Lavinia Fontana: the female self-portrait
Monica Bowen guest posts on 3 Pipe Problem blog about Renaissance painter Lavinia Fontana. Bowen writes: "Since Renaissance women weren't always in control of how they were portrayed in art (women were often depicted by male artists), I like to see how a female artist represented herself when she did have control over her image."
Honoring Gabriel Laderman
Jed Perl remembers painter Gabriel Laderman who passed away last week at the age of 81. Perl's piece conveys a portrait of a man who championed painting as a means of personal discovery. The following passage by Perl is worth quoting in full: "What [Laderman] offered to those who were willing to look and to […]
Keys and Squares
Joanne Mattera asks "Who knew the Greek Key would be a leitmotif during Armory Week?" She answers with a selection of geometric painting from Exit Art, Pulse and Armory Modern. Artists include Rico Gatson, Charles Koegel, Freddy Rodriguez, Beat Zoderer, and Charles Biederman.
The Most Beautiful Painting in the World
Art historian James Elkins writes about Giovanni Bellini's Ecstasy of St. Francis in the Frick Collection. The Bellini painting, Elkins writes, is "the painting that means the most to me." Elkins' post focuses on images of the painting, details captured from the Google Art Project, rather than written analysis. He mourns the fact that although […]
Kings, Queens, and Courtiers
Chris Miller reviews Kings, Queens, and Courtiers: Art in Early Renaissance France at the Art Institute of Chicago. Focusing on French art patronage around the year 1500, the exhibition brings together an impressive array of paintings, tapestries, and illuminated manuscripts. Miller writes "Objects were borrowed from almost fifty institutions and private lenders… A better survey […]
A Dark Night with Samuel Palmer
Silke Otto-Knapp, a contemporary artist whose work is included in Watercolour at Tate Britain, discusses Samuel Palmer's watercolor painting A Hilly Scene, (1826-1828). "The painting exists somewhere between the visionary aspirations of Palmer’s imagination and a realistic depiction of a familiar place." Otto-Knapps article is taken from the article Colour Me British, a more in-depth […]
A New York Minute
Deborah Barlow takes a look at painting in the Chelsea galleries this month. Her visit "offered up some moments worth remembering" including Pat Steir at Cheim and Read, Joan Mitchell at Lenon Weinberg, Herb Jackson at Claire Oliver, Tara Donovan at Pace, and José Parlá at Bryce Wolkowitz. She also crosses the river to check […]
Learning to Look: “Nature is the Teacher”
John Goodrich reviews Nature is the Teacher at the Painting Center. Goodrich eloquently describes both the miraculous qualities of sight (and the "rich connections" it provides) and the increasing marginalization of sensory experience. He concludes: "the work of the four participating painters – Simon Carr, Stanley Lewis, Thaddeus Radell, and Deborah Rosenthal – argues cogently […]
Danish Golden Age: Figure Painting
Altoon Sultan recounts her discovery of figure paintings and portraits from the Danish Golden Age. She writes: "During this period in the first half of the 19th century there was an outpouring of beautiful, sensitive, and rather modest painting." Her post examines paintings by Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg, Constantin Hansen, Christen Købke, and Wilhelm Marstrand.
Thornton Willis
[VIDEO] Painter Thonton Willis in his studio. Willis speaks about his work, in particular his process of searching through painting, and the surprising results that can occur when a painting is pushed beyond initial solutions. The film, directed by Michael Feldman, also features James Panero.
Varda Caivano at Victoria Miro
[PHOTOS] Excellent installation images of Varda Caivano's paintings at Victoria Miro, London. "… each work bears a decentralised composition held together by its own resonant energy: paint is pushed and pulled across the canvas, built up and withdrawn, lapses and drifts … time is key to the making and viewing of Caivano’s works, as the […]
Caravaggio: More than a “Moment”
Daniel B. Gallagher reviews of The Moment of Caravaggio by Michael Fried. Gallagher's in depth analysis thoroughly explores Fried's themes and thesis that "the extraordinary presence of 'absorption' and 'distancing' in [Caravaggio's] work" is the key to the unique achievement of his paintings. In Gallagher's own analysis of several of Caravaggio's works he calls into […]
Meditation and Art: Rothko Chapel
NPR's Pat Dowell looks at the Rothko Chapel and its 40 year history. In addition to the All Things Considered audio podcast, Dowell's web feature also offers podcast interviews with Rothko Chapel Executive Director Emilee Dawn Whitehurst, author Susan Barnes, and Christopher Rothko. The Rothko Chapel is one of the few places where the work […]
Painters at VOLTA
Sharon Butler highlights paintings from VOLTA. VOLTA she writes is "one of the smaller, more interesting fairs. [It] is different from the other fairs because the international galleries, selected by a panel of curators, present solo installations by emerging artists. This year more than half of the 90+ artists were painters." Butler includes links to […]
Jo Baer at Hunter College
16 Miles of String
Andrew Russeth reports on painter Jo Baer’s interview with Anthony Huberman on March 7 at Hunter College. The interview was held in conjunction with a screening of a film about her work. Russeth reports that Baer spoke on her decision to leave the New York art world, her lesser known (in America) figurative paintings, her […]
Painters’ Table Most Popular Posts: February
February 2011, a month that saw a preponderance of painting exhibitions in New York also produced some instantly classic painting blog posts. Don’t miss David Reed’s riveting remembrance of Philip Guston at the New York Studio School, painter Sean Scully filmed at work in his studio, a collection of historic interviews with painter Louis Finkelstein, […]
Motesiczky Unveiled
Judith H. Dobrzynski discovers the work of Marie-Louise Motesiczky, subject of a recent exhibition at Galerie St. Etienne, at the ADAA Art Show at the Park Avenue Armory. Motesiczky was praised by her teacher Max Beckman but her work has not been well known. It is on of the special moments in painting when the […]
Pat Steir Interview
In a must read interview, Brooklyn Rail publisher Phong Bui talks with painter Pat Steir. Steir talks in detail about her early work including Brueghel Series (A Vanitas of Style). The discussion provides insight into the progression of Steir's work, from image based works to gestrual abstraction, over the course of her career. Steir begins: […]
Charles Garabedian
Charles Kessler, who "curated [Charles Garabedian's] first retrospective in 1974 (California State University at Northridge) and wrote about his work for Art in America and Arts Magazine" looks at the work of Charles Garabedian from a personal perspective. Kessler writes that Garabedian knew "what mattered from the beginning was his persistent and uncompromising exploration. 'There […]
Philip Guston’s Roma @ The Phillips
Jeffry Cudlin reviews Philip Guston: Roma at The Phillips Collection in Washington D.C on view through May 15, 2011. Cudlin writes: "… Guston’s cartoonish late paintings bear little resemblance to, say, the slick reproductions of consumer-culture detritus offered by Pop artists like Andy Warhol or Roy Lichtenstein. Instead of slickness, Guston created scruffy, crudely brushed […]