Charles Cajori: Intimist Glow, Expansive Gestures
John Goodrich and Stephen Ellis remember painter Charles Cajori, who passed away December 1, 2013. Goodrich writes that Cajori "personified a kind of painter that has become increasingly rare, one who was not only highly accomplished and acclaimed as an artist, but extraordinarily generous and accessible as well. His enthusiasm for painting was contagious, and […]
Paul Klee: Making Visible
T.J. Clark reviews the exhibition Paul Klee: Making Visible at Tate Modern, on view through March 9, 2014. Clark writes that "because cubist solidity was so remote from [Klee's] native perceptual habits. It did not take him long to realise that if his art was to flourish he had to work with his very lack […]
Dennis Hollingsworth: Painting with a Punch
In part one of a two-part essay, Lita Barrie writes about the paintings of Dennis Hollingsworth. Hollingsworth's work is on view in Drifter, a group exhibition at Hionas Gallery, New York through January 11, 2014. Barrie writes: "Dennis Hollingsworth’s paintings raise playful questions about the paradoxical position of abstract painting today – caught in the […]
David Ostrowski: Bold Gestures of Anti-Painting
Daniel Barnes reviews the exhibition David Ostrowski: Yes or Let's Say No at Simon Lee Gallery, London, on view through January 31, 2014. Barnes writes that Ostrowski's paintings "present us with a world almost entirely drained of colour, figuration and matter – and yet they are utterly beguiling. There is something about the stark minimalism […]
Balthus Roundtable
David Cohen leads a lively email roundtable discussion with Duncan Hannah, Dennis Kardon, David Carbone, Christina Kee, Vincent Katz and Nora Griffin about the exhibition Balthus: Cats and Girls – Paintings and Provocations at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, on view through January 12, 2014. Kardon comments: "Magritte was only interested in pictorial […]
Charmion von Wiegand: Secret Doors
James Kalm visits the exhibition Charmion von Wiegand: Secret Doors, 1945-69 at Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York, on view through January 4, 2014. The gallery press release states that through "her role as a journalist that [von Wiegand] met Dutch modernist Piet Mondrian. Their meeting led to a close friendship, and through Mondrian, von Wiegand […]
Sam Messer: Studio Visit
Christopher Joy and Zachary Keeting visit the studio of painter Sam Messer. Messer draws while discussing his work including his portrait paintings. He notes that "they're kind of traditional, classical paintings – symbolic portraiture… I'm not interested in the likeness, I'm interested in the feeling – and that feeling, the way I work, comes across […]
Laura Owens: In Conversation
The second part of Jan Tumlir and Stephen Berens' conversation with painter Laura Owens (part one is here). Owens remarks: "I really want paintings to be problems and I want to activate the viewer to feel that this absorption is disrupted in some way. Even within the individual works, the reason I’m using these different […]
Rachael Wren: Studio Visit
Anne Russinof photoblogs a visit to the studio of painter Rachael Wren. In a recent essay Cecily Parks wrote: "The evolution of Wren's work chronicles her own particular pilgrimage. Over the past ten years, she has moved futher and futher from representation in order to push the limits of what we recognize as 'natural' form. […]
Robert Motherwell: Early Collages
Piri Halasz reviews the exhibition Robert Motherwell: Early Collages at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, on view through January 5, 2014. Halasz writes that, in viewing the show "it becomes clear that the collages served an important purpose for the artist They enabled him to progress from his youthful admiration for cubist painting […]
Peter Lanyon: Mural Studies
Emyr Williams reviews the exhibition Peter Lanyon: The Mural Studies at Gimpel Fils, London, on view through January 18, 2014. Williams writes: "The works on show at Gimpel Fils focus on this little known aspect of his work. The exhibition includes the final large-scale gouache sketches for the Liverpool and Birmingham murals, as well as […]
Elizabeth Gourlay: Vision Images
As part of the Backstory series on Tilted Arc, painter Elizabeth Gourlay reflects on a recent series of paintings. Gourlay comments: "After an afternoon and evening roaming the streets of an ancient hill town in Italy, observing the light from the walls and buildings and sky light seen through overhanging eaves, I awoke the following […]
Rediscovering Antonello da Messina
Rachel Spence reviews the exhibition Antonello da Messina at Mart Roverto, on view through January 12, 2014. The post is accompanied by an excellent slideshow. Spence writes that "Messina's psychological acuity renders his subjects as complex as any 20th-century study." She adds that the show "distils the artist to a nucleus that spans his career. […]
Michael Krebber: Interview
Sharon Butler blogs about the conceptual painter Michael Krebber whose work was recently on view at Maureen Paley, London. Butler's post includes excerpts from an interview with Krebber about his painting practice. Asked about exploring painting as a filter or program, Krebber comments that "painting, as well as any other activity, runs as an application […]
Jon Pestoni @ Real Fine Arts
Joanne Greenbaum writes about the paintings of Jon Pestoni recently on view at at Real Fine Arts in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Greenbaum notes: "Pestoni layers different actions on top of each other to create a harmony, or a two-dimensional three-dimensional space. How far back do these go? How many layers are there? That number seems infinite, […]
Stephen Westfall: Jesus & Bossa Nova
Robert Berlind reviews the exhibition Stephen Westfall: Jesus and Bossa Nova at Lennon, Weinberg, New York, on view through December 28, 2013. Berlind writes that Westfall's "various designs may call up Islamic or Italian tile work, Native American weaving, Tantric art, graphic signage, or architectural façades. His precision of execution is in the service of […]
Sangram Majumdar: Peel
William Eckhardt Kohler reviews the exhibition Sangram Majumdar: Peel at Steven Harvey Fine Art Projects, New York, on view through December 22, 2013. Kohler writes that "many of the paintings read, at least initially, more abstract than representational. The paintings are seductive sensual and luscious, evincing a skill and sensitivity that few painters even get […]
Annie Lapin @ the Weatherspoon
Christopher Howard reviews an exhibition of works by Annie Lapin at the Weatherspoon Art Museum, Greensboro, North Carolina, on view through January 5, 2014. Howard writes that Lapin's paintings are defined by dualities, they "are mostly abstract but allude to representation. They have an unfinished look but are carefully made, and are steeped in art […]
Mike Cockrill: The Existential Man
D. Dominick Lombardi reviews the exhibition Mike Cockrill: The Existential Man at Kent Fine Art, New York, on view through January 25, 2014. Lombardi writes that the show "is a huge leap from the sumptuous and fleshy surfaces of [Cockrill's] earlier work, though his eye for color and his impeccable painting skills remain. Now we […]
Nathlie Provosty: Recent Paintings
Alex Bacon writes about the recent paintings of Nathlie Provosty. Bacon writes: "For the past few years, Provosty’s most successful paintings have been developing several formal devices, and in her latest works she has pared these down to arrive at a more complete realization of two of the most significant of these devices. The first […]