The Art of Dying: Writings, 2019-2022

When Peter Schjeldahl, The New Yorker’s art critic and the leading art writer of his generation, published his eye-opening autobiographical essay, “The Art of Dying,” in December 2019, he reported that he had lung cancer and had been given six months of life. Fortunately, his treatment was showing some improvement, and so, he wrote, “These extra months are a luxury that I hope to have put to good use.”

And he did. The Art of Dying begins with that essay and collects all forty-six pieces that he subsequently published in the magazine before his death in October 2022.

These last works explore the meanings and purposes of art, not only in relation to the writer’s own condition, but also under the stress of an intensely anxious period spanning the pandemic, the Black Lives Matter protests, the 2020 presidential election, and the war in Ukraine. Reviewing exhibitions and, occasionally, books, Schjeldahl probed the art world’s answers to the questions—esthetic, moral, political—posed by these tempestuous three years, in writing inflected with generosity and openness.

Comedian and author Steve Martin contributes a foreword, and writer and curator Jarrett Earnest contributes an introduction.