Mark Strand on Edward Hopper
A recently discovered essay on Edward Hopper by the late poet and artist Mark Strand. Strand writes: "The coincidence of vision—his idea, vague at first, of what the painting might be—and the brute fact of the subject, its plain obdurate existence, just 'out there' with an absolutely insular existence. Until, that is, Edward Hopper sees […]
Jane Irish: Interview
Gordon Stillman interviews painter Jane Irish whose show Faience and Firenze was recently on view at Locks Gallery, Philadelphia. Stillman introduces the interview by noting: "I am drawn to the way Irish works, painting en plein air and creating her own source material to remake on ceramics and large canvases. This allows her to re-see, […]
Alex Katz: The Expansive Landscape
Studio and Garden
Altoon Sultan blogs about a recent exhibition of paintings by Alex Katz at Gavin Brown’s Enterprise, New York. Sultan writes: “Alex Katz’s landscape paintings are a paradox: as large as they are, they seem intimate; they portray ordinary views, yet are surprising and extraordinary… Katz’s simple titles––a time of day, a description of place––tell of […]
Albert Oehlen @ The New Museum
Peter Schjeldahl reviews Albert Oehlen: Home and Garden at the New Museum, New York, on view through September 13, 2015. Schjeldahl notes: "There is as much philosophical heft to what [Oehlen] won’t allow himself, in the ways of order and balance, as in the stuttering virtuosities of what he does. His pictures possess no unity […]
Deborah Rosenthal: Velocity of Vision
Rebecca Allan reviews the recent exhibition Deborah Rosenthal: Geography at Bowery Gallery, New York. Allan writes that the paintings on view continue Rosenthal's "ongoing exploration of the nature of time, landscape, family bonds, and metaphors of sight and sensation … Rosenthal is perpetually concerned with the “what-ifs” of the painting process. She considers the velocity […]
Roger White: Inherently Paintable Moment
Ross Simonini interviews artist Roger White. White comments: "I feel that even when I’m working more or less abstractly it’s still a picture. It’s still engaged in the question, 'What does it mean to represent some thing in the world in some way?' And without that question I’m totally lost as an artist. I started […]
Sonia Delaunay @ Tate Modern
Andy Parkinson reviews Sonia Delaunay at Tate Modern, London, on view through August 9, 2015. Parkinson writes: "The Delaunays understood the implications of abstraction as a totally new visual language, the central focus of which was simultaneous colour contrast, Sonia claiming that '…the infinite combinations of colour have poetry and a language much more expressive […]
Tintoretto’s Solid Air
Viktor Witkowski considers the evocation of place in paintings by Tintoretto. Witkwoski writes: "Venetian painting is often discussed with respect to the use of color which set it apart from other regions in Italy and Northern Europe at that time. But in case of Tintoretto the natural phenomena of the lagoon, the changing conditions of […]
Cecily Brown: Painterly Thickets
Altoon Sultan blogs about Cecily Brown: The English Garden at Maccarone, New York, on view through June 20, 2015. Sultan writes that Brown's show "was a lesson to me in slowing down, looking carefully, and being open to new work… As I looked, I became entranced by the welter of brushstrokes; their layering is full […]
Mark Bradford: Profile
Calvin Tomkins profiles artist Mark Bradford. Tomkins writes: "Although he hasn’t really used artist’s paints or brushes since he was in art school, what Bradford makes are abstract paintings. He starts with a stretched canvas and builds up its surface with ten or fifteen layers of paper—white paper, colored paper, newsprint, reproductions, photographs, printed texts—fixing […]
Celia Reisman: Interview
Larry Groff interviews painter Celia Reisman. An exhibition of Reisman's recent paintings was recently on view Paul Thiebaud Gallery, San Francisco. Commenting on the effect of moving to California from Philadelphia, Reisman notes: "I’ve always been attracted to color in the landscape looking for some distinguishing color, like a red bush or a yellow umbrella. […]
Mary Corse: Interview
Alex Bacon interviews Mary Corse whose paintings are on view at Lehmann Maupin, New York, through June 13, 2015. Corse comments: "What interests me now a lot too, especially with the black and white paintings, is when I put the black and the white together: that edge. It’s so optical. It starts flashing. We’ve never seen […]
Another Look at Robert Motherwell
John Yau reviews Robert Motherwell: Opens at Andrea Rosen Gallery, New York, on view through June 20, 2015. Yau begins: "Robert Motherwell didn’t believe that Pablo Picasso or Henri Matisse were figures to be overthrown. Instead of trying to triumph over them, he was convinced that he could expand upon their innovations. Moreover, he felt […]
Jacqueline Humphries & Digital Distraction
Sharon Butler blogs about Jacqueline Humphries at Greene Naftali, New York, on view through June 20, 2015. Butler notes that "Digital screens, halftone dot patterns, emoticons, and other typographic symbols comprise the imagery in Jacqueline Humphries's new series of large-scale paintings… Once considered a Provisional painter, Humphries's new work is anything but contingent. Slick and […]
Jason Mones on Leon Golub
Jason Mones writes about the work of Leon Golub on view at Hauser & Wirth, New York through June 20, 2015. Mones writes: "I find a personal fascination with the timeless quality in [Golub's] series, as they speak of the dark history of Man’s violent inner brutality, both tragically and compassionately. It’s invigorating to see […]
Don Voisine @ McKenzie Fine Art
Paul Corio reviews paintings by Don Voisine at McKenzie Fine Art, New York, on view through June 14, 2015. Corio writes that a "new device in these pictures is a particular grey which is not mixed but would appear to be produced by applying black paint over a white ground then scraping or sanding back to […]
The Guston Effect
Evan Smith reviews The Guston Effect at Steven Zevitas Gallery, Boston, on view through August 15, 2015. Smith writes that the show "makes a broad, convincingly argued statement about the lingering spectre of Guston in the work of dozens of painters… The response of many artists in the show is to produce a kind of […]
Albert Oehlen: The Accidental Abstractionist
Raphael Rubinstein considers the career of painter Albert Oehlen. Rubinstein observes: "Interestingly, Oehlen refers to his 1988-97 abstract paintings as 'post-non-objective.' The phrase is odd since you would expect an artist who had switched from figuration to abstraction to call his new work 'post-representational' or 'post-figurative' rather than 'post-non-objective,' the term 'non-objective' being a common […]
Jacob Lawrence: Promised Land
Lea Feinstein reviews Jacob Lawrence: Promised Land at the Cantor Arts Center, Stanford, on view through August 3, 2015. Feinsteing writes: "Like the Italian masters who depicted scenes from the Bible, Lawrence created extended narrative cycles. He chose to chronicle the stories of normal citizens like himself—largely invisible in the art of the time—and situate […]
Audrey Flack: The Abstract Expression Years
Peter Malone reviews Audrey Flack: The Abstract Expression Years at Hollis Taggart Galleries, New York, on view through June 6, 2015. Malone writes: “Though Flack has become an artist with an impressive career as a representational painter, and later a sculptor of public monuments, her early experiments in abstract painting — like those of Pat […]