Soutine: Art More Like Life
A modest, yet riveting selection of paintings by Soutine at Paul Kasmin Gallery highlighted the artist’s feverish dedication to “sensations-in-paint.”
John Walker @ Alexandre Gallery
John Goodrich reviews John Walker: Recent Paintings at Alexandre Gallery, New York, on view through November 15, 2014. Goodrich writes: "Few painters have expanded the original impulses of Abstract Expressionism in more directions than John Walker… But his biggest departure from 'classic Ab-Ex' may be his reliance on the perceived world. Although moodily abstracted, his […]
Elisa Jensen: Backstory
Elisa Jensen shares the backstory on the work currently on view in her show Street Lines at The Painting Center, New York, through November 23, 2014. Jensen notes: "My painting is rooted in a place—Brooklyn, at the moment—but as a general matter I am not a faithful copyist of the everyday… And speaking of combining the […]
Rachael Wren: Studio Visit
Scott Robinson visits the studio of painter Rachael Wren. Wren comments: "I have always liked the idea that in painting you can make space visible. It’s something that you just move through without thinking about in real life, but in painting, it can be an actual thing. It is a color. It is a feeling. […]
Anselm Kiefer @ the Royal Academy
John-Paul Stonard reviews Anselm Kiefer at the Royal Academy, London, on view through December 14, 2014. Stonard writes: "Kiefer is one of the few living artists who can work convincingly on a truly monumental scale, creating vast works that seem not merely to take up, but to activate the space around them. This is particularly […]
Shara Hughes: Studio Visit
#FFFFFF Walls
Jonathan Chapline and Lorraine Nam visit the studio of painter Shara Hughes. Hughes comments: “The imagery is all based on what is happening in my life, but I never know where it’s going to go when I start. I start very abstractly with some kind of wash background and begin to pull out shapes formally. […]
Abstract Critical: Round-up
A round-up of fifteen articles and features about painting from Abstract Critical.
Milton Resnick: Allegory & Insignia
New City Art
Alan Pocaro reviews Milton Resnick: Allegory & Insignia at Mana Contemporary Chicago, on view through December 26, 2014. “Despite the best efforts of our materialist society to rid the world of anything that can’t be quantified, measured and easily referenced, the belief that signs, symbols and images possess a special kind of power is still […]
Dana Saulnier: Stacks & Traps
Peter Malone reviews Dana Saulnier: Stacks and Traps at First Street Gallery, New York, on view through November 1, 2014. Malone writes that in Saulnier's paintings: "Wrestling forms hover over horizontal planes affecting a dystopian atmosphere of indeterminate scale. Sometimes landscape, sometimes still life — this toying with scale allows him to tie the early […]
The Influence of Matisse
Raphael Rubinstein considers the influence of Henri Matisse – whose work "under the best conditions, gives considerable space to other artists to construct something new" – on a group of American painters in post-war Paris, including: Sam Francis, Shirley Jaffe, Norman Bluhm, Joan Mitchell and Kimber Smith. Rubinstein argues that these painters shared a connection […]
Jean Hélion: Double Rhythm
Martin Mugar blogs about the new book Double Rhythm: Writings About Painting by Jean Hélion, edited by Deborah Rosenthal (Arcade Publishing). Mugar writes that "There is no doubt from Deborah Rosenthal’s introduction … that Helion was a major player in the movement of abstraction and instrumental in introducing European abstraction to an American audience. I […]
Matisse’s Garden of Problems
Joe Fyfe reviews Henri Matisse: The Cut-Outs at MoMA, New York, on view through February 8, 2015. Fyfe writes that "there seems to be a logic to Matisse’s advancement to cut-paper. From his codification of the impersonal brushstroke mark to the introduction of a mediating tool like the scissors, his work comprises a further obliteration of […]
David Hockney’s Charmed Banalities
Altoon Sultan blogs about David Hockney: The Arrival of Spring at Pace Gallery, New York, on view through November 1, 2014. Sultan comments: "David Hockney is something of a magician: he can take mundane, even clichéd subject matter––a road disappearing in the distance, surrounded by trees… and turn it into a vivid and playful image. […]
Pictures of Icarus
Barry Schwabsky looks at three New York shows through the lens of the myth of Icarus: Henri Matisse: The Cut-Outs at MoMA (through Feb 8), Gabriel Orozco at Marian Goodman Gallery (closed), Isabel Nolan: An answer about the sky at Sean Kelly (closed). Schwabsky writes that after seeing the show of Matisse cut-outs in London, that […]
Tomma Abts: Real Spaces & Illusions of Depth
David Rhodes reviews a recent exhibition of works by Tomma Abts at David Zwirner Gallery, New York. Rhodes writes that in Fenke (2014): "Surface as a subject and its contradiction through an irresistible illusionism propels a counterpoint that succeeds in engaging vision, touch and thinking equally. Fenke even has a slice cut in from its edge, […]
Paula Rego: The Last King of Portugal
Michael Prodger reviews the recent exhibition, Paula Rego: The Last King of Portugal and Other Stories at Marlborough Fine Art, London. Prodger writes that "Rego’s pictures… contain real people and an assortment of mannequins – strange creatures made from pillows, stuffed tights and old clothes – as well as plaster saints, plastic Virgins and toy […]
David Humphrey: Interview
Jennifer Samet interviews painter David Humphrey whose exhibition Work and Play at Fredericks & Freiser, New York, on view through November 8, 2014. Humphrey comments: "When I went to New York University, critical theory was being translated and showing up in cinema studies. Identity politics and feminism became part of the language of contemporary art. […]
Cubism: The Lauder Collection
Jill Spalding reviews the exhibition Cubism: The Leonard A. Lauder Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, on view through February 16, 2015. Spalding writes: "These are the two giants here, with Picasso, as ever the taller, though Fernand Léger, who anchors the last room with the stunning Composition (The Typographer), 1918-19, is […]
Enda O’Donoghue: Interview
Valerie Brennan interviews artist, painter Enda O'Donoghue. O'Donoghue remarks: "My process has changed a lot over the years but I think one thing which has remained constant is the almost mathematical nature that runs through it. This is something that has become even more prominent for me in recent years. I studied computer programming for […]
Kyle Staver: Interview
Larry Groff interviews painter Kyle Staver about her work and career. Staver comments: "Composition is the delivery system, there are lots of different aspects of how the painting delivers its message. You need to have the horse firmly in hand or else you can’t do it. Composition helps me contain it and release the message […]