Thursday, August 14, 2025

Critic’s Picks: Albums of the Summer by 4 Columns

Songs to sweat by: a roundup of four new music recommendations. What is the perfect summer album? Based on this week’s picks by four 4Columns critics, beauty truly is in the ear of the be…

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Thursday, August 7, 2025

Critic’s Picks: Exhibitions of the Summer by 4 Columns

A quartet of art recommendations, spanning both sides of the Atlantic. NO-PHOTO 2025, installation view. Both posters captioned “Photo: Hatem Khaled, Khan Younis, 19 May 2025.” Courtesy…

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Thursday, July 31, 2025

Reference Materials by 4 Columns

Three movies in which moviemaking itself plays a starring role. Margot Robbie plays Nellie LaRoy in Babylon. Courtesy Paramount Pictures. Photo: Scott Garfield. The youngest art form, cine…

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Thursday, July 24, 2025

Place Is the Space by 4 Columns

For our third summer missive, reviews that center on place and feelings of home.  Stephen Shore, U.S. 97, South of Klamath Falls, Oregon, July 21, 1973, 1973. Chromogenic color print, pri…

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Thursday, July 17, 2025

Rebel Rebel by 4 Columns

United we stan this trio of films focusing on activists and revolutionaries. Nahuel Pérez Biscayart in BPM. Courtesy Céline Nieszawer. During the first iteration of the Trump kakistocrac…

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Thursday, July 10, 2025

MANIFESTO! by 4 Columns

Ciarán Finlayson and Johanna Fateman at the MANIFESTO! event on March 19, 2025. On March 19, 2025, a rowdy audience packed into KGB Bar in downtown Manhattan, elbow-to-elbow, knee-to-knee,…

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Thursday, July 3, 2025

Beach days ahead . . . see ya in September! by Summer Break

4Columns assistant senior editor Bolek is looking forward to some time away from the city. 4Columns is taking a short seasonal hiatus—but we’ll be returning with a fresh new issue on Se…

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Thursday, June 26, 2025

Sophie Podolski by Emily Labarge

The beautiful, anti-bourgeois, language-breaking works of the twentieth-century Belgian artist. Sophie Podolski: Wisdom Should be Sung, installation view. Courtesy Goldsmiths Centre for C…

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Afternoons of Solitude by Leo Goldsmith

Albert Serra continues his provocative explorations of white European power and decadence in a documentary about bullfighter Andrés Roca Rey. Andrés Roca Rey (center foreground) in After…

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Killing Stella by Elvia Wilk

In Marlen Haushofer’s 1958 novella, a riveting and disturbing tale of blame, shame, and consequence. Killing Stella, by Marlen Haushofer, translated by Shaun Whiteside, New Directions, 8…

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Lowcountry by Rhoda Feng

Quiet chaos, comedic sparks, Bette Midler tunes: Abby Rosebrock’s play illuminates the fragile emotional dynamics of a Tinder dinner date. Babak Tafti as David in Lowcountry. Photo: Ahron…

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Thursday, June 19, 2025

Brìghde Chaimbeul by Geeta Dayal

In the Scottish musician’s incantatory new album, a mesmerizing blend of folk traditions and experimental sounds. Sunwise, by Brìghde Chaimbeul, Tak:Til/Glitterbeat •   •   �…

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Pierre Huyghe by Margaret Sundell

An artist in pursuit of unpredictable outcomes. Pierre Huyghe: In Imaginal, installation view. Courtesy the artist and Marian Goodman Gallery. Photo: Alex Yudzon. Pictured: Annlee – UUmwe…

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Christiane F. by Melissa Anderson

Drugs, desperation, degradation, David Bowie: Uli Edel’s 1981 cult film portrays the downward spiral of a young girl who falls in with teenage street addicts in West Berlin. Natja Brunckh…

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Homework by Brian Dillon

The profound lightness of being: a moving, amusing first memoir by Geoff Dyer. Homework: A Memoir, by Geoff Dyer, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 276 pages, $29 •   •   • “It…

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Thursday, June 12, 2025

Alien Roots: Éliane Radigue by Sasha Frere-Jones

Never the same experience twice for the ninety-three-year-old French composer. Alien Roots: Éliane Radigue, edited by Charles Curtis and Lawrence Kumpf, Blank Forms, $25 •   • …

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Rashid Johnson by Aruna D’souza

With plants, books, multimedia and multimodal works, a nod toward Black survival, liberation, and love. Rashid Johnson: A Poem for Deep Thinkers, installation view. Courtesy Solomon R. Gugg…

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Materialists by Melissa Anderson

A matchmaker girl living in a matrimonial world: Celine Song’s forgettable new rom-com. Dakota Johnson as Lucy and Pedro Pascal as Harry in Materialists. Courtesy A24. Photo: Atsushi Nis…

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Superfine: Tailoring Black Style by Darryl Pinckney

An exhibition on Black fashion over the course of the last three centuries presents costuming as self-creation. Superfine: Tailoring Black Style, installation view. Courtesy Metropolitan Mu…

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Thursday, June 5, 2025

I’ll Tell You When I’m Home by Leslie Camhi

In Hala Alyan’s memoir, themes of exile, loss, and cultural heritage emerge alongside preparations for the arrival of a baby via surrogacy. I’ll Tell You When I’m Home, by Hala Alyan,…

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Thursday, March 27, 2025

We’re taking a break for Spring Training! by 4 Columns

4Columns is taking a weeklong hiatus, but we’ll be back with new issues starting next Friday, April 4! 4Columns assistant senior editor Bolek and mascot Sparky take Spring Training very s…

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Thursday, March 20, 2025

Arvo Pärt by Geeta Dayal

On the occasion of the Estonian composer’s ninetieth birthday, a new album collects recordings of four of his most famous works. Silentium, by Arvo Pärt, Mississippi Records •   �…

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American Job by Aruna D’souza

An exhibition at ICP tells the people’s history of US labor from 1940 to 2011. American Job: 1940–2011, installation view. Courtesy International Center of Photography. American Job: …

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Thrilled to Death by Brian Dillon

Amid the twisted humor of Lynne Tillman’s short stories, an incomparable chronicling of human relations. Thrilled to Death, by Lynne Tillman, Soft Skull, 304 pages, $27 •   •  …

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Black Bag by Melissa Anderson

Sex, lie detectors, and national security: in Steven Soderbergh’s latest, the intrigue of espionage is matched by the mysteries of marriage. Michael Fassbender as George Woodhouse in Blac…

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Thursday, March 13, 2025

A Streetcar Named Desire by David Cote

Danger comes knocking anew in Rebecca Frecknall’s searing revival of Tennessee Williams’s tragic play, starring Paul Mescal and Patsy Ferran. Patsy Ferran as Blanche DuBois and Paul Mes…

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Run the Song by Sasha Frere-Jones

Sounds to run by: in his fifth book, Ben Ratliff triangulates the rhythms of music, the mind, and the moving body. Run the Song: Writing About Running About Listening, by Ben Ratliff, Grayw…

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Linder by Emily Labarge

A retrospective at London’s Hayward Gallery charts half a century of darkly humorous work by the punk-feminist artist. Linder: Danger Came Smiling, installation view. Courtesy the artist …

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Misericordia by Melissa Anderson

Humor and humiliation, violence and vulnerability: the chaos of thwarted eros knows no bounds in Alain Guiraudie’s latest. Félix Kysyl as Jérémie and Jean-Baptiste Durand as Vincent in…

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Thursday, March 6, 2025

Luminous by Laura McLean-Ferris

Silvia Park’s cyberpunk-noir novel reenvisions love and relationships in a futuristic unified Korea. Luminous, by Silvia Park, Simon & Schuster, 388 pages, $29.99 •   •   …

SOURCE: 4columns at 07:00PM

Who by Fire by Nick Pinkerton

Isolation, frustration, flirtation, friction, friendship: Philippe Lesage’s latest film is a subtle study of the playing out of power dynamics during a Quebec wilderness vacation. Cast in…

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