Martin Filler

The Liberator

At a moment when American architecture was caught between an exhausted Modernism and a callow Postmodernism, Frank Gehry showed the way forward. 

The Calders of Philadelphia

At Calder Gardens, art, architecture, and horticulture achieve a well-nigh perfect equilibrium.

What Joys Lie in Store

Can Printemps New York recapture the commercial sorcery of glamorous department stores like Wanamaker’s, Barney’s, and Bloomingdale’s?

The Apprentice’s Sorcerer

Condé Nast’s editors shone brightest in its premillennial heyday, but the media company’s opaque proprietor, S. I. Newhouse Jr., made his most consequential discovery in Donald Trump.

Candid Cameron

The British Victorian photographer Julia Margaret Cameron put her personal imprint on art’s newest medium to indelible effect.

The Frick Reinvigorated

In an ambitious and long-overdue renovation, the architect Annabelle Selldorf attempted to harmonize with the Frick’s Classical aesthetic while asserting her Modernist credentials.

Build, Britannia!

As one of England’s foremost authorities on architecture, Gavin Stamp distinguished himself by focusing on how buildings are lived in, rather than how they look.

Eden on Fire

The terrible fires in January were another reminder that urban planning in Los Angeles has long failed to protect the city from the natural disasters that repeatedly threaten the region.

‘Life, Work, and Architecture’

Elizabeth Mock, whose exhibitions on domestic architecture thrilled midcentury museumgoers, believed that contemporary design should be for everyone.

A Cowboy in Winter

The artist Bruce Nauman’s latest exhibition reconfirms that he doesn’t believe in letting his viewers off easy.

The Architect Who Unified America

H. H. Richardson invented a practical, adaptable style for American civic architecture that was used for decades after his death.

A Long Exposure

The pioneering French photographer Hippolyte Bayard has lived in the shadows of his more famous peers. A new exhibition brings him into the light.

Up on the Roof

Carlos de Beistegui’s Parisian penthouse apartment, designed by Le Corbusier, was the product of two supreme egotists squaring off against each other.

Supersize That?

New supertall skyscrapers planned for Manhattan will reduce the Empire State Building and the Chrysler Building to the scale of souvenir tchotchkes. With the current glut of unoccupied office space, they may be the last of their kind.

Sublime Detritus

In her witty, poignant assemblages, the late artist Alexis Smith studied the atavistic comforts and persistent myths of home.

Before the Wrecking Ball Swung

A new volume of photographs taken for the Historic American Buildings Survey captures the program’s wide influence on architectural culture. 

The Neotraditionalist

The architect Robert A. M. Stern is America’s most vociferous and successful exponent of a Classicism that would be considered anachronistic in much of the rest of the world.

Oppie’s Problem

Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer captures the drama of the physicist’s life to thrilling effect but glosses over an essential part of his conundrum.

Poet of Shubert Alley

The late Broadway lyricist Sheldon Harnick, in Fiddler on the Roof and above all She Loves Me, gave the musical comedy a rare insight, poetic delicacy, and emotional intimacy. 

Too Good for Hollywood

Despite her long career on stage and screen—from an Oscar nomination to the blacklist—Aline MacMahon never became a household name.