Claude Rutault @ Galerie Perrotin
P. Lemarquis reviews works by Claude Rutault at Galerie Perrotin, New York, on view through January 3, 2015. Lemarquis notes that "Rutault, a painter who does not paint his own pieces, or even take part in overseeing the construction of the pieces, operates as an instigator of ideas and sets of rules that translate into […]
Sonia Delaunay’s Colorful Legacy
Joseph Nechvatal reviews Sonia Delaunay: Les couleurs de l’abstraction at the Musée d’art moderne de la Ville de Paris, on view through February 22, 2015. Nechvatal writes: "In our period of the rampant merging of art and fashion, it is refreshing to revisit where this hybridization more or less began … The show illustrates the […]
Lawrence Ferlinghetti: Interview
John Held, Jr. interviews painter, poet, and publisher Lawrence Ferlinghetti about his life and work. Ferlinghetti recalls: "the Six Gallery was associated with the Beats, not with the painters in the Bay Area Figurative group like Diebenkorn, Elmer Bischoff and David Parks. There was quite a divide there… there was no communication between these two […]
Margaret Atkinson on Louise Fishman
Margaret Atkinson writes the inspiring influence of Louise Fishman. Atikinson remembers that during class "Fishman barely talked. She looked. She looked carefully. She looked at. I don’t know if she knew that I was a) shy and b) demoralized, but I certainly felt respected. Beyond that, over time, I was made to feel that I […]
The Revolution Will Be Painted
In a new piece of appropriative writing, Anne Sherwood Pundyk explores the continual possibilities of painting by combining brief statements from various "artists, writers, art historians, and critics." The following stanza includes quotes sourced from Robert Evrén, Anne Sherwood Pundyk, Roberta Smith, John Elderfield, and Bonnie Clearwater: "Situated near the edge of visibility, / painting […]
Mid-century Abstraction @ the Miami Art Fairs
Joanne Mattera photo blogs mid-century abstract paintings on view at the 2014 Miami Art Fairs. Mattera introduces the post noting: "One of the great things about the fairs, particularly Art Basel Miami Beach, is the amount of mid-century abstract painting that is shown, much of it geometric. (I'm stretching "mid century" to mean an almost […]
Suzanne Joelson: Studio Visit
Sharon Butler visits the studio of painter Suzanne Joelson. Butler notes that: "Although she works abstractly, Joelson is fiercely interested in politics and current events, and the daily agitation prompted by the news informs her work. We had a long conversation about the aesthetic choices artists make, and how those choices can be rooted in […]
Katherine Bradford: Shelf Paintings
Heather Elizabeth Garland reviews the recent exhibition Katherine Bradford: Shelf Paintings at Arts+Leisure, New York. Garland writes that: "Each painting from the beginning of the show to the end is thoroughly felt in three dimensions, offering detail from all views with front and center being the ultimate read. This gives the work a performative feel […]
John Mendelsohn: Interview
D. Dominick Lombardi interviews painter John Mendelsohn on the occasion of his exhibition Drawings, Studies, and Works on Paper at Kook Projects, New York, on view through January 9, 2015. In the show, earlier narrative works are exhibited alongside more recent abstract paintings. About the latter Mendelsohn comments: "For the past fifteen years I have […]
Charline von Heyl @ Crown Point Press
Julia Couzens reviews Charline von Heyl: Ten New Etchings at Crown Point Press, San Francisco, on view through January 2, 2014. Couzens writes that von Heyl "is nothing if not flexible — canceling and subtracting intuitive moves, constructing unstable, open-ended formal juxtapositions into befuddling works that remain in a constant state of flux. We glimpse […]
Cy Twombly @ The Morgan Library
John Yau reviews Cy Twombly: Treatise on the Veil at the Morgan Library & Museum, on view through January 25, 2015. Yau writes: "In Twombly’s case, every scribble and scrawl feels absolutely necessary. This is how the drawings in the exhibition came across, and I could only marvel at them. Through the placement of the […]
Raphael Rubinstein on Stephen Mueller
Raphael Rubinstein considers the paintings of Stephen Mueller. Rubinstein writes: "For all his lifelong commitment to abstraction, Mueller took a great deal from Neo-Expressionism. Many of the pictorial devices as well as a sense of glamorous drama in his 1980s paintings recall elements from Polke, Schnabel, Salle, while some of the brushwork looks borrowed from […]
Kelley Johnson: Interview
Chris Lowrance interviews painter Kelley Johnson. Johnson comments that his new work "came out of questioning what I want or wish painting could be right now, for me. A type of interaction with the two-dimensional surface and it surroundings and a desire to control the space. I think that sometimes it’s easier to talk about […]
Cary Smith & Don Voisine
Joan Waltemath reviews paintings by Cary Smith and Don Voisine at Gregory Lind Gallery, San Francisco, on view through December 20, 2014. Waltemath writes that the show "is heavy on black and white, with notes of color punctuating in concert and alone. Both Smith and Voisine are working out of a tradition of geometric abstraction […]
Stuart Lorimer: Interview
Scott Robinson interviews painter Stuart Lorimer. Lorimer remarks: "I’m looking for a non-linear, more elusive image… There is always that contention between the reference image and creating an original picture. These are old painting problems… Perhaps it’s best not to over-think, and make the painting… The fun thing about painting is that you can do […]
Peter Doig on Sigmar Polke
Mark Godfrey interviews Peter Doig about the work of Sigmar Polke on the occasion of the exhibition Alibis: Sigmar Polke 1963–2010, on view at Tate Modern through February 8, 2015. Doig comments that he felt "connected to Polke because of his use of popular imagery in a kind of witty irreverent way, and that he […]
Alison Hall: Studio Visit
Christopher Joy and Zachary Keeting visit the studio of painter Alison Hall. Hall remarks that while the subject may be veiled in an abstract painting, its feeling gets "embedded into the work. I think the spirit of that can be felt in an abstract way. It's not like you can identify it or name it, […]
Debra Ramsay: Interview
Valerie Brennan interviews artist Debra Ramsay. Ramsay comments: "My starting process arises from a mixture of my environment and a desire to track something within it. My methods are conceptually rigorous and process-oriented. With a faithful allegiance to geometry and its capacity to reveal profound truths, I work to generate or guide form in precise […]
Joanne Greenbaum: Interview
Nadja Sayej interviews painter Joanne Greenbaum on the occasion of her show Dysmorphia at Galerie Crone, Berlin, on view through January 31, 2015. Greenbaum notes that "with this group of paintings, a common denominator was the use of the drawing to dictate the form that the paintings would take in the end. I also wanted […]
Ha Chonghyun @ Blum & Poe
Robert C. Morgan reviews works by Ha Chonghyun at Blum & Poe, New York, on view through December 20, 2014. Morgan writes: "These scribbled, marked, and incised paintings are a challenge to consider the importance of our tactile sensations in discovering fulfillment within the cycles of nature. The force contained within these paintings is a […]