Claire Barliant is a writer and curator based in Cambridge, MA.

Edgar Miller was Chicago’s answer to William Morris, so why did he fall off the map?

The graphic designer and decorative artist mastered any number of crafts and, thanks to the efforts of his champions, the best of his work survives in the city

28 Oct 2024

Forces of Will: Building Chicago – a comic by Claire Barliant

After the demolition of some of Chicago’s best architecture, what lies in store for postmodernist landmark the James R. Thompson Center now that Google owns it?

24 Jan 2024

The cosmic fantasies of Remedios Varo

The Spanish-born Surrealist had a strong sense of order and a desire to remake the universe

15 Nov 2023
Rashid Johnson, photographed in his studio in New York in 2020.

Escape artist – an interview with Rashid Johnson

The conceptual artist talks about his interest in unusual materials – and in what it means to ‘run’

8 Nov 2020
Christo and Jeanne-Claude at The Pont Neuf Wrapped (1975–85) in 1985.

‘Freedom cannot be invented’ – an interview with Christo

The artist discusses his unorthodox methods, his long partnership with the late Jeanne-Claude, and finally being allowed to wrap the Arc de Triomphe

28 Mar 2020
Pool of Tears II (2000), Kiki Smith.

‘If you can outlive most men, all of a sudden you can be venerated’ – an interview with Kiki Smith

The versatile artist talks about her love of printmaking – and being in it for the long haul

26 Oct 2019
Untitled (1900), artist unknown. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Getting to grips with China’s bewildering bapo paintings

The paintings might be puzzles but they deserve to be better known

11 Sep 2017

Picasso’s best sculptures are the ones he didn’t take terribly seriously

The artist’s smaller, seemingly tossed-off experiments at MoMA have a surprisingly contemporary feel

3 Dec 2015