Turner, Monet, Twombly @ the Tate
Painter Gary Wragg records his impressions of the recent exhibition Turner, Monet, Twombly: Later Paintings at Tate Liverpool. Wragg writes: "I am fascinated by Twombly’s compulsion, shared with many recent and current painters, for urgency, here-ness, enveloping near-ness, and close-ness, beyond composition. Concomitant with science’s understanding of the expanding evolution and nature of the universe, […]
The Lure of Paris
Paul Behnke photoblogs the recent exhibition The Lure of Paris at Loretta Howard Gallery, New York. The show highlights the lesser known influence of Paris on mid-century American artists and features work by Biala, Norman Bluhm, Ed Clark, Harold Cousins, Beauford Delaney, Sam Francis, Shirley Goldfarb, Cleve Gray, Al Held, Shirley Jaffe, Conrad Marca-Relli, Joan […]
Gustave Moreau & The Unknown Masterpiece
William Poundstone blogs about Gustave Moreau's large body of near abstract works on the occasion of the exhibition A Strange Magic: Gustave Moreau's Salome at the Hammer Museum, on view through December 9, 2012. Poundstone writes: "At his 1898 death, Moreau left hundreds of near-abstractions in his studio, none of which had ever been exhibited […]
Jules Olitski: Three Exhibitions
Piri Halasz reviews three exhibitions of works by Jules Olitski: Revelation: Major Paintings by Jules Olitski at American University, Washington D.C. (through December 16), Jules Olitski On An Intimate Scale at George Washington University, Washington D.C. (through December 14), Anthony Caro and Jules Olitski: Masters of Abstration Draw the Figure at Freedman Art, New York […]
On the Importance of Drawing
Mario Naves considers the ongoing relevance and importance of observational drawing. Naves notes that "while this grounding [in life drawing] may be obvious in the case of representational artists, with abstract artists the connection can be slippery. It is, nonetheless, there. If we ask that a painting or sculpture be an autonomous object–a thing with […]
Caravaggio in Our Time
J. Patrice Marandel writes about the contemporary appeal of the paintings of Caravaggio, on the occasion of the exhibition Bodies and Shadows: Caravaggio and His Legacy at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), on view from November 11, 2012–February 10, 2013. Marandel writes that Caravaggio's "paintings captivate and engage us in a way […]
Pat Steir Paints a Painting
Hilarie M. Sheets visits the studio of painter Pat Steir to document the creation of a new painting. Sheets observes: "Steir stands back again, studying the canvas, before moving to the left side with the ladder. From her perch, she pushes gobs of gold pigment from the brush across the top of the canvas to […]
Picasso & Nuclear Politics
Brian Christopher Glaser writes about Pablo Picasso’s Rape of the Sabine Women, painted in reaction to the Cuban Missle Crisis. The painting is now on view at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum, Boston, MA. Glaser writes: “Distressed by what was unfolding and no stranger to war (he operated a studio in Paris during […]
Wayne Thiebaud: Limits of Gluttony
John Yau reflects on the work and legacy of painter Wayne Thiebaud on the occasion of the exhibition Wayne Thiebaud: A Retrospective at Acquavella Galleries, New York, on view through November 30, 2012. Yau writes: "At a point when everybody was squeezing space out of paintings, Thiebaud was putting it back in, while establishing a […]
Miyoko Ito
Photoblog of the recent exhibition Miyoko Ito at Veneklasen Werner, Berlin. From the gallery: "During the 1950s in Chicago Ito's mature painting style began to emerge. Her formative vocabulary of angular, geometric color planes, redolent of Picasso, Gradually expanded to include organic, biomorphic forms and curvilinear shapes. Her paint handling evolved from thin washes of […]
Liat Yossifor: Interview
Ed Schad interviews painter Liat Yossifor about her work on the occasion of the exhibition Liat Yossifor: Thought Patterns at Ameringer | McEnery | Yohe Gallery, New York, on view through November 10, 2012. Introducing Yossifor's work Schad writes that looking at Yossifor's paintings, "you confront fields of thick grey paint touched and carved from […]
David Humphrey: Interview
Phong Bui interviews painter David Humphrey on the occasion of the upcoming exhibition David Humphrey: New Paintings at Fredericks and Freiser, New York, on view from November 8 – December 22, 2012. Humphrey comments: "For me, the development of a painting proceeds through a kind of productive disorientation. I make each piece in order to […]
Matthew Deleget: Interview
Matthew Deleget discussses his conceptual approach to abstract painting with Zachary Keeting and Christopher Joy. Deleget comments: "I'm coming at painting, at abstraction, with this perspective that anything's possible at this point. Nothing is over. 'It's all been said an done.' – I don't believe any of that. Painting's been around for 40,000 years, abstract […]
Robert Mangold: Interview
In a new video, Robert Mangold is interviewed at his upstate New York studio. Mangold discusses the influence of urban and rural landscape on his geometric paintings: "When I moved to New York City, I was very interested in this idea of pieces of architecture that were both solid and that were atmospheric, and the […]
Joan Mitchell Paints a Picture
Irving Sandler's studio visit with painter Joan Mitchell, Part of the seminal Paints a Picture series, re-printed as part of the ARTnews 110 anniversary. Sandler witnesses the creation of two paintings by Mitchell, writing: "if nature supplies the raw material, [Mitchell] then sifts it through memory to convert it into the essential matter of her […]
A.R. Penck at Cardi Black Box
Photo blog of installation images from an exhibition of paintings by A.R. Penck at Cardi Black Box, Milan, on view through November 30, 2012. This exhibition surveys the development of Penck's work. "Inspired by prehistoric paintings, his compositions combine pictorial signs and archaic images, composing a universal lexicon – comprehensible and usable by everybody – […]
Mary Weatherford: Bakersfield Paintings
Geoff Tuck reviews the recent exhibition Mary Weatherford: Bakersfield Paintings at LAXART. Tuck writes: "Mary Weatherford’s Bakersfield paintings are about place, and about landscape as experiences of specific places… I don’t think the neon has to do with Dan Flavin’s fluorescent tubes (which feel more overtly political and idea-based), or with any exhumation of Light […]
Jay DeFeo: Mechanics
David M. Roth reviews the recent exhibition Jay DeFeo: Mechanics at Hosfelt Gallery, San Francisco. Roth writes: "DeFeo understood the transformative power of combining different media. Her assemblages of cut-up photos made on a copy machine yield some of the show’s highlights. The trio of images in which she tops the shape of an angel […]
Phong Bui @ Show Room
James Kalm visits the exhibition Phong Bui: Work According To The Rail, Part I, curated By Ricardo Kugelmas, at Show Room, New York, on view through November 25, 2012. Kalm notes that "Bui is well known as an art writer, publisher of the controversial Brooklyn Rail, educator, and art world personality. He is equally respected […]
Lois Dodd: Poetic Grit of a Landscape Painter
Stephen Knudsen writes about the work of Lois Dodd, on view in the recent retrospective exhibition Catching the Light at the Kemper Museum of Art, Kansas City (on view at the Portland Art Museum, Maine from January 17, 2013 – April 3, 2013). Knusdsen writes: "Dodd is strongest when she comes closer to artist Fairfield Porter […]