Namwali Serpell
Morrison Hall

A recent exhibit of Toni Morrison’s papers raised the question: How do you mourn a monument?

Lucy Scholes
A Riot of Color

In the 1930s, the British photographer Yevonde made herself synonymous with the vibrant new color photography process Vivex.

Ursula Lindsey
Lebanon’s Chernobyl

Lamia Ziadé’s illustrated book about the 2020 port explosion in Beirut is a personal, impassioned account of a crime committed against the Lebanese people.

Sara Lipton
The Invention of the Jewish Nose

Until 1000 CE, there were no easily distinguishable Jews of any kind in Western imagery, let alone the stereotypical swarthy, hook-nosed Jew.

Free from the Archives

The second salon of the Société des Artistes Indépendants opened in Paris—at the Tuileries Garden—on August 21, 1886. One of the most prominently displayed paintings at the salon was Georges Seurat’s A Sunday on La Grande Jatte, which, as Jack Flam wrote in the Review’s November 7, 1991, issue,  “attracted much attention. Although the reviews were again mixed, even his critics recognized that this painting, and Seurat’s method of painting in general, embodied important innovations.”

Jack Flam
The Enigma of Georges Seurat

“Seurat remains one of the most enigmatic artists of the late nineteenth century. Taciturn, pensive, and guarded, his stiff manner and somber dress provoked Degas to refer to him as “le notaire.” He was so intensely secretive that until just a few days before his death even his family and closest friends did not know that he had set up a household with one of his models and that they had a year-old son.”

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