Tawara Yūsaku: Born Again
Alan Pocaro reviews the exhibition Universe Is Flux: The Art of Tawara Yūsaku at the Indianapolis Museum of Art, on view through April 1, 2012. Pocaro writes: "Like paintings made in expressionist or Zen traditions, Tawara’s works-on-paper look fluid and indifferent to mistake. But the effortlessness is deceptive. Rather than being dashed off in a […]
Visconti Tarot Miniatures
Mark Dylan Sieber posts a gallery of Renaissance tarot cards "hand-painted… with gold and silver gilt, as well as miniature Renaissance portraiture. Originally commissioned by the Viscontis, a Milanese family that dominated the cultural life of Northern Italy in the 14th and 15th centuries, the deck is one of the oldest sets in existence. The […]
Jane Austen & Portraiture
Painter Laurie Fendrich muses on a newly discovered portrait of Jane Austen and what it says about how we view and paint portraits. Fendrich notes that "We must remember that the way we view portraits reveals more about us viewers and our longings than about likeness per se… To make a given subject truly come […]
Tom Evans at Sideshow
Mario Naves reviews the exhibition Tom Evans on view at Sideshow Gallery, Brooklyn through December 18, 2011. Naves notes that "The paintings are muscular conflagrations of brusque brushwork and overripe color… Effulgent blues, acidic purples, operatic reds and shocks of green – Evans hasn't met a saturated color he doesn't like. Chromatic indulgence is offset […]
Kyle Staver: A Brother Honored
John Seed writes about a new triptych by painter Kyle Staver on view as part of the exhibition Kyle Staver: A Survey of Paintings and Prints on view at the Pennsylvania College of Art & Design through January 20, 2012. Staver painted the triptych to honor her brother who passed away six years ago. Seed writes "Although […]
Julie Alexander: Interview
Valerie Brennan interviews painter Julie Alexander about her work and studio practice. On the painting process Alexander notes that "The big angst is the falling in and out of love along the way. I will fall in love with a color combination layered just so or the way the edges are happening or a texture and […]
Jonathan Lasker: Pretty Ugly
After visiting the exhibition Jonathan Lasker: The 80s on view at Timothy Taylor Gallery, London through December 23, 2011, Lee Triming reassesses Lasker's work. Triming notes that "Lasker's project does rely on a collage-like rotation of motif which relates intellectually to language; the marks are slowed down to a corpse-like stasis; the pictures as a […]
Wonder of the Age: Master Painters of India
John Haber reviews the exhibition Wonder of the Age: Master Painters of India, 1100–1900 on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art through January 8, 2012. Haber notes that "One who thinks of Indian art as static will be surprised… Gold and distinct fields of colors slowly lose their primacy, before reasserting themselves around 1800, […]
William Holton: Studio Visit
Rachael Wren visits the studio of painter William Holton. Wren writes that "William aims to create situations in which processes that mirror those of the natural environment can occur in his paintings… The variety of paintings in William's studio, each addressing a different aspect of structure, size, or color, illustrate the multitude of nuanced permutations […]
Georg Karl Pfahler
LAND spotlights the exhibition Georg Karl Pfahler on view at Maria Stenfors Gallery, London through December 27, 2011. The press relase notes that "[Pfahler's] painted forms were simplified… and ultimately became mere vehicles for colours and their interrelations. In about 1962 block-like forms turned into crisply demarcated colour surfaces… this exhibition consists of six large […]
Painting Canada: Tom Thomson & the Group of Seven
Emma Enderby reviews the exhibition Painting Canada: Tom Thomson and the Group of Seven on view at the Dulwich Picture Gallery, London through January 8, 2012. Enderby writes: "United by a common aim to challenge accepted authority, the modus operandi of Thomson and the group was to create a visual language and artistic identity to […]
Gabriele Evertz: Rapture
[VIDEO] Mark Dagley visits the exhibition Gabriele Evertz: Rapture on view at Minus Space, Brooklyn through December 17, 2011. In the video, Minus Space's Matthew Deleget discusses the exhibition. Deleget notes that Evertz is "one of the few artists… looking at gray as a color, not as a neutral value, not as a background element, […]
Perle Fine: The Cool Series
A student of Hans Hofmann, Perle Fine’s artistic circle included the most accomplished New York School and European painters.
The Quiet Depth of Tantric Paintings
Altoon Sultan blogs about the contemporary visual resonance of Tantric paintings collected in the the exhibtion and book Tantra Song: Tantric Painting from Rajasthan on view at the Santa Monica Museum of Art through December 10, 2011 . Sultan remarks that "although they are copies of Hindu Tantric images dating back to the 17th century, […]
Rosenquist & Ryman
As part of his series entitled "Paintings I Like," Paul Corio is struck by two paintings at the Guggenheim Museum: The Swimmer in the Econo-mist (Painting 2) (1997) by James Rosenquist and Surface Veil II, (1970) by Robert Ryman. Corio writes that " …for all his bright colors and big size, [Rosenquist] brought a slyness […]
Road Trip with Peter Acheson
Podcast "featuring a conversation between [Christopher Albert] and the painter Peter Acheson (on MAYKR.com) while driving in a cargo van through Massachusetts and Connecticut in a driving rain storm." Acheson remarks that "the role of the artist is to entertain in a deep way by making the audience realize its own imagination…" Christopher Albert introduces […]
Amy Sillman at Capitain Petzel
[PHOTOS] Beautiful installation photos of the exhibition Amy Sillman at Capitain Petzel, Berlin, on view through December 23, 2011. From the press release: "Sillman foregrounds the materiality of painting and its formal, psychological, and conceptual dimensions. She constructs her work in a physical way – through gesture, color, and drawing-based procedures – imbuing it with […]
Yael Scalia: Interview
Larry Groff interviews painter Yael Scalia. Scalia remarks: "I want my paintings to be beautiful and I’m an apostle of Ingres' statement that in all beauty there is strangeness. I’m looking for a certain kind of poetry in painting, and sometimes the most mundane subjects can be the vehicle for that. Subject does not possess […]
Peter Acheson: Studio Visit
Christopher Albert photoblogs a visit to the studio of painter Peter Acheson.