"I believe that we respond most and best to work in any art form (and to other experience as well) if we are pluralistic, flexible, relative in our judgments, if we are eclectic," wrote Pauline Kael, the undisputed queen of journalistic film criticism. Born in tiny Petaluma, California, Kael went

Eclectic, In-your-face, Smart, Witty

As a young man, Xu Bing developed an odd relationship to language. The son of a professor and a librarian, he spent his early years surrounded by books that he could not read. His school years coincided with the Cultural Revolution, when he and other children were sent off to camps to learn Mao's new

Absurd, Expatriate or third space artists, Subtle, Witty

Betsey Johnson was always cool. All the It-girls of the mid-1960s sported her clothes: Twiggy draped them across her bony shoulders, while Julie Christie, Brigitte Bardot, and Raquel Welch filled the flashy duds out. Johnson designed for the definitive '60s boutique Paraphernalia, recruiting as her m

Cartoonish, Ebullient, Kaleidoscopic, Perverse, Playful, Polychromatic, Sexy, Urban, Urban chic, Vibrant color, Wise assy, Witty

The essay did not always exist. Nor was the idea of recording one's personal introspections, whether in private diary or public form, always valued. It took centuries of evolution, from Seneca's philosophical epistles to the Christian confessional and beyond, before twentieth-century students would b

Contemplative, Essays, Repetitive, Self-reflection, Tranquil, Witty