Dennis Kardon on Edouard Manet
Dennis Kardon considers Edouard Manet's painting Jesus Mocked by the Soldiers (1864–65). Kardon writes: "As with Olympia, and many other Manet paintings, we occupy an unstable place as viewers. A narrative is suggested but there is a dislocation in the normal suspension of disbelief. We experience a vibration between different levels of representation: between a […]
Jasper Johns: Craft and Process
Mira Schor considers Jasper John's recent work on view at MoMA, New York through September 1, 2014. Schor writes that "it is fascinating to see how the artist has taken an unprepossessing photographic scrap and rung so many changes on it yet the image upon which this edifice of studio practice is based is perhaps […]
Pat Steir: Properties of Paint
Howard Hurst reviews the an exhibition of paintings by Pat Steir at Cheim & Read, New York, on view through March 29, 2014. Hurst writes that the show "is perhaps [Steir's] most successful in recent memory. We can see a veteran artist flexing her deeply toned creative muscles. Though she’s painted using a drip technique […]
Gandy Brodie: City, Country, City Paintings
Eliot Markell blogs about the recent exhibition Gandy Brodie: City, Country, City Paintings at The Painting Center, New York. Markell writes: "The epitome of Gandy’s oeuvre culminates in his floral paintings. The workman-like stance that inhabits his cityscapes, combines in these still lives with a reverence for the natural world. Pigment bubbles up like some […]
Jean-Baptiste Bernadet: Interview
Steven Cox interviews painter Jean-Baptiste Bernadet about his work which was recently on view at Rod Barton, London. Bernadet comments: "I don't care especially about painting, even if this is what I'm doing and even if I like a lot of painting as a viewer like any other. There's no position in what I'm doing, […]
Wilhelmina Barns-Graham: Late Works
Jackie Wullschlager reviews the exhibition Wilhelmina Barns-Graham: In Perspective: The Late Works at Art First, London, on view through May 17, 2014. Wullschlager writes: "From the mid-20th century, Barns-Graham was a distinguished if not innovative abstract painter. Born and trained in Scotland, she moved to St Ives in 1940 and absorbed the modernist rigour of […]
Lisa Denyer: Interview
Valerie Brennan interviews painter Lisa Denyer about her work and process. Denyer remarks: "Allowing myself time to notice things in my surroundings is important. I'm interested in the idea of entropy and nature reclaiming the man-made, so details such as broken bricks or peeling paint on buildings really appeal to me. I don't make sketches, […]
Robert Janitz: Interview
Noah Dillon interviews artist Robert Janitz about his work. Janitz' show Stick Shift Heaven was recently on view at Team Gallery, New York. Janitz comments: "I’m still tackling how to deal with paint. For some of the earlier works I was using a blowtorch to blister the paint layers or scraping layers off. It was […]
Quiet, Sensuous Piero
Sanford Schwartz reviews the exhibition Piero della Francesca: Personal Encounters at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, on view through March 30, 2014. Schwartz writes that the works in the show "are small-size paintings created for bedrooms or set-apart areas in the home. In spirit they take us to much the same austere and bare-bones realm […]
Rebecca Morgan @ Asya Geisberg
Sharon Butler blogs about the exhibition Rebecca Morgan: No Church in the Wild at Asya Geisberg Gallery, New York, on view through March 29, 2014. Butler writes: "Though a native of Pennsylvania, Morgan maintains the critical distance she learned in art school, crafting sly self-portraits and depicting mountain men, stoners, and other backwoods stereotypes with […]
Gary Stephan @ Susan Inglett
James Kalm visits the exhibition Gary Stephan at Susan Inglett Gallery, New York, on view through April 26, 2014. Kalm writes that Stephan's paintings are "constant jaunts into unexpected fields of painterly investigation. With this exhibition of new work, Stephan shows his almost droll sense of compositional design and a uniquely austere color sense." The […]
The Indexical Mark
Paul Behnke photo blogs a visit to the exhibition The Indexical Mark at Life on Mars Gallery, Bushwick, Brooklyn, on view through April 6, 2014. The show features works by Karin Davie, Ben LaRocco, Joel Longenecker, Mike Olin, Fran O’Neill, Ben Pritchard, Susan Rothenberg, Karen Schwartz, Whitney Wood-Bailey, and Etty Yaniv. Michael David, in his […]
Eric Mack & Ashlynn Browning @ Whitespace
Tom Berlangero reviews the exhibition Surfaces + Structures: Works by Ashlynn Browning and Eric Mack at Whitespace, Atlanta, on view through March 29, 2014. Berlangero writes that the show "teases out parallels in the two artist’s practices, while allowing them to remain decidedly distinct. In concert with each other, the two bodies of work begin […]
Smart Painting @ ArtSpace
Paulina Perlwitz reviews the exhibition Smart Painting at Artspace, New Haven, curated by John O'Donell, on view through March 22, 2014. The show features works by Blake Shirley, Sharon Butler, Deborah Dancy, Zachary Keeting, Ben Piwowar, Jenn Dierdorf, Rob D. Campbell, Derek Leka, Clare Grill, and Tatiana Berg. Perlwitz writes: "The way Smart Paintings is […]
Chris Martin: Interview
Jennifer Samet interviews painter Chris Martin about his work. Martin comments: "Painting is a physical activity. We don’t distrust the kind of pleasure we get from cooking or dancing or yoga. In fact, we trust there is great intelligence in the body. But we don’t always trust what the body did on a painting, without […]
Dennis Congdon: Interview
Arthur Peña talks to painter Dennis Congdon about his work which was recently on view at Horton Gallery, New York. Congdon comments: "These new paintings begin as a location, a setting or place, and a time of day. I think that has been the case in my studio for some time now. I don't start […]
Jasper Johns: Fade to Grey
Bradley Rubenstein reviews the exhibition Jasper Johns: Regrets at the Museum of Modern Art, MoMA, New York, on view through September 1, 2014. Rubenstein writes: "In these current paintings he plays with mirror images of the photograph of Freud… Both the artist and the painting struggle against the urge to reveal themselves in their entirety; […]
Veronese: A Sculptor’s Eye
Ben Luke interviews Nicholas Penny and Xavier Salomon about Veronese on the occasion of the exhibition Veronese: Magnificence in Renaissance Venice at the National Gallery, London, on view through June 15, 2014. Salmon comments: "Veronese trains as a stonemason to start with and works with his father and then as a teenager, he becomes a […]
Julian Kreimer on Rufino Tamayo
Julian Kreimer considers Rufino Tamayo's Woman Spinning (Mujer hilando), 1943 at the Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase, New York. Kreimer writes: "The matte surface is profoundly austere, not in the sense of renunciation, but of having enough… Each shape and surface is its own color—both in the sense that we can say the background is […]
Clayton Colvin: Studio Visit
Brian Edmonds interviews painter Clayton Colvin whose work is on view in two New York shows: Slow Your Instruments at Launch F18 (through April 26) and Put Down Your Stars at Margaret Thatcher Projects (March 27 – April 26). Colvin comments: "Patterns are really interesting to me. A lot of my visual language comes from […]