Gillian Pederson-Krag: Interview
Elana Hagler interviews painter Gillian Pederson-Krag about her work. Asked about narrative, Pederson-Krag notes: "For me, the notion of the narrative just refers to content in general, my narrative is the way I answer the question 'what shall I paint?' This is not really as straightforward a question as it seems, though, it has many […]
Forrest Bess: Close-up
James Kalm creates an in depth to of video tour of paintings by Forrest Bess recently on view at Christie's and at the Whitney Biennial, on view through May 27, 2012. Kalm's video includes fantastic close-ups of Bess' paintings. He notes that Bess is "one of the most mythic and eccentric American painters of the […]
Anti-Gravity
Paintings shouldn't simply be seen, they should change the viewer, suspend him or her in an altered moment. A recent visit to exhibitions by Adolph Gottlieb, Ron Gorchov, and Douglas Florian proved one's sense of time and place can, indeed, be altered by a colored surface. Adolph Gottlieb: Gravity, Suspension, Motion is on view at Pace […]
Color & Edge at Sideshow Gallery
Piri Halasz reviews works by Lauren Olitski, Susan Roth, and Ann Walsh, on view in the exhibition Color & Edge at Sideshow Gallery, New York through May 6, 2012. Halasz writes that "all three, in early stages of their development, were influenced by the color & facture of Jules Olitski. It is a measure of […]
Rembrandt’s Ghostly Brushes
Thomas Micchelli writes about Rembrandt's Self-Portrait from Kenwood House, London, on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York through May 20, 2012. Micchelli notes: "This painting is one of the artist's richest and most profound self-portraits, rendered in earth tones softly illuminated by raking, flaxen light. Rembrandt, who would live for only three […]
Harriet Korman: Tremolo Effect
Deven Golden reviews the exhibition Harriet Korman: New Paintings at Lennon Weinberg, Inc., New York, on view through April 14, 2012. Golden notes a "curious element to these artworks that may at first elude notice, so infrequently is it a factor: they are 100% flat. In his famous 1955 essay 'Modernist Painting', Clement Greenberg suggested […]
Alan Davie: Works on Paper
Dr Janet McKenzie reviews the exhibition Alan Davie: Works on Paper at Gimpel Fils, London, on view through April 21, 2012. McKenzie writes that the exhibition "demonstrates the unique style and epic quality; [Davie] has the power to mystify his audience. Here we see the great importance of drawing to his artistic identity. Not only […]
Ron Gorchov: Extending the Medium
Robert C. Morgan reviews the exhibition Ron Gorchov at Cheim & Read, New York, on view through April 28. 2012. Morgan writes that Gorchov "knows where he is going without imposing his intentions – not even on himself. I would say Gorchov is as open and clear as any painter I have meant. His idea […]
Jacqueline Humphries
Caleb De Jong reviews an exhibition of new paintings by Jacqueline Humphries at Greene Naftali, New York, on view through April 28, 2012. De Jong writes: "Splayed outwards, Humphries centripetal compositions reference nature in their all over, structurally organic chemistry. Lacking clear chromatic referents to nature, Humphries' paintings instead operate independently of a clear representational […]
Charles Seliger: The Painting in the Painting
With the work of Abstract Expressionist Charles Seliger (1926-2009) in mind, Addison Parks considers "that the painting is something that happens through the very act of painting, and not the result of some preconceived image that through careful effort produces the desired result. What we are talking about is the painting that evolves, changes, even […]
William Bailey: Constructed Hallucinations
Donald Kuspit reviews the exhibition William Bailey at Betty Cuningham Gallery, New York, on view through May 12, 2012. Kuspit writes that Bailey's "objects [are] distilled to their timeless essence, suggesting that they are sort of hallucinatory things in themselves — Platonically pure ideas that Bailey has hallucinated, projections of his imaginative mind's eye, and […]
Grid / Un-Grid
Jason Stopa reviews two painting exhibitions, Materiality and Grid List, both at Allegra LaViola Gallery, New York, on view through April 21, 2012. Stopa writes that the exhibitions "comprise two strains of abstraction whose barriers are quickly disappearing. And judging by the prevalent use of non-traditional mediums, supports and surfaces-many of these artists fall outside […]
Terry Winters: In Studio
Yevgeniya Traps visits the studio of painter Terry Winters. Winters notes: "I’ve always tried to define parameters for the drawings or paintings according to some organizing principle. It can be anything from an idea about acoustic space to the color range of a particular pigment. The goal is to construct a picture that is autonomous […]
Jonathan Lasker: Interview
Amanda Valdez talks to painter Jonathan Lasker about his early work, recently on view at Cheim & Read, New York. Lasker notes that his paintings "relate to the light of nature. They are, in a way, abstract landscapes. But even in 3 Card Monte the blue and lavender are pretty close in value and really […]
Judy Ledgerwood: In Conversation
Lilly Lampe speaks with painter Judy Ledgerwood about her work. Ledgerwood explains: "I decided that the most interesting thing I could do would be to work flat and to make paintings that were extremely flat but that would project out into the space and to try to address the architectural space, because the space in […]
Gabriella Boyd: Interview
Simon Bayliss interviews painter Gabriella Boyd about her work and process. Boyd notes: "It’s important for me that the viewer believes in the space enough to imagine being in it. Normally I'll start with quite a solid structure, a much more realistic space, and then gradually break away from that… For my belief in a […]
Painting Vision & Experience
To introduce his article on the "the visual anxiety that American painters feel when confronted with the European visual traditions," Mark Stone posts a revealing (and poignant) video of Clement Greenberg discussing Jackson Pollock's anxiety about whether his all-over drip technique was really "Painting." Stone proposes that Pollock's inner-struggle is one that continues to affect […]
Lucian Freud: Drawings
Dr Janet McKenzie reviews the recent exhibition Lucian Freud: Drawings at Blain Southern, London. The exhibition will be on view at Acquavella Galleries, New York from April 30 – June 9, 2012. McKenzie writes: "One is struck first by the remarkable virtuosity of the young artist from the early works on show. The unadorned subject, […]
Dana Schutz: Götter- dämmerung
Sarah Kirk Hanley writes about the exhibition Götterdämmerung at the Arnold and Marie Schwartz Gallery Met, New York, on view through May 12, 2012. Kirk Hanley writes: "Schutz’s own extravagantly creative and somewhat outlandish imagination, as well as her exuberantly gestural style, is well-matched to Wagner's outsized narrative and grandiloquent score. Yet the artist took […]
Ron Gorchov at Cheim & Read
James Kalm visits the exhibition of new paintings by Ron Gorchov at Cheim & Read, New York, on view through April 28, 2012. Kalm notes "in the late sixties that Gorchov devised his unique painting support, often referred to as a 'saddle shape.' The use of this convex surface was a refutation of Clement Greenberg's […]