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4Columns of arts criticism.
“If nothing else, LaBruce’s outlandish scenarios activate thought experiments for those pondering a corrective to our present gynophobic kakistocracy.”—@MelissEAnderson writes about Bruce LaBruce’s 2018 satire “The Misandrists,” from this week’s missive 4columns.org/anderson-melis…
“ ‘BPM’ reminds us again and again of the kinetic power of the group, of the tremendous vitality that results from so many disparate, ardent individuals united in fight.”—@MelissEAnderson reviews Robin Campillo’s “BPM (Beats per Minute),” from the archive 4columns.org/anderson-melis…
OUT NOW: For summer missive #2, we present a trio of films that’ll inspire you to fight for your rights, with @MelissEAnderson on Robin Campillo’s “BPM (Beats per Minute)” & Bruce LaBruce’s “The Misandrists,” & Ed Halter on Emile de Antonio’s “Underground” 4columns.org/columns-4/rebe…
OUT NOW: Our second missive features three call-to-action films, with @MelissEAnderson on Robin Campillo’s 2017 drama “BPM (Beats per Minute)” & Bruce LaBruce’s 2018 satire “The Misandrists,” & Ed Halter on Emile de Antonio’s 1976 documentary “Underground” 4columns.org/columns-4/rebe…
“How should a novel be? It should be ‘The Waves’ by Virginia Woolf. And a work of criticism? Also ‘The Waves.’ ”—Brian Dillon’s manifesto for the reformation of arts criticism, from this week’s summer missive 4columns.org/dillon-brian/m…
“Be it resolved that the highest aim of criticism is to complete the work of art by providing it with general social and historical significance.”—Ciarán Finlayson’s manifesto on the future of arts criticism, from this week’s summer missive 4columns.org/finlayson-ciar…
“The best criticism is delegitimate, heretical, anarchic, not just because of what it says, but because of how it says it.”—Emily LaBarge’s manifesto on the future of arts criticism, from this week’s summer missive 4columns.org/labarge-emily/…
“Criticism must now hedge its bets, anchoring itself more self-consciously in pre-digital networked cultural practices, and should formally reflect this shift even while it remains online.”—Johanna Fateman’s manifesto on criticism, from this week’s missive 4columns.org/fateman-johann…
“Criticism is less about offering a final verdict on an artwork’s value than it is involved with creating linguistic material that can be used in bars, classrooms, studios, and subway cars.”—Alex Kitnick’s vision of arts criticism, from this week’s missive 4columns.org/kitnick-alex/m…
OUT NOW: Our first missive features five of our finest writers musing on the future of criticism, initially presented at our MANIFESTO! event in March. Read these screeds by Brian Dillon, Johanna Fateman, Ciarán Finlayson, Alex Kitnick, and Emily LaBarge. 4columns.org/columns-4/mani…
This summer, get your 4Columns fill by subscribing to weekly reading lists assembled from our archive of past columns you might have missed (and we’ll be back with new issues starting September 5)! 4columns.org/break-summer/b…
We’re going on summer vacation! (Don’t worry, new issues will return on September 5.) Subscribe now to our free email newsletter to receive weekly missives with our editors’ archival picks, beginning this Friday! 4columns.org/break-summer/b…
4Columns is taking a brief hiatus from new issues for the next two months, but sign up now (it’s free!) to get our summer reading lists sent directly to your email inbox each week, starting this Friday! 4columns.org/break-summer/b…
We’re taking a short breather for the months of July and August, but you can sign up now to receive our weekly summer missives highlighting archival reviews, specially curated by our editors—the first one is headed your way this Friday! 4columns.org/break-summer/b…
4Columns is going on break for July and August, but we’ll be back with a new issue on September 5. In the meantime, subscribe now (it’s free!) to receive our editor-curated weekly summer missives starting next Friday, July 11! 4columns.org/break-summer/b…
“The more I looked at Podolski’s work, the stupider it seemed to try to attach to it a lineage or a canon, even a radical one. Stupider, even, to try to explain it, given its aims to doff semantic systems.”—Emily LaBarge on Sophie Podolski @GoldsmithsCCA 4columns.org/labarge-emily/…
“While the film lingers on bullfighting’s pageantry, it is also unsparing in its portrayal of the sport’s openly cruel nature—how much it thrives on the sadistic enjoyment of abuse and humiliation.”—Leo Goldsmith reviews “Afternoons of Solitude” @FilmLinc 4columns.org/goldsmith-leo/…
ICYMI: ISSUE 369 is up for one more day! Don’t miss Emily LaBarge writing about the tyranny of a coherent self in “Sophie Podolski: Wisdom Should be Sung” @GoldsmithsCCA, Rhoda Feng on repression and desire in Abby Rosebrock’s play “Lowcountry,” and more. 4columns.org
“The victim here is the narrator herself, a woman who vanishes into a crack in the wall, having found no way to exist that’s not defined in relation to men. Even resistance is co-opted and turned against her.”—@3LVVIA on Marlen Haushofer’s “Killing Stella” 4columns.org/wilk-elvia/kil…
“ ‘Lowcountry’ is observationally paced and fastidiously committed to showing people not in recovery—which suggests both passivity and a terminus—but recovering.”—Rhoda Feng writes about Abby Rosebrock’s latest play 4columns.org/feng-rhoda/low…