Essays

Go deeper. Read what curators, artists, and others have to say about the art they make, study, collect, and restore.

Grace McCann Morley and the Modern Museum

Richard Mayhew's oil painting, Delusions.

Richard Mayhew, Delusions, 2000

Archival black and white photograph of a gallery, Potter Morley

Grace McCann Morley: Defending and Diversifying Modern Art

Black and white portrait of a young Caucasian man with brown hair sitting before a painting of a target, Rauschenberg

Rauschenberg, with Affection

Artwork by Gego (Gertrud Goldschmidt), Columna (Column) 7l/9.

Gego (Gertrud Goldschmidt), Columna (Column), 7l/9, 1971

Kay Sage, Midnight Street, 1944

Kai Althoff, Untitled, 2013

Leonora Carrington, The Kitchen Garden on the Eyot, 1946

Michelle Stuart, Spiral Notebook, 1975

Noah Purifoy, Drum Song, 1966 and Rags and Old Iron II (After Nina Simone), 1989

Rebecca Belmore, Tarpaulin No. 1, 2018

an installation with a cube of tvs mounted on a wall

Nam June Paik: Kinship, Collaboration, and Commemoration

The Grain of Pop in Richard Artschwager’s Portrait of Holly

Frank Smigiel on Today Is Not a Dress Rehearsal (Judith Butler)

Spanning Time and Place in Joan Mitchell’s The Bridge

Bright Life and Warm Ground in Joan Mitchell’s Girolata Triptych

Installation image of Susan Meiselas' 20 dirhams or 1 photo

Exchange Rates: 20 dirhams or 1 photo?

A painting featuring a Caucasian man painting a bird on a canvas, Magritte

Self-Portrait as Anonymous Artist

Charles Eames teleconferencing man

Designing the Digital Self

A black and white photograph showing a Caucasian man and woman in a 1940s subway car, Walker Evans

The Art of the Oxymoron: The Vernacular Style of Walker Evans

Sean McFarland thumbnail

A box with a translucent lid and wire outside on the floor

Liam Everett thumbnail

Lindsey White thumbnail

Interwoven colored stripes against a beige background

Alicia McCarthy

Artwork detail

Wide Open Publics: Tracing Grace McCann Morley’s San Francisco

A white gallery space featuring photographs and writing

Desire in Diaspora: Emily Jacir

Artist installation

Rudolf Frieling on The Refusal of Time

Illusion and Fantasy in Sigmar Polke’s Untitled (2003)

New Work: Nevin Aladağ

Bruce Conner, THUMB PRINT, April 26, 1965

chair and table with wood grain swirls in a gallery

Richard Artschwager, Table and Chair

Richard Artschwager, Building Riddled with Listening Devices (Alpha) and (Beta)

Triptych composed of three panels of formica on wood

Richard Artschwager, Triptych III

Richard Artschwager, Horizon

Ursula von Rydingsvard, hej-duk, 2003

David Hammons, Untitled (dung), 1983–85

New Work: Rodney McMillian

New Work: Kerry Tribe

Merging Feeling and Object in Joan Mitchell’s Poem Pastels