FEATURES

After months of uninterrupted darkness, Svalbard, Norway, witnesses nature’s most spectacular light show.
By Bridget Batch. Photographs by Kevin Cooley

A lifelong obsession with the premier modernist architect has helped shape artist Tom Sachs’s work.

A century ago, Venice enthralled both John Singer Sargent and Henry James, and its off-season beauty remains as compelling as ever. Read the Article
By Colm Tóibín. Photographs by Martina Hoogland Ivanow

Both the Japanese architecture firm SANAA and Italian photographer Walter Niedermayr push minimalism to the point of poetry. So it’s not surprising that their meeting inspired an odyssey as well as a collaboration.
By Arnaldo Farnese

An extraordinary chapel outside of Prague transforms death into decoration and human skeletons into art.
By Caleb Crain. Photographs by Simon Norfolk

Swept up in the romance of the Middle East, Gertrude Bell left Victorian England behind to become the female Lawrence of Arabia.
By Georgina Howell

DEPARTMENTS

14 Exhibitions
18 Architecture
20 Performance
22 Books

With Aesthetic Style back in vogue, the homes of two London artists are more intriguing than ever.
By Peter Terzian

Rug dealer Mark Shilen has made traditional tribal textiles the foundation of a new modernist style.
By Mario López-Cordero

Ann Philbin, director of the Hammer Museum, has a soft spot for a Symbolist masterpiece.

An intrepid traveler seeks out true Japanese cuisine in remote country inns and on Kyoto’s side streets.
By Maria Gallagher

The Jordaan neighborhood may be the best place to get an intimate, inside look at authentic Amsterdam.
Benjamin Moser

The refined fusion cuisine that Floyd Cardoz serves at Manhattan’s Tabla has an unlikely inspiration—the street food of Bombay.
By Jay Cheshes

Why Riesling is the sommelier’s personal favorite.
By Robert Simonson

Hotel El Convento, a refurbished 17th-century convent, merges modern-day luxury with the colonial appeal of old San Jaun.
By Tom Beer

When he moved to Bali, Ashley Bickerton discovered not only a new way of life, but also bold new inspiration.
By Marisa Fox

Among the many victims of Hurricane Katrina were two beloved public gardens in New Orleans.
By Jeanette Hardy

Photographer Julia Fullerton-Batten finds big ideas in miniature villages.