Mamma Andersson @ David Zwirner
Dan Piepenbring blogs about the exhibition Mamma Andersson: Behind the Curtain at David Zwirner Gallery, New York, on view from January 8 – February 14, 2015. Piepenbring writes that Andersson "paints with a muted palette—she tends to draw from old photographs and films, theater sets, and well-preserved interiors. There’s a look-but-don’t-touch quality to her subjects, […]
Cy Twombly: Treatise on the Veil
Stephen Maine reviews Cy Twombly: Treatise on the Veil at the Morgan Library & Museum, New York, on view through January 25, 2015. Maine writes: "On loan to The Morgan Libraryfrom the Menil Collection … Cy Twombly’s Treatise on the Veil (Second Version) … is immersive, sensuous and pictorial. Roughly ten by 33 feet, it […]
Anoka Faruqee on Bridget Riley
Anoka Faruqee considers Bridget Riley's painting Cataract 3 (1967). Faruquee writes: "For me, this painting endures unlike more facile examples of Op Art, because, like a work of thoughtful science fiction, it uncannily compresses the past, present and future. Throughout her writing, Riley recalls the impact of specific perceptual memories. In this painting, one sees […]
Disconnected: Bishop, Hantai, Marioni
Jeffrey Collins blogs about the exhibition Disconnected: Bishop / Hantai / Marioni at Paul Rodgers 9W, New York, on view through January 10, 2015. Collings writes: "Paul Rodgers 9W is, as you can tell, on the 9th floor, West side. It is a gallery that usually flies under the radar of most gallery hoppers. Which […]
Saira McLaren: Studio Visit
Maria Calandra visits the studio of painter Saira McLaren whose exhibition a day and the night will be on view at Sargent's Daughters, New York from January 8 – February 8, 2015. Calandra notes: "Like much good painting, McLaren's deceptively effortless process convinces the viewer that the cool and composed serenity of the canvas comes […]
Claire Seidl & Kim Uchiyama / Tom Goldenberg
James Panero reviews Claire Seidl and Kim Uchiyama: Plain Sight, Selected Paintings, Prints and Photographs at Fox Gallery (through January 31), Tom Goldenberg: Landscapes at The Graduate Center, The City University of New York (through January 18), and paintings by Tom Goldenberg at George Billis Gallery, New York (through January 24). Panero writes: "Both [Seidl and Uchiyama] […]
Luc Tuymans: Dark Visions & Enlightenment
Jackie Wullschlager profiles painter Luc Tuymans whose show The Shore will be on view at David Zwirner Gallery, London from January 30 – April 2, 2015. Wullschlager writes: "Distrust of the image underpins Tuymans’ entire oeuvre but in these new works he builds that questioning for the first time into rich, painterly brushwork, with a […]
Carl Belz on Jake Berthot
Carl Belz blogs an essay entitled Studio Romance: Jake Berthot's Paintings 1969 - 1988 written for a 1988 exhibition at the Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University. Berthot passed away last week. Belz concludes: "Jake Berthot's paintings spread before us, a landscape of feelings and ideas, of powerful assertions and acknowledged doubts. More felt, more felt, […]
Michael Voss: Beyond the Absolute
Sharon Butler blogs an essay by Carter Ratcliff written for a recent show of paintings by Michael Voss at George Lawson Gallery, San Francisco. Ratcliff begins: "Abstract painting was born from a yearning for absolutes. In 1915 Kazimir Malevich presented his Black Square as absolutely rectilinear, perfectly symmetrical, and precisely right-angled. By 1921 Piet Mondrian […]
Mairead O’hEocha: Interview
Susie Pentelow interviews painter Mairead O'hEocha. O'hEocha comments: "For me intention and realisation are often at variance with each other when making paintings. I like this uncertainty and continual shifting of the space between conception, intention and intuition. What is also interesting is how painting and drawing allow unconscious and imaginary material to emerge from […]
Abstraction, Figuration & Influence
Emyr Williams explores influence and homage in works by Helen Frankenthaler, Kenneth Noland, and Jules Olitski. Williams argues that abstract paintings are less convincing and original when they reference past figurative art. Williams concludes: "I want to believe that abstract painting can be as great as figuration, but this is a battle that must be […]
Jake Berthot (1939-2014)
Elisa Jensen remembers painter Jake Berthot (1939-2014) who passed away on December 30, 2014. Jensen concludes: "With Jake’s passing on December 30 we have lost a wonderful man, and a brilliant artist. But the paintings that he used his freedom to create continue to live among us. As Auden wrote in his elegy for Yeats: […]
Helen O’Leary @ The Irish Art Center
William Eckhardt Kohler reviews Helen O'Leary: The Geometry of Dirt at The Irish Art Center, New York, on view through January 5, 2014. Kohler writes that the show 'is comprised of works that straddle painting and sculpture. Grounded in an ethos of work, sweat and hard fought emotional truth, they convey, at the same time, […]
William Glackens @ The Barnes Foundation
Mario Naves reviews William Glackens at The Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia, on view through February 2, 2015. Naves writes that the exhibition "proves, history should also consider [Glackens] an artist of, if not quite the first rank, then closer than might have been expected. Those inclined to fob off Glackens as the maker of pre-Armory Show […]
Susanna Coffey on Pierre Bonnard
Susanna Coffey considers Pierre Bonnard's The Terrace at Vernonnet (1920-39) in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Coffey notes that "The picture brings us to a summery get together on a golden terrace above a shimmering blue/violet/green/pale yellow landscape. The canvas itself is about the size of a commodious dining table that Bonnard has set up […]
Chris Ofili & Benny Andrews
Mira Schor blogs about a visit to Chris Ofili: Night and Day at The New Museum, New York, (through January 25) and Benny Andrews' painting No More Games (1970) on view at MoMA. Refelecting on Ofili's work Schor writes: "Each floor tells a story and each room is not just a space to stick some […]
Dan Coombs: Interview
Janet McKenzie interviews painter Dan Coombs on the occasion of the recent exhibition Jerwood Encounters: Suspicion (curated by Coombs) at the Jerwood Visual Arts Gallery, London. Coombs comments: "The problem in painting is not one of quality, it is one of realness. Realness is quality, and this applies as much to abstract art as figurative art. Art […]
The Classical, the Observational & the Constructed
Elana Hagler plots examples of contemporary representational painting on an Apollonian/Dionysian continuum. Hagler concludes: "My hope in exploring these categories [Classical, Observational, and Constructed] and the wide range of Apollonian and Dionysian traits contained in each one is to show that choices of painting style, that visual predilections and affinities, directly result from our deeply […]
Contemporary Painting @ MoMA
Peter Schjeldahl reviews The Forever Now: Contemporary Painting in an Atemporal World at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York, on view through April 5, 2015. The show features works by works by Richard Aldrich, Joe Bradley, Kerstin Brätsch, Matt Connors, Michaela Eichwald, Nicole Eisenman, Mark Grotjahn, Charline von Heyl, Rashid Johnson, Julie Mehretu, […]
Philip Taaffe: Interview
Charles Stein interviews painter Philip Taaffe about his work. Taaffe's recent paintings will be on view at Luhring Augustine Bushwick from January 17 – April 26, 2015. Taaffe comments: "I always feel that I’m a medium. My ideal condition is to be outside of the work and to let these transmissions take place on the […]