How the Vorticists Defied the World
Bob Duggan blogs about the exhibition The Vorticists: Manifesto for a Modern World on view at Tate Britain through September 4, 2011. Duggan writes: "Perhaps no other art movement had such a cut and dried beginning and end, yet no other art movement has been so poorly defined, even today. Great, yet slightly mad, minds […]
Mary Weatherford
Martin Bromirski posts installation images from Mary Weatherford's exhibition Cave at Pismo at Brennan & Griffin. Weatherford's large scale abstractions, based on on-site drawings,, "[focus] on the cave as symbol and metaphor. Using a simple palette and loose overlapping geometric shapes, Weatherford's canvases are reduced images – depicting only the interior of the cave."
Lucy Barber: Interview
Larry Groff interviews painter Lucy Barber about her work. In response to a question about the importance of the "process of painting from observation" Barber responds: "It's very important, and for me having an anchor in realism is key. Though as we know, the painting process itself is abstract. 'Painting from observation' is an odd […]
Peter Blundell: Interview
Interview with painter Peter Blundell. Of his process Blundell notes: "The intention is to resolve the painting into a concrete pictorial form. It is very open to begin with and goes through many changes but after a time the painting determines itself."
Painting in Chelsea
Painter Paul Behnke tours painting shows currently on view in Chelsea, NYC including Shared Space w/ Susan Ross & Monique Ford and Emily Berger: New Works at The Painting Center (through June 18, 2011), We Regret To Inform You There Is No Space Or Place For Abstract Painting at Martos Gallery (through June 18, 2011), […]
Thibaud Thiercelin’s Autofiction
Julian Phillips blogs about the exhibition Autofiction, paintings by Thibaud Thiercelin on view at Dalet Gallery, Philadelphia through June 25, 2011. Phillips writes: "Thiercelin’s oil paintings have an almost dreamlike quality, allowing the layers of color to speak for themselves while in cahoots with each other." He adds that the paintings "[allow] the viewer plenty […]
Zig Zag: Construction, Sequence, Colour
David Moxon posts about Zig Zag: deliberations in construction, sequence and colour, on view at Charlie Dutton Gallery, London through July 2, 2011, an "innovative and diverse exhibition of new developments in abstraction… These artists have developed an understanding for the possibility of an 'internal logic' in their work," as well as "ideas of 'colour […]
John Brown: Purified Paintings
Profile of work by Toronto painter John Brown whose work is on view at Wilde Gallery in Berlin through June 18, 2011. The press release notes: "[Brown's] process is immensely labour-intensive: a single work can take years to complete. The solitary act of applying paint, building imagery and then aggressively reducing the piece back down […]
Alex Cohen: Framing & First Person Narrative
Matthew Farina interviews painter Alex Cohen about his work. Cohen discusses working in a rural setting, nostalgia in painting, framing (Cohen makes his own), and his interest in first person narrative paintings: "The first person point of view gives the sense of the painting as an experience rather than captured scene."
Paul Reed – Natural Mystic
Mark Dagley visits 92 year old Washington Color School painter Paul Reed. Dagley writes: "Reed is the last surviving participant of the Washington Color Painters exhibition, a pivotal event in the annals of the Washington, D.C. art scene… Of all the Washington Color Painters, Reed employed the most non-programmatic approach to painting. His work is […]
Jack Tworkov at Black Mountain
Hrag Vartanian interviews Jason Andrew, curator of Jack Tworkov: The Accident of Choice on view June 17 – September 17, 2011 at Black Mountain College Museum and Art Center, Asheville, NC. The exhibition investigates Tworkov's involvement with Black Mountain College. Describing the derivation of the show title, Andrew quotes Tworkov "For a long time I […]
Leon Kossoff: Video
James Kalm films the exhibition Leon Kossoff at Mitchell-Innes & Nash on view through June 18, 2011. Kalm's walkthrough includes surface close-ups of many of the paintings. Kalm notes: "Each piece is a testament to long hours and consistent overworking that have gained Kossoff his immense reputation."
Clyfford Still: Life Against Death
Jeffrey Dennis blogs his notes on a recent lecture, Clyfford Still: Life Against Death, by David Anfam at Chelsea College of Art, London on May 12, 2011. Dennis writes: "Anfam described Still's utterly serious demeanour, and how his radicalism emerged out of conservative beginnings. His early work reveals an ambition to be part of the […]
Chris Martin’s Bigness
Sharon Butler blogs about the upcoming exhibition Chris Martin: Painting Big on view June 18 – October 23, 2011 at the Corcoran Gallery of Art. Butler writes: "[Martin's] show at the Corcoran… will prove beyond any doubt [his] love of LARGE. The exhibition… features a site-specific installation of paintings in the museum's central atrium in […]
Guston Goes Electric
Andrew Martin muses on the significance of painter Philip Guston's return to figuration: "Like Dylan going electric at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965, Guston’s figurative turn remains the centerpiece of his personal mythology." Recounting both the severe critical reactions to Guston's rejection of abstraction and Guston's own attitude toward his figurative paintings Martin concludes: […]
Gino Severini: futuriste et néoclassique
Celia White reviews Gino Severini, futuriste et néoclassique at the Musée de l'Orangerie, Paris on view through July 25, 2011. Focusing on Severini's move from futurist to a neoclassical style, the exhibition, White writes, "simultaneously emphasises the irony that underlies the move from futurism to neoclassicism: that the same mechanical force which once formed a […]
Inga Dalrymple
Interview with painter Inga Dalrymple. Dalrymple discusses her studio practice and influences: "I don’t set out to paint something with an end game in mind. I regularly destroy paintings (by which I mean either scraping back, if I'm using oils, or repainting if I’m using acrylic) not because I don’t always like the results, but […]
American Abstract Artists
Steven Alexander posts about American Abstract Artists: 75th Anniversary on view at OK Harris Gallery through July 15, 2011. American Abstract Artists is "a democratic artist-run organization founded in 1936 in New York City to promote and foster understanding of abstract and non-objective art." Alexander writes: "This sprawling but beautifully coherent show features the work […]
Valerio Adami
Raphael Rubinstein blogs about under-known painter Valerio Adami. Rubinstein writes: "[Adami's] distinctive use of flat color, which he has been employing since the mid-1960s, brilliantly marries the color printing of Hergé's Tintin books and medieval stained-glass; the stylized eroticism of his sinuous line and his eye for the fetish object is every bit as seductive […]
Without meaning, but understood
Misha Kligman blogs about the work of painter Anthony Dobovsky. Kligman writes: "Dobovsky's paintings are small in scale – mere inches. However, the moments, lived experience, thoughts and poetry that the works embody and evoke seem to be massive."