The Social Art of Paul Klee
Ben Wiedel-Kaufmann reviews the recent exhibition Paul Klee: Making Visible at Tate Modern. Wiedel-Kaufman writes that "Klee did not posit his abstraction or formal development in opposition to the material world, or as an expression of some ‘inner necessity’, but instead, pursuing figurative and abstract modes throughout his career, seems to have reached a critical […]
Leslie Wayne: Draped Color
Altoon Sultan blogs about the exhibition Leslie Wayne: Rags at Jack Shainman Gallery, New York, on view through March 22, 2013. Sultan writes: "What I hadn't expected was the modest size of these works, none larger than a foot and a half. Looking at them became an intimate experience, rewarding close looking with a wealth […]
Maria Lassnig: Infinite Personality
Charlie Schultz reviews the exhibition Maria Lassnig at MoMA PS1, New York on view through May 25, 2014. Schultz writes: "Lassnig uses the phrase 'body awareness' to describe her process and approach. It’s a phrase that prompts a lot of curiosity as one takes in pictures of Lassnig muzzled, portrayed as a monster, straight-jacketed, depicted […]
William H. Johnson: American Modern
Xico Greenwald writes about the exhibition William H. Johnson: An American Modern at the Arthur Ross Gallery, University of Pennsylvania, on view through March 23, 2014. Greenwald notes: "Johnson’s career traces a captivating course from his Afro-American origins in the rural south, through his cosmopolitan art education and embrace of European modernist innovations, and his […]
Nothing is Everything
Carl Belz writes about the exhibition Nothing is Everything at Pagus Projects, Norristown, PA, on view from March 22 – May 2, 2014. The show features works by Alan Greenberg, Karen Baumeister and Stuart Fineman. Belz notes that Greenberg, Baumeister, and Fineman "face a challenge in wanting to find a responsive audience for their pictures […]
Painting: Between Mysticism & the Commonplace
Through the lens of two great paintings – El Greco's Burial of Count Orgaz (1586–1588) and Courbet's Burial at Ornans (1849–1850) – Stephen Persing traces painting's changing role: from a tool to provide answers to a tool of questioning, and considers what the "middle ground" might be for contemporary artists. Persing writes: "The two greatest […]
Georgia O’Keeffe: Modern Nature
Patricia Albers reviews the exhibition Modern Nature: Georgia O’Keeffe and Lake George at the de Young Fine Arts Museum, San Francisco, on view through May 11, 2014. Albers writes: "Along with the magnified botanicals, the most compelling paintings are those that result from O’Keeffe’s weather eye on the lake. Lake George with White Birch catches […]
Pontormo & Rosso: Diverging Paths of Mannerism
Rachel Spence reviews the exhibition Pontormo and Rosso: Diverging Paths of Mannerism at the Palazzo Strozzi, Florence, on view through June 20, 2014. Spence writes: "For both painters the challenge was to find a path through a culture whose Quattrocento blend of classicism and Catholicism had been rocked to the core… [Rosso relied] on the […]
David Hockney & Tintoretto
Natalie Maria Roncone considers David Hockney's ongoing dialogue with the art of the past, examining similarities between Hockney's mural scale painting Bigger Trees near Warter (2007) and Tintoretto's Crucifixion (1565) at the Scuola Grande di San Rocco, Venice. Roncone writes: "Hockney is, by temperament, chronically hungry and omnivorous. One sees him devouring his way through visual […]
Julije Knifer: Unstable & Expansive Geometry
John Yau reviews Julije Knifer at Mitchell-Innes and Nash, New York, on view through March 15, 2014. Yau writes: "By varying the relationship between the black and white areas, Knifer is able to calibrate a different dance between solid and void, dark and light… In many of the paintings, while I mentally registered a constant […]
Loren Munk @ Freight + Volume
David Carrier reviews the exhibition Loren Munk: You Are Here at Freight + Volume, New York, on view through March 15, 2014. Carrier writes: "As brightly colored as Frank Stella’s 1980s constructions, Munk’s paintings present as much historical information as Irving Sandler’s written histories or Ad Reinhard’s cartoons. The richly contentious life of our art […]
Sarah Walker on Shiva Vishvarupa
Sarah Walker considers a painting of Shiva Vishvarupa from the collection of the Rubin Museum of Art. Walker writes: "Before I can grasp it with my mind, this painting has already saturated and immobilized me. What am I looking at? Not so much a painting as a force. Before me is a medium-sized vertical rectangle […]
Lisa Denyer: Immaterial Materiality
Andy Parkinson blogs about works by artist Lisa Denyer whose exhibition Geode was recently on view at South Square gallery. Parkinson writes: "Often quite ‘formless’, especially compared to her earlier geometric paintings, Denyer’s recent paintings are like gaseous non-substances, diaphanous veils, pure illusion, immaterial yet at the same time exulting in materiality. The contradiction puts […]
Fred Pollock: Portrait of an Abstract Artist
A new video produced by Ronan Pollock presents the life and work of painter Fred Pollock. Pollock remarks: "Starting from scratch was a case of making marks on the canvas with no preconceived ideas to begin with – and just gradually by building up the paint – a series of colors and marks – you […]
David Humphrey: Interview
Craig Drennen interviews painter David Humphrey about his work. Humprey's exhibition Blind Handshake is on view at Marcia Wood Gallery, Atlanta through March 29, 2014. Humphrey comments: "I’ve worked with this crude binary of ‘Where is it?’ and ‘Who’s in it?’ for many years. Sometimes the location acts as a protagonist and the characters might […]
Elizabeth Murray @ Stanford
David M. Roth reviews the exhibition Her Story: Prints by Elizabeth Murray, 1986-2006 at the Cantor Arts Center, Stanford University, on view through March 30, 2014. Roth writes: "Entering the fray in the years between Pop’s decline and Neo Expressionism’s ascent in early ‘80s, Murray distinguished herself by helping to revitalize painting, then under attack from […]
Northern Painters: Modest Landscapes
Altoon Sultan blogs about 19th century northern European paintings at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Sultan writes: "…on my most recent visit to the Met I … was very happy to discover 3 or 4 small rooms tucked towards the rear that were full of beautiful, small landscape studies. The paintings I most admired were […]
Benjamin Bridges: Interview
Alli Sharma interviews painter Benjamin Bridges whose work is on view at dalla Rosa Gallery, London, from March 14 – April 12, 2014. Bridges comments: "When you make a painting you start with nothing and sometimes the underpainting is really beautiful and then it goes up and down in waves. You try to leave the […]
James Siena: Interview
Julia Schwartz interviews painter James Siena about his work and career. Siena comments: "I want the paint to really shine. I don’t want it to look like, 'Wow. That needs more paint. That’s too thin. I’m not seeing the color because I’m seeing washy brush strokes that don’t look like they should be there.' So, […]
Janet Fish: Primacy of Perception
Patrick Neal reviews the exhibition Janet Fish: Panoply at DC Moore Gallery, New York, on view through March 15, 2014. Neal writes: "Janet Fish, known for her effulgent still-life paintings, paints with a sharp focus, her objects solidly planted in front of us. Fish’s singular achievement is the depiction of light as a materializing force […]