Philip Kennicott

Washington, D.C.

Art and architecture critic

Education: Deep Springs College; Yale, BA in Philosophy

Philip Kennicott is the Pulitzer Prize-winning art and architecture critic of The Washington Post. He has been on staff at The Post since 1999, first as classical music critic, then as culture critic. In 2011, he combined art and architecture into a beat that is focused on everything visual in the nation’s capital.
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Latest from Philip Kennicott

Why do great artists paint food? Two critics hash it out.

The Washington Post's Philip Kennicott and Tom Sietsema looked at art that depicts food. It was a feast of signs and symbols.

May 18, 2023

This enslaved man would become famous for a portrait — and his own art

Juan de Pareja was once enslaved to Diego Velazquez. After he gained his freedom, the Afro-Hispanic painter forged his own path.

May 18, 2023

New York’s splashy new Gilder Center is all seduction

The American Museum of Natural History debuts its latest addition, a $465 million display of Flintstones modernism

May 4, 2023

The greatest bird artist you’ve never heard of

Rex Brasher painted more birds than Audubon, and he never owned slaves.

April 29, 2023

Video art cuts through the noise. But the noise is getting louder.

In ‘Signals: How Video Transformed the World’ at MoMA, video art is all political

April 6, 2023

Our planet needs a World’s Fair focused on slavery and colonialism

An exhibition about slavery at the U.N. shows the need for an international reckoning.

March 23, 2023

It’s an eclectic and exciting season to be back in museums

Vermeer at the Rijksmuseum, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith at the Whitney and Simone Leigh at Boston's Institute of Contemporary Art make our critic's list.

February 9, 2023

There will never be another Vermeer show as great as this one

The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam has gathered 28 of 37 Vermeers for an international act of veneration

February 7, 2023

Watching the unwatchable cruelty in Memphis

Is there a right way to watch the graphic videos of police beating Tyre Nichols? No. But we must watch them nonetheless.

January 28, 2023

In Edward Hopper’s New York, silence speaks volumes

The Whitney mounts a major exhibition of the work Edward Hopper made while living in New York.

January 26, 2023