“Art Gallery” — HEX, WSJ, 08/26/22

[ChrisKochmanski]

Another fun, and not too hard, variety cryptic from Cox and Rathvon, with an amusing payoff. Enjoy!

[Richard B.]

and learned a few names of artists along the way.

[Barney]

Hit a wall. Looks like a big one.

[Meg]

What?? I don’t have to anagram the entry, remove a letter and enter it in the grid backwards?? But I jest. I love a HEX. And it was a joy to only have to read the directions once.

[woozy]

Cryptic skills. Use 'em or lose 'em.

Took a while but they all came back eventually.

Very cute that was.

[DavyGravy]

Another amazing offering from these two. How do they keep doing it?!?!?!

[oldjudge]

Lots of fun! Thank you to Meg for reminding me of this.

[Barney]

Yay, got it. Did need a list of artists for a couple names. And had to complete a couple entries and correct one.

Laughable reveal.

[Annabelle]

This was a fun one! Learned about a couple of new artists, although a few others were easy to fill in. What universe does HEX come from that they come up with this stuff? Their brains are not our brains, although we do work happily to try to understand them!

[Tom Wilson]

An enjoyable AND educational exercise, with a smile on the dismount.

[Barney]

I got this puzzle in toto, and the “Art,” but can someone explain the wordplay on 8D first clue?

“Crowded rooms inside of met?”

[woozy]

I got this puzzle in toto, and the “Art,” but can someone explain the wordplay on 8D first clue?

“Crowded rooms inside of met?”

Am I allowed to explain on this forum? It's not like it's an ongoing contest or anything.

Crowded = Rooms + Inside the Met.

Rooms = Dens. Inside the Met = E. Dens + E = Dense

EDIT: Oh! I just realized the clue was "Inside Met" and not "inside the met". That actually makes this clue quite a bit better than I thought it was

[Guffman]

Didn’t see where the 9 letter “answer” was going until 8 of the 9 letters were entered. A real “Aha” moment. Great fun from C&R once again!

[Joepickett]

I usually struggle with cryptics. I found this one on the e-word side. They must have let off on the gas this week. I enjoy these when I don't have to delete letters or move them to solve.

[technohumanistteach]

I solved the puzzle (as usual, enjoyable), ar at least think I have, but I'm puzzled as to who the artist is that is represented in the center row, left-hand section, where I have the letters FIRTH. Any hints?

[woozy]

Hmm... almost exact opposite impression of Guffman and Joepickett. I thought as cryptics these where a bit harder than average. I only had about 60 percent of the clues and 5 of the squares before I guessed the nine squares and used the guessed 4 squares to solve the remaining 40 percent of the clues.

[woozy]

I solved the puzzle (as usual, enjoyable), ar at least think I have, but I'm puzzled as to who the artist is that is represented in the center row, left-hand section, where I have the letters FIRTH. Any hints?

William Powell Frith