Is Aesthetics? An Introduction to ‘The Art of Thinking’
November 10, 2020• Blogging Fellows, Commentary, In-Depth, The Art of Thinking
"If you’ve ever asked yourself why a particular painting is considered beautiful, or whether a ...
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