James Baldwin at David Zwirner
I worked with Hilton Als on a James Baldwin show; now Als has curated an exhibit about him
The cultural destruction of war in the Middle East
My beloved Museum of Islamic Art in Cairo may not be a total loss but much is elsewhere
Portraits of African elites in India 500 years ago
Who knew Africans ruled parts of India, including Bengal, centuries ago?
The Jeff Koons show at the Whitney is a failure
This exhibit will not change any minds about Koons so what was the point of mounting it?
On the Mario Testino exhibit in Buenos Aires
In Mario Testino’s work everyone always looks like they’re having fun
Flying things as you have never seen them before
Tracing the patterns of birds and bugs results in something very cool and almost abstract
My favorite museum in Cairo damaged by a car bomb
Terror attack on Egyptian police HQ badly damages the Museum of Islamic Art, an overlooked marvel
Shooting an elephant at MoMA
Douglas Gordon’s “Play Dead; Real Time” is terrific, even the way MoMA has installed it
Why James Turrell is perfect for the Guggenheim
Turrell turns Wright’s building — already a work of art — into a new and different work of art
My exhibit at the Hermès gallery in Bombay
The response was even better than I could have hoped at Bombay’s first-ever photography festival
An upcoming exhibit of my photographs in Mumbai, India
Prints and an unusual still/motion projection about how urban space around the world is inhabited
On viewing the Tatzu Nishi Columbus Circle project
Tatzu Nishi inverts Surrealism and makes you see a public landmark as if for the first time
Latest in the battle over the Mohamed Mahmoud mural
The New York Times blog The Lede picks up the battle over street art in Cairo
The amazing mural on Mohamed Mahmoud that was just painted over
What a loss for Cairo, artistically as much as politically
Christian Marclay’s The Clock and the essence of film
The most powerful exploration since Sergei Eisenstein of the way in which edits create meaning
Art = money, surprise!
The Barnes Foundation and a Gerhard Richter show make an old point about art and money in a new way
Cultures of Independence, Phnom Penh, Cambodia, 2007
A scrap book, of sorts, of a cool, modernizing Cambodia in the 1960s that few realize ever existed
Retna graf going up on the Deitch wall
It’s slow work but the graffiti artist Retna is dancing on the sidewalk along Houston St
Did the Renaissance invent individuality in portraiture?
Andrew Butterfield says yes; the Fayum portraits suggest no
Weegee: self-promotion is his business
An exhibit at the ICP shows Weegee’s New York was gritty in the most unreal possible way
Ahmed Basiony and the cost of revolution
The protesters in Tahrir Square preached non-violence, but the Mubarak regime did not
One year on in Egypt: Art, Politics and Power
The Egyptian revolution happened in the middle of my Egypt novel and I didn’t know what to do about it
Beirut Art Center at the New Museum in New York
Lebanese artists address how art is changed or destroyed by its display
Photographer Martin Klimas and the color of sound
Marrying Abstract Expressionism to every heavy metal kid’s discovery that speakers produce air waves