12.25.23 — The Great Beyond
With art, it always pays to take a second look—and to keep looking. That means looking beyond the hype, and this site looks again along with you. My 2023 year in review goes beyond the blockbusters, to look for more.
Criticism, I like to think, can be about more than judging, and I take that seriously in offering reviews. Still, a year’s best entails quick picks. That is why I am embarrassed yet again to attempt one. And some of the year’s best were blockbusters, with lines to match. I waited over an hour for “van Gogh’s Cypresses” and yet another look at Starry Night, and it was worth it. So start with the obvious, before looking deeper—to the birth of modern art, what the quick picks miss, diversity and history, and the institutions that sustain it all, and I feature them each in turn all this week, starting with an extra post tomorrow for (sure enough) the Met’s blockbusters.
So happy holidays, and happy last week in 2023, a time for looking ahead and looking back. Enjoy time with the ones you love, be it family or art. Think what your own highlights might have been.
Read more, now in a feature-length article on this site.