465 stories from 4columns
Collagecore: layers of possibility in the works of forty-four artists organized by Justine Kurland.
The Rose, installation view. Courtesy the lumber room. Photo: Mario Gallucci. Pictured, r…
A biography by John Szwed portrays the bohemian polymath and avant-garde artist and filmmaker in all of his uncategorizable splendor.
Cosmic Scholar: The Life and Times of Harry Smith, by J…
Stalin speaking: Ismail Kadare's new novel circles relentlessly around a real-life phone call involving the Soviet leader and two famed writers.
A Dictator Calls, by Ismail Kadare, translat…
Falling in line with lines: a major retrospective of the
German-Venezuelan artist.
Gego: Measuring Infinity, installation view. Photo: David Heald. © Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation.
…
Anti-colonialism, feminism, and Marxism abound in a retrospective of the Senegalese filmmaker's oeuvre.
Tabata Ndiaye as Princess Dior Yacine in Ceddo. Courtesy Film Forum.
"Sembène," Fil…
In Zadie Smith's new novel, the true story of a heated nineteenth-century criminal trial connects to the unrest of current times.
The Fraud, by Zadie Smith, Penguin Press, 454 pages, $29
…
Twenty-six poems by Ben Lerner grapple with the language of poetics at the intersection of contemporary private life and political darkness.
The Lights: Poems, by Ben Lerner, Farrar, Straus…
A sneak peek at our upcoming season of soul-replenishing criticism.
Rirkrit Tiravanija, untitled 2017 (fear eats the soul) (white flag), 2017. Courtesy Creative Time. Photo: Guillaume Zicca…
Gone ramblin': our final summer missive maps a route through works inspired by an ethos of my way and the highway.
Justine Kurland, The Sirens, 1999. C-print, 11 × 14 inches. © Justi…
Short and sweet: five very brief books to meet your demands for both quality and quantity.
Just two weeks remain of summer, and as we find ourselves in the season's languorous dregs, it may…
Twins for the win: three works starring doppelgängers ranging from the dangerous to the delightful.
Lupita Nyong'o as Red (left) and Adelaide Wilson (right) in Us. Photo: Industrial Light …
To celebrate Women in Translation Month, a roundup of perverse prose by eight female authors from Europe, Asia, and South America.
"Traduttore, traditore," exclaimed the Italians"translator…
Sealed with a kiss: for your reading pleasure, we present six public displays of affection, from our archives.
Laura Paredes as Laura in Trenque Lauquen. Courtesy Cinema Guild.
The Merriam…
If you don't have anything nice to say, we say go ahead and say it anyway.
Margot Robbie as Nellie LaRoy in Babylon. Courtesy Paramount Pictures. Photo: Scott Garfield.
It's never seemed q…
We'll return with a new issue on September 8! In our first summer missive, three filmmakers who left us wondering after their one-hit wonders.
Richard Romain as Peter Metoyer and Tommye Myr…
Please hold your emails"our assistant senior editor, Bolek, is currently eschewing all responsibilities.
4Columns is officially on summer vacation! We'll be back with a brand-new issue on S…
In the Drawing Center's comprehensive exhibit, an opportunity to see afresh the writer and artist's dreams and contradictions.
A Greater Beauty: The Drawings of Kahlil Gibran, installation …
Domestic bliss has gone amiss in two twentieth-century novellas by
Natalia Ginzburg and Rachel Ingalls.
The Road to the City, by Natalia Ginzburg, translated by Gini Alhadeff, New Directio…
But does company love misery? A self-absorbed novelist attempts to finish his new book among vacationing friends in Christian Petzold's latest film.
Thomas Schubert as Leon, Paula Beer as N…
Wherever you go, there you are: in Deborah Levy's new novel, a disgraced concert pianist drifting around Europe repeatedly
runs into a doppelgänger.
August Blue, by Deborah Levy, Farrar, …
A video installation focusing on a catastrophic collision in American football history touches upon themes of violence, professional sports culture, and the strangeness of bodily experience.…
Drawing from the history of castrati singers, musicologist Bonnie Gordon explores connections between sound, voice, and the mechanization
of the physical body.
Voice Machines: The Castrato…
Paris verité: a 1981 neo-noir film about street life in the Pigalle district marks the directorial debut of French New Wave actress Juliet Berto.
Jean-François Stévenin as Willy, Rober…
Extremely loud and incredibly verbose: a new play from Robert Icke forgoes the subtleties of showing for too much telling.
Juliet Stevenson as Ruth Wolff and Juliet Garricks as Charlie in T…
Encyclopedia Black: the artist digs through educational materials and textbooks to create works revolving around power, racism,
and history's archive.
Samuel Levi Jones: Conscious Intuitio…
