Read the first part of this series, here. What I am calling Debt Aesthetics—how financial speculation and economic bifurcation have flattened art into a new form—are not limited to Zombie Formalism.

What was Zombie Formalism? If you’re not an avid follower of art-world trends, you may have no idea. Don’t worry: From an aesthetic standpoint, you didn’t miss much. In an economic sense, though, ...

Leaning heavily upon a long history of Congress and presidents finding ways — sometimes clumsy — to make the federal government work, and perhaps silently wishing for a day when they might do so again ...

The December 10 “Zombie Formalism” panel at SVA featuring, from left: Amy Wilson, Walter Robinson, Todd Levin, and Ryan Steadman (all images courtesy Amy Wilson/SVA) Since the artist and critic Walter ...

The problem of “formalism” (形式主义) in the Chinese bureaucracy is certainly in the mind of Xi Jinping. The July 30, 2024 Politburo meeting, the first meeting after the Third Plenum, discussed ...

Purchase this and other timeless New Criterion essays in our hard-copy reprint series. The book’s uselessness is manifold. For readers interested in versification, there are a number of excellent ...

Despite his significant impact on architecture through both built and theoretical works, most studies of Peter Eisenman's career focus on either one aspect or the other. In “From Formalism to Weak ...

Formalists argue that the meaning, understanding, and value of art depends first and foremost on the specifically artistic or formal features or art. Motivated by a deep commitment to art's intrinsic ...