Waves of Light
From bulbs to neon and fluorescent tubing to LEDs and other electronic creations, artists are using light—as material and subject—to comment on everything from advertising to spirituality. Read More
Also in this Issue
Seeing Life in Empty Rooms
Robert Polidori’s haunting photographs of interiors and buildings reveal the everyday lives left behind in Chernobyl, Havana, New Orleans, and Versailles
Hilarie M. Sheets
Decoding da Vinci
In projects that include books and exhibitions, an extensive Web site, flying machines, and animated drawings, Oxford professor Martin Kemp is trying to determine how Leonardo da Vinci’s mind functioned
Martin Gayford
Departments
Art Talk
Donald Rumsfeld, Jimmy Carter, George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, Lauren Redniss, Doris Eaton Travis, Gerold Fink, Magdalena Abakanowicz, Renato Miracco, Walfredo Toscanini, James D. Wolfensohn, Pippa Cohen, Michal Rovner, Bruce Nauman, Chuck Close, Bruce Conner, Lorna Simpson, Fischli & Weiss, Peter Nadin, Charles Saatchi
National News
Cambridge, Massachusetts Pollock, pigments, and patents Spotlight Ella Fontanals Cisneros: Upgrading her MAC Los Angeles Independence for Hammer Museum New York Brooklyn Museum hires three curators
International News
Abu Dhabi Treasure Island? Athens Piecing the Parthenon together Rome A masterpiece in the walls Krems, Austria “These paintings need to be returned” Berlin Heir seeks more of Hess collection
Art Market
Late Picasso: “Bigger and splashier”
Studio
The Moon Is Matzoh: Mark Podwal’s drawings and designs for ritual objects are inspired by the Jewish mystical tradition
by Rachel Somerstein
Looking at Art
“Where Did Praxiteles See Me Naked?”: An exhibition at the Louvre spotlights the Greek sculptor who brought a new realism—and sensuality—to representations of the human figure
by Maxwell L. Anderson
Design
Illuminating Kahn: An ingenious and respectful restoration brings Louis I. Kahn’s Yale University Art Gallery back into the limelight
by Diana Ketcham
Critic’s Pick
Daniel Arsham: Dancing on the ceiling
Elisa Turner
Reviews
New York “Spanish Painting from El Greco to Picasso”; Fred Sandback; “Sargent’s Venice”; Felix Gonzalez-Torres and Agnes Martin; Jane Wilson; Tal R; Jonathan Meese; Jonathan Borofsky; Andrew Moore; Al Souza; Paulina Olowska; “Cosmologies”; Naomie Kremer and Crystal Liu; Laura Owens; David Maisel; Lawrence Gipe; Nina Bovasso; Florencio Gelabert; Robert Firestone; Tony Fitzpatrick
NATIONAL Washington, D.C. “The Uncertainty of Objects and Ideas”; “Joseph Cornell: Navigating the Imagination” San Diego “Transmission” Los Angeles Toba Khedoori Nevada City, California “Homegrown” Boston “Coming Loose” Chicago Scott Short San Francisco Phil Collins; Ruth Asawa; David Park; Giorgio Morandi; Emil Lukas; Charles Gute; Jeff Brouws; Todd Hido; Kevin Moore
INTERNATIONAL Vienna “Picasso—Painting Against Time” London R. B. Kitaj; Hervé Half Paris John Heartfield Cologne “The Eighth Square” Rome Alfredo Pirri