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.
The Sound of Jeanne Lee’s Voice
Jeanne Lee (1939-2000) was a poet and vocalist of wide-ranging musical talents who pushed the forma…
The Monster Within
Psychiatrist and art critic Deborah Kostianovsky explains why she can’t turn away from a port…
Can Sports Be an Aesthetic Experience?
Contingency and unpredictability can elevate a football game into a kind of theater.
Snow in the Concert Hall
Composers John Cage and R. Murray Schafer sculpt sound into moments that evade on-demand consumptio…
Vanguard Voices
“If creative music is under celebrated and under documented compared to other eras in jazz, t…
Between Parlors and Oceans
Edward Hopper’s ‘Rooms by the Sea’ captures the psychic tension resulting from co…
What Does Platonic Form Have to Do with Art?
Photographs stage a confrontation between the idea of an object and its representation, and demonst…
Greenhouse in the Desert
“If you revisit the things that once interested you, you can return to that period of your li…
