Ken Kiff: The Hill of Dreams
Janet McKenzie reviews Ken Kiff: The Hill of Dreams at Marlborough Fine Art, London, on view through April 17, 2015. McKenzie writes: " … [I]n 1988, Kiff’s exhibition at Fischer Fine Art in King Street, St James’s was my first experience of his work at firsthand; it was the exquisite colour he employed, the understated […]
Richard Diebenkorn @ the Royal Academy
Robin Greenwood reviews paintings by Richard Diebenkorn at the Royal Academy of Arts, London, on view March 14 – June 2, 2015. Greenwood writes: "Berkeley No.57, 1955, which is in the first room, and is the best painting in the show. It’s a difficult work, complex, demanding, having something of a wrestling-match with itself over […]
Persistence of Narrative Painting
Seph Rodney considers the persistence of narrative painting in the works of Jane Corrigan, Nicole Eisenman and Raqib Shaw. Rodney begins: "The early 20th-century’s turn towards modernism in painting was a decisive shift in interest away from artistic representation of acts of witnessing. Abstract art—which now seems to dominate many visual demesnes including the decorative […]
Brett Baker: Backstory
As part of the Backstory series, Richard Benari and Lauren Henkin invited me to share some thoughts on my recent paintings, on view at Elizabeth Harris Gallery, New York through March 28, 2015. An excerpt: "To aim for a more complete expression of reality is not at odds with abstraction. Reality in abstract painting exists […]
Yevgeniya Baras: Interview
Zachary Keeting and Christopher Joy talk with painter Yevgeniya Baras at her exhibition Of Things Soothsaid and Spoken at Steven Harvey Fine Art Projects, New York, on view through March 29, 2015. Baras discusses the works on view, described in the catalog as "small-scale, textured oil paintings reconfigure abstraction as a kind of talismanic skin. […]
Erin Lawlor @ George Lawson
Zachary Royer Scholz reviews Erin Lawlor: Four Paintings: London Fields at George Lawson Gallery, San Francisco, on view through March 21, 2015. Scholz writes: "The word gestural comes to mind when looking at Lawlor’s wide, flowing sweeps of paint, but the cumulative effect is more inevitable than personal, like the gradual impact of erosion or […]
Louise Nevelson: Collage & Assemblage
Altoon Sultan blogs about Louise Nevelson: Collage and Assemblage recently on view at Pace Gallery, New York. Sultan writes: "The show included several later assemblages, but what most interested me were the earlier, flatter works, of various materials pasted onto wooden boards. The images are graphically strong, the use of materials wide-ranging and inventive; anything […]
Duccio on Parade
Joseph Nechvatal recounts witnessing the procession of Duccio's Maesta (in reproduction) to the Duomo in Siena in 2011. Nechvatal writes: "Definitely, one need not be Christian to be touched deeply by the social characteristics surrounding art in Italy when found riding on a current of solemn collective significance. Such was the case with my encounter with […]
David Pollack
Paul Behnke blogs about the paintings of David Pollack. Behnke writes that Pollack "paints encrusted works that are much more sublime than that adjective implies. His surfaces can be gemlike or move towards the monochrome but both evoke the light and élan found in the glistening seasons and environments that inspire them."
Marc Chagall in Belgium
Julie Beckers reviews Marc Chagall: A Retrospective (1908-1985) at the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, on view through June 28, 2015. Beckers writes that the curatorial idea "works around the question: 'Can we create an exhibition that presents a journey through the artist’s life?' And the main themes presented here do just that. […]
Joan Waltemath: Interview
Gordon Moore interviews painter Joan Waltemath whose exhibition One does not negate the other is on view at Hionas Gallery, New York, through March 14, 2015. Waltemath comments: "… verticality can set up a one to one relationship to your body when you are standing in front of it. I’ve done horizontal works, and also […]
Robert Storr on Philip Guston
An excerpt from Robert Storr's preface for the new book Go Figure! New Perspectives on Guston, edited by Peter Benson Miller, published by the New York Review Books and the American Academy in Rome. Storr writes: "Guston died of a heart attack at the same age as Rothko, sixty-seven, yet was still at the height […]
Yevgeniya Baras @ Steven Harvey
James Kalm visits Yevgeniya Baras: Of Things Soothsaid and Spoken at Steven Harvey Fine Art Projects, New York, on view through March 29, 2015. Kalm notes: "Yevgeniya Baras combines the rugged, physicality of found objects with an almost shamanistic reverence for their evocative potential. By melding the factual with a sophisticated sense of abstraction and […]
Lois Dodd @ Alexandre Gallery
Xico Greenwald reviews Lois Dodd: Recent Panel Paintings at Alexandre Gallery, New York, on view through April 4, 2015. Greenwald writes that Dodd's paintings are "seemingly simple constructions that express a nuanced, poetic sensibility… “Porch Roof Snow Pile,” 2014, hung by the gallery entrance, sets the tone for the show. A view from a window, […]
Pollock’s Bold Standard
Through the lens of several west coast exhibitions, David DiMichele notes the continued relevance of abstract painting and argues that Jackson Pollock's Mural (1943), recently on view at the Getty Museum, should "serve as a benchmark with which to evaluate current work." DiMichele notes: "Surprisingly, one of 2014’s most impressive historical abstract painting exhibitions was […]
John Zurier @ Peter Blum
Eleanor Ray reviews John Zurier: West of the Future at Peter Blum Gallery, New York, on view through April 4 2015. Ray writes that "Zurier’s work has been moving toward a sturdier sense of individuality, complicating his frequent categorization as a monochromatic painter. The works in his current show—the Berkeley-based artist’s fourth at Peter Blum—assert […]
Michael Goldberg: Making His Mark
John Haber reviews Michael Goldberg: Making His Mark at Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York, on view through March 14, 2015. Haber writes: "Interpretations of Abstract Expressionism long divided between the poles of Clement Greenberg and Harold Rosenberg, of grid and gesture. Goldberg makes clear how much they share—and how much they remain relevant for art […]
Formal | Loose | Painting
Nick Nes Knowlton reviews Formal | Loose | Painting, curated by Jennifer Murray, at Ralph Arnold Gallery, Loyola University, Chicago, on view through April 11, 2015. The show features paintings by Michelle Bolinger, Samantha Bittman and Anna Kunz. Knowlton writes that the works on view "are a refreshing contrast to lifeless painting that threatens visual […]
Diebenkorn @ the Royal Academy
Ian McKeever writes about Richard Diebenkorn on the occasion of an exhibition of works by Diebenkorn at the Royal Academy of Arts, London, on view March 14 – June 2, 2015. McKeever writes: "If the early abstract works by Diebenkorn are composed of flowing interlocking forms, then the ‘Ocean Park’ series is distinctly angular and […]
Edith Schloss: Still Life, Myths and Mountains
Thomas Micchelli reviews Edith Schloss: Still Life, Myths and Mountains, A Retrospective, at Sundaram Tagore Gallery, New York, curated by Jason Andrew and organized in collaboration with Norte Maar, on view through March 28, 2015. Micchelli observes: "Schloss’s paintings, which, in their seven-decade span, are as much a part of the 21st century as they […]