A Chicago native and critic collects her essays about theater, books, music, art, architecture, and her beloved Chicago.

Art is big business, with some artists able to command huge sums of money for their works, while the vast majority are ignored or dismissed by critics. This book shows that these marginalised artists, the 'dark matter' of the art world, are essential to the survival of the mainstream and that they frequently organize in opposition to it. Gregory Sholette, a politically engaged artist, argues that imagination and creativity in the art world originate...

"Portraiture has managed to flourish in modern painting in spite of the popularization of photography, the decline of traditional patronage, and modernism's increasing emphasis on abstraction. However problematic modern styles have been for representational art, painters have continued to discover new possibilities in the imaging of the human face. This book explores the challenge of the modernist portrait through the multiple solutions proposed by...

"From "one of his generation's most inventive and gifted writers" (The New York Times), intimate and sharply observed commentary on life, art, politics, and "the war on terror." Mohsin Hamid's brilliant, moving, and extraordinarily clever novels have not only made him an international bestseller, they have earned him a reputation as a "master critic of the modern global condition" (Foreign Policy). His stories are at once timeless and of-the-moment,...

Four fabulous, smart, savvy French women offer up their amusing insider take on Parisian life, love, and liberty. The authors are all in their early to late thirties, are unmarried though attached, most have children, and are highly accomplished. Bohemian freethinkers and iconoclasts, they are not afraid to cut through some of the myths. They say what you don't expect to hear, just the way you want to hear it. They are not against smoking in bed and...

In a collection of brief autobiographical essays, the renowned novelist offers his views on art, politics, and everyday life in America. A Man Without a Country is Kurt Vonnegut's hilariously funny and razor-sharp look at life "If I die-God forbid-I would like to go to heaven to ask somebody in charge up there, Hey, what was the good news and what was the bad news?"), art ("To practice any art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul...

"This program includes material that may not be appropriate for younger viewers. Viewer discretion is advised."-- With a theme song that topped the UK charts, crime stories that weren't shy about sex and drugs and gangsters, a precinct made up largely of Amsterdam canals, and a sulky blond hero at its heart, the British detective series ran for 32 episodes over five series between 1972 and 1992 as British audiences were captivated by their first...