In A Closer Look, a writer annotates a piece of art or an archival object.
A Closer Look
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A Closer Look
Kafka's Double Portrait
What a pencil sketch reveals about the writer’s view of his mother
Lynne Tillman
March 25, 2025
What Irony Makes Visible
Fifty years later, Stephen Shore's photographs reveal an impending crisis
Aaron Matz
December 10, 2024
Terry Allen’s "Cross the Razor"
How one artist started a conversation across the US-Mexico border
Brendan Greaves
October 24, 2024
Kurt Cobain and Jenny Holzer on 42nd Street
A chance decision made an iconic photograph. Thirty years later, what does it reveal?
Bob Nickas
June 19, 2024
Rembrandt’s Reclining Female Nude
What the print reveals about a body at rest
Rachel Eisendrath
June 10, 2024
Harold Cohen’s AARON
What a prescient work of computer art tells us about AI
Joanne McNeil
May 20, 2024
Candy Darling’s “Newspaper” Centerfold
Encountering the infamous collage of a downtown legend
Lucy Sante
March 18, 2024
Langston Hughes's "China"
Why the previously unpublished poem is a revelation
Selina Lai-Henderson
February 1, 2024
Ed Ruscha's "Every Building on the Sunset Strip"
Why the artists' book is a reminder of freedom
Jim Lewis
December 18, 2023
William Blake’s "Laocoön"
Why the poet's engraving reads like a protest poster
Anahid Nersessian
November 15, 2023
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