Barnett Newman at Craig F. Starr
Steven Alexander reviews the exhibition Barnett Newman: Paintings at Craig F. Starr Gallery, on view through December 17, 2011. Alexander writes that "the intimate setting allows close inspection that reveals the raw directness of Newman's process. Each work seems carefully considered and quickly executed, exuding a freshness that is astonishing and a potency that transcends […]
Karen Kaapcke: Painting #OWS
Painter Karen Kaapcke writes about her experiences painting the Occupy Wall Street encampment in Zuccotti Park. Kaapcke writes: "I needed to go paint at Zuccotti Park, to grant it the seriousness, the respect and the statement of importance that was, I felt, lacking. There was a certain element of fear, or of risk involved on […]
Becky Yazdan: Interview
Valerie Brennan interviews painter Becky Yazdan about her work and process. Yazdan remarks: "I work with ambient memories and these visual stimuli act as a structure on which to hang my ideas. While painting I often meditate on the passage of time and the resulting deterioration. Williamsburg is a living, breathing example of this constant […]
Manet’s Madame Brunet
Scott Allan detail Manet's Portrait of Madame Brunet, which recently entered the collection of the J. Paul Getty Museum. Allan notes that the painting "[calls] to mind 17th- and 18th-century examples of the Spanish, Flemish, and English schools… For all the veiled quotation in Manet's portrait, however, the signature elements of his original style are […]
Edwin Dickinson: In Retrospect
Caleb De Jong reviews the exhibition Edwin Dickinson In Retrospect at Babcock Galleries, New York, on view through January 27, 2011. De Jong writes: "Warm despite the preponderance of grey, Dickinson practiced an immediate form of painting in the smaller paintings, many of which can be viewed at Babcock… Painted quickly and in one sitting, […]
George McNeil: Persistence and Enthusiasm
Mario Naves posts a piece about painter George McNeil. Naves notes that McNeil, who refused to take part in the 1950 Time magazine "Irasicbles" photo, never achieved the fame of the artists who participated, however, "Nothing if not indefatigable, McNeil soldiered on, weathering relative obscurity and negotiating a scene that would increasingly consider painting a minor […]
Franz Kline: In Color
Paul Behnke photo blogs the later color works of painter Franz Kline. Behnke notes that Kline "is often pigeonholed as a "black and white" painter. Above is a selection of work by the Ab-Ex master in which color merges with gesture and at times takes center stage."
Claude Viallat
Sharon Butler blogs about painter Claude Viallat and the Supports/Surfaces group in relation to contemporary painting. Butler remarks that Viallat's work "strikes me as a precursor to the Casualist aesthetic… I find Viallat's relationship to the Casualist abstraction of artists such as Chris Martin, Rochelle Feinstein, Tatiana Berg, and Lauren Luloff fascinating." Claude Viallat: […]
Basohli Paintings
Will Schofield image blogs examples of Basholi paintings. Schofield's post quotes blogger Vinayak Razdan who describes the style: "Basohli Paintings evolved in the 17th and 18th centuries as a distinctive style of painting fusing Hindu mythology, Mughal miniature techniques, and the folk art of the local hills. The painting style derives its name from the place […]
Contested Visions
Christopher Knight reviews the exhibition Contested Visions in the Spanish Colonial World at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, on view through January 29, 2011. Knight writes that "The preponderance of paintings demonstrates how thoroughly a European idiom came to prevail in New Spain. Even the uniquely Asian tradition of painted folding screens, unknown […]
Pacific Standard Time Paintings
Deborah Barlow posts about the paintings on view at the multi-venue art exhibition Pacific Standard Time, including paintings by Ed Moses, John Altoon, Lee Mullican, Mary Corse, Richard Diebenkorn, Ronald Davis, and Sam Francis. Barlow writes that "The experience (of the exhibitions) as it turns out is even more overwhelming and implication-rich than I imagined… […]
Scott Noel: A Life in Paint
Elana Hagler writes about the work of Philadelphia painter Scott Noel. Hagler, who was Noel's student, writes that "Scott always encouraged in me a love for the wholeness of perception, I would even say the wholeness of existence, accepting even that which is problematic, in the world and in myself, and integrating it and shaping […]
Will Barnet: Century of Painting
Franklin Einspruch reviews the exhibition Will Barnet at 100 at the National Academy Museum, New York, on view through December 31, 2011. Though well known for figurative work, Einspruch writes that "Barnet has returned to abstraction in recent years, working in much the same mode as his work in the '50s. If they still feel […]
Basil Beattie
The exhibition Basil Beattie: Onward and Upward, Twenty Five Years of Work (1986 – 2011) is on view at James Hyman Fine Art, London, through January 21, 2012. This post, by Sue Hubbard, looks at Beattie's Janus Series II paintings. Hubbard writes that "Basil Beattie’s career spans the emergence in Britain, in the late 1950s, […]
Llyn Foulkes @ Andrea Rosen Gallery
[VIDEO] James Kalm visits the exhibition Llyn Foulkes on view at Andrea Rosen Gallery, New York, through December 3, 2011. Kalm notes that "Having a career that took off in the early 60s, with the legendary Ferus Gallery, [Foulkes has] been in and out of fashion, but has maintained a consistent practice that pushes the […]
NYC Painting in November
Joe Walentini reviews several November painting shows in New York including exhibitions by Sharon Etgar, Norman Lewis, Herman Maril, and Louisa Matthiasdottir. Of Matthiasdottir, Walentini writes that her "paintings are deceptively unassuming due to their minimalism. But now look at how the space is carved out within each composition. Perspective is determined almost entirely by […]
Jessica Dickinson: Painting Full of Emptiness
Paddy Johnson reviews the exhibition Jessica Dickinson, Before/Beside on view at James Fuentes, LLC, New York, through December 11, 2011. Johnson writes: "As far as I can tell, [Dickinson's] monochrome paintings are wholly about what one sees, which means that long careful looking is the only way to understand the work. Dickinson's meticulous gauging, scraping […]
Monique Prieto on John Altoon
Painter Monique Prieto responds to John Altoon's painting Ocean Park Series #8, 1962 in the collection of the Norton Simon Museum. Prieto remarks: "I perceive a temperature in the magenta that comes up from behind the forms – like hot-white L.A. air. He has somehow nailed down something very ephemeral and fleeting, and that's beautiful. […]
Vasari’s Tuscan Masters
Daniel B. Gallagher reviews a fascinating exhibition, Il primato dei Toscani nelle ‘Vite’ del Vasari at the Basilica inferiore di San Francesco, Arezzo, on view through January 9, 2012. Gallagher writes: "This exhibition in the lower Basilica of San Francesco in Arezzo includes sixty-five works by fifty-two of the greatest Tuscan painters and sculptors appearing […]
Lynette Yiadom-Boakye
Genieve Figgis posts about painter Lynette Yiadom-Boakye. Figgis writes that Yiadom-Boakye is "Clearly influenced by old masters like Goya and Valazquez, she hints only slightly at a narrative. Her use of light and dark creates a theatricality that conveys a familiar mood."