Posts | Page 249 | Painters' Table

Eternal Life: Italian Mosaics 300-1300

Bob Duggan reviews Joachim Poeschke’s Italian Mosaics: 300-1300. Duggan writes that Poeschke's book "demonstrates the seemingly eternal life of these pre-Renaissance mosaics, which contain some of the earliest images of Christian art. In this first published survey of the subject, Poeschke analyzes how religion and politics teamed up to produce these glories of artistry in […]

Joseph Hughes: Works on Paper

Chris Ashley writes about painter Joseph Hughes "whose work has for some time been situated in the context of Radical Color Painting, but which is also clearly quite contemporary abstraction…" Joseph Hughes: Works on Paper – Four Decades – 1970s – 2000s is on view at Some Walls, Oakland, CA through January 16, 2011.

In Studio with Catherine Kehoe

An extensive interview by Rebecca Harp on the Jerusalem Studio School blog with painter Catherine Kehoe. Kehow is "known for her intimate abstract constructions of sensuous color in still lifes, self portraits, and figures…" The JSS Artist Interview Series was established to highlight honorable strides in contemporary figurative painting worldwide, ranging from emerging to well […]

Jill Nathanson’s Quiet Vision

Ragamala Miniatures

BibliOdyssey blogs about Ragamala miniature manuscript illumination from sixteenth century northern India. The paintings were known as "ragamala ('garland of ragas'). A raga is a musical phrase that evokes an emotional response in the listener, and is associated with a particular time of day, season and mood. 'Male' ragas were joined with 'female' raginis."

Kimber Smith

Raphael Rubinstein post about artist Kimber Smith. Rubenstein writes "Smith emerged as an artist not in his native U.S. but in France, where he lived for most of the 1950s and 1960s. A close friend of Shirley Jaffe and Sam Francis … he was taken with the spontaneous energy of Abstract Expressionism, but the alphabet […]

Katharina Grosse

Installation photos from the Katharina Grosse exhibition at Christopher Grimes in Los Angeles.

The Discovery of Lee Bontecou

Nancy Natale blogs her observation of Ivan Karp's discovery of Lee Bontecou as told in the recent book Leo and His Circle: The Life of Leo Castelli by Annie Cohen-Solal. Natale writes "I had wondered how she ever cracked the wall of discrimination against women at that time, and in this book I found the […]

Bill Cumming: 1917-2010

Obituary post for Northwest School painter Bill Cumming who died November 23, 2010 at the age of 93. Regina Hackett writes that Cumming was "a teenager in the circle of Mark Tobey, Morris Graves, Guy Anderson and Kenneth Callahan."

John Hoyland Interview

Discussion of the controverial British painter John Hoyland in anticipation of an upcoming interview with Hoyland in the painting journal Turps Banana.

Joe Zucker with Phong Bui

Brooklyn Rail editor Phong Bui's fascinating interview with artist Joe Zucker about his life and career. Bui and Zucker discuss basketball, Zucker's wide ranging artistic influences from Francis Bacon to Morandi, art school in Chicago, collage, the craft of mosaic, Renaissance painting, Cezanne, and Steven Hawking.

Persistent Slowness of the Painter’s Eye

Great post: Deborah Barlow comments on an exchange between painter Sean Scully and critic Robert Hughes who discuss the slowness of painting compared to other media. She quotes Scully: "The way a painting seems to work in the culture is very slowly and subliminally. It is almost dormant on the wall—you can walk right by […]

Inside Pat Steir’s painting

Sharon Butler reviews the exhibition "The Endless Line" by Pat Steir at Sue Scott gallery. Butler writes "Walking through the darkened space, observers find themselves inside Steir’s painting, where they become part of the illusion she has created with paint and light."

The Matrix: Political Dance of Modern Drawing

Bob Duggan examines the curatorial theme of "the 'matrixal'—a connective and even curative matrilineal web of associations woven by modern women artists that redefines drawing practice to include all forms of human gesture, even the dance." in the exhibtion On Line: Drawing Through the Twentieth Century at MoMA through February 7, 2011.

Marden at Matthew Marks (video)

Painter Tim McFarlane's blogs a video walkthrough of Brice Marden "Letters" and Brice Marden "Paintings 1961-1964" at Matthew Marks. (video credit: ballenato63)

Native American Ledger Drawings

Painter Altoon Sultan writes about an amazing exhibition of Native American Ledger Drawings the Hood Museum at Dartmouth College. The drawings "simple form and strong sense of fluid line, their color, and marvelous design sense" are well worth a look.