artifice

Isaac Butler makes the case that the film holds a mirror up to its audience by focusing on the nature of performance and artifice.

From Slate ● Oct. 29, 2026

He told me, with absolutely no artifice, that what he finds more interesting about the championship is whether Hull would face relegation or if Leeds could finish in the top half of the table.

From Slate ● Aug. 28, 2026

Bateman: The thing I found beautiful, and also heartbreaking, was just how open and vulnerable these characters are and how little artifice there is in their lives.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 17, 2026

We are reminded that Matisse always affirmed the artifice of painting, presenting us with undisguised models surrounded by studio props, often in garments that repeat from painting to painting.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 13, 2026

My eyes burn, and it’s not artifice, unlike the wincing.

From "Divergent" by Veronica Roth

But they also find droll humor in the artifices and absurdities that some see in the genre.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 21, 2026

He was charged with one count of fraud schemes and artifices, one count of theft and two counts of false return in September 2020 and pleaded guilty in the case six months ago.

From Seattle Times ● Oct. 19, 2022

Henson brings strength, radiance, precision, and presence to the gags and playful situations and to the drama, however mild it is; she lends the movie’s artifices a surprising illusion of substance.

From The New Yorker ● Feb. 7, 2019

He says that forms are artifices that keep us from being authentic.

From Slate ● Jan. 24, 2018

Upset by the news, José Arcadio Buendía stood motionless, trying to rise above his affliction, until the group dispersed, called away by other artifices, and the puddle of the taciturn Armenian evaporated completely.

From "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez