About | The New Criterion
The New Criterion, edited by Roger Kimball, was founded in 1982 by the art critic Hilton Kramer and the pianist and music critic Samuel Lipman.A monthly review of the arts and intellectual life, The New Criterion began as an experiment in critical audacity—a publication devoted to engaging, in Matthew Arnold’s famous phrase, with “the best that has been thought and said.”
The New Criterion
The New Criterion is published by The Foundation for Cultural Review, a 501(c)(3) non-profit.
The masterpiece of our time | The New Criterion
W he n Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s The Gulag Archipelago: An Experiment in Literary Investigation appeared in 1973, its impact, the author recalled, was immediate: “Like matter enveloped by antimatter, it exploded instantaneously!” The first translations into Western languages in 1974—just fifty years ago—proved almost as sensational. No …
The heart of fugue | The New Criterion
M an y people, if they wonder how music is made up, suppose that it consists of a tune and an accompaniment. The paradigmatic guitarist in front of a campfire croons the melody, while his hands create the harmonies that give it color. In the bel canto operas of Bellini, the diva astonishes with her delivery of the top line while the orchestra provides dutiful underpinning, moving from tonic to ...
Dispatch - The New Criterion
5 days ago · On Mark Catesby, Stephen Westfall, Fayum mummy portraits, Coade stone & more from the world of culture.
“The profundity of evil,” by Douglas Murray
Editors’ note: The following is an edited version of remarks delivered for The New Criterion ’s sixth annual Circle Lecture on September 26, 2024.. O ve r the last six decades, a certain phrase has metastasized and become such a cliché that it has been used to describe all the following things and more: the coronavirus pandemic, Republican moderates, neoliberalism, January 6, …
December 2024 - The New Criterion
The New Criterion is published by The Foundation for Cultural Review, a 501(c)(3) non-profit.
“A real ‘Trovatore,’” by Jay Nordlinger
Oct 30, 2024 · Last night’s Trovatore at the Met started out okay. But it got much better than that. By the end, it was a stirring Trovatore, deserving of many bravos.. I am speaking of Il trovatore, by Verdi, at the Metropolitan Opera.Is it a perfect opera, like La traviata (also by Verdi)? If it is not, it is close enough.
“Ghiberti versus Donatello,” by Eric Gibson
W e tend to think of artistic influence in terms of forebears: artists from one era drawing inspiration from those of earlier ones. Yet contemporaries’ influence on each other can be just as important, especially during periods of intense creative ferment. One thinks of Braque’s famous quip that he and Picasso were “like mountain climbers roped together” during Cubism’s formative phase.
“Week in review,” by Suzanna Murawski
Nov 15, 2024 · Recent stories of note: “Remembering Frank Auerbach, one of the leading artists of his generation, who has died aged 93” Matthew Holman, The Art Newspaper “One of the many mysteries of art is how the Muse picks the most disparate people,” said the German British painter Frank Auerbach in an interview earlier this year.