Kelly Presutti is assistant professor of art history at Cornell.

Bringing Baya back – what the Algerian artist means in Marseille today

The self-taught painter was hailed by the Surrealists as a master of ‘art naïf’ – but this exhibition makes clear that her work was rooted in the complex politics of her day

20 Jul 2023

The art of showing things as they really are

Hyperrealist sculptors today, and still-life painters of the past, have all tried to trick their viewers into accepting fiction as truth

27 Jan 2023
Un rayon soleil(1873), Celestin Nanteuil. Musée de Beaux-Arts de Valenciennes.

The artists who have managed to see the forest for the trees

People have always been fascinated by forests but, as a show in Lille suggests, seeing them as ideal, untouched places misunderstands their true nature

25 Aug 2022