With “Open Questions,” Helen Molesworth Opens Up New Ways of Seeing Art | The Slowdown

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Cover of “Open Questions: Thirty Years of Writing About Art” by Helen Molesworth. (Courtesy Phaidon)

With “Open Questions,” Helen Molesworth Opens Up New Ways of Seeing Art

In this collection of 24 essays, the L.A.-based curator explores the works of artists including Simone Leigh, Ruth Asawa, and Marcel Duchamp.

By Chanice Hughes-Greenberg

November 3, 2023

5 minute read

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I find essay collections captivating because they offer the opportunity to dive in at any point. Of course, reading them in chronological order is the typical method, but sometimes a topic or a theme calls out to you. In reading Open Questions: Thirty Years of Writing About Art by Helen Molesworth, the first-ever collection of her art writing, I did in fact start from the beginning.

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