From Artforum, a look at the best of 2009 and the best books of 2009. An interview with Steven Henry Madoff, editor of Art School (Propositions for the 21st Century). How the King of Pop changed the course of American dance by transforming its past. A review of 10,000 Ways to Die: A Director's Take on the Spaghetti Western by Alex Cox. He broke the mold: You don't see great public sculptors like Augustus Saint-Gaudens anymore. With a little help from Picasso: A look at how Dali cracked the Morse code. After over a decade, the explosion of museums, concert halls and performing arts centers is pretty much over. From THES, a review of The Rhetoric of Modernism: Le Corbusier as a Lecturer by Tim Benton; and a review of Martha Hill and the Making of American Dance by Janet Mansfield Soares. A review of Cinema, Philosophy, Bergman: On Film as Philosophy by Paisley Livingston. In the arts, bigger buildings may not be better. The shape of things to come: Design is more than aesthetics and ease of use — it's a way of doing business. PopMatters’ inaugural "Director Spotlight" series kicks off with a true bang: Pedro Almodovar. Tom Jacobs says psychology provides some suggestions as to why so many artists transgress ethical boundaries. Indie-music cult figure and recent art-world discovery Daniel Johnston is a complex outsider artist, haunted by lost loves and fears of Satan. Dancing about architecture: A meditation on possibly futile artistic pursuits. The angel’s crime: Colin Davis on the ethical devastation of Renoir’s Le Crime de Monsieur Lange.
