Issue 7
Summer 2017
Essays
The Stettheimer Set
by Matthew J. Abrams
Not just Duchamp, not just Picabia: Florine Stettheimer, painter of parties and department stores, is a modernist master. And today’s artists know it
Arrested Development
by Michelle Cho
South Korea’s first female president is behind bars; Samsung’s chief might end up there too. For the directors of the country’s cult film scene, Seoul is a viper pit and gangsters are in charge
Ordinary Beauty
by Emmett Rensin
The new US president plans, among other outrages, to kill the National Endowment for the Arts. Who would miss it most? A visit to central Iowa
Negatives
TESTAMENT OF YOUTH
Interviews
Charline von Heyl
“When I started out I wanted the paintings to basically torture people. What I want now is something that seduces more than it angers.”
Christodoulos Panayiotou
“Ballet is a highly sophisticated emotional expression, but it was central to a political project: the governance of Louis XIV. The world is ballet, and he is in the center of it.”
Reviews
Negatives
The Bride (Almost) Wore Black
by Judith Thurman
Rei Kawakubo’s marriage advice. Wearing Comme des Garçons to the altar may seem wise, but the Met’s new retrospective reminds us there’s a time and place for everything
Can’t Buy Me Love
by Silas Martí
A brash host of The Apprentice takes power — in São Paulo. But if you think the new mayor is the most tasteless citizen of Latin America’s largest city, you should meet his artist wife
Imperial by Design
by Denise Y. Ho
Beijing offers its special administrative region a new museum; Hong Kong wonders if you can return a gift. The Palace Museum comes to Kowloon, with red strings attached
Stranger in Moscow
by William Lee Adams
Glitter and geopolitics. The new cold war comes to the Eurovision Song Contest, where Russia and Ukraine face off over Crimean annexation and a good Soviet-style bop