Tired of the high-stakes doom circus of American politics? Try art criticism! Here's my late-breaking review of the 2024 Whitney Biennial, which doubles as a "review" of New York, and of reality itself. It’s rare that one can trust blistering reviews that show no sympathy, or celebratory puff-pieces that can’t see what’s wrong – this review tries to do both, offering an attempt at devastating critique followed by near delirious adulation.
We rabid icon specialists are now absorbing ALL ART into our domain (just as modernists once absorbed icons). The takeover begins in ONE WEEK at (where else?), The Wheaton Public Library. Join in person or by Zoom for this free public lecture. Please register here.
An interview with the brilliant young architect Amanda Iglesias. And here is an article on the sanctity of life and the BVM.
If you're roundabout Princeton please come by for a public lecture on global Virgin Marys (Thurs. 4/4, 4:30pm Robertson Hall 002, register here) and/or a talk on Dionysius the Areopagite's impact on art history (Fri. 4/5 7pm Religion Dept. Lounge).
Here's a podcast conversation at Gone Medieval. It's the Colbert of medieval history podcasts. And here is one with The Visual Museum.
An interview with Addison Hodges Hart covering prayer, universalism, actually going to church, avoiding stupidity, etc.
The director of Princeton's Hellenic Studies program was kind enough to interview me about Mother of the Lamb. I will be there in April for two talks if you're in the Jersey area - hallowed birthplace of millinerd.com.
The wonderful folks at Comment have kindly asked me to start a column fusing art history and contemplation. Please sign up by inputting your email below (no, we won't spam you, and yes, it's free).
Everyone's talking about the "Vedantic turn" in theology, so I went to India to sort it all out. Until I got sorted. The piece clocks in at about 2.73 miles per word. Bharat, of course, is changing quickly, and—especially in the north—her billboards and posters showed more interest in her G20 status than in her ancient spiritual tradition. Narendra Modi’s photo was more ubiquitous in Varanasi than Shiva’s. The glitz of Mumbai exceeds that of Hollywood. But the India I went in search of, thankfully, can still be found.
Here are the friends I made along the way, which you might recognize from the descriptions in the piece:
