Kandinsky Before Abstraction
Margaret Graham reviews the exhibition Kandinsky Before Abstraction: 1901 – 1911 at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, on view through Spring 2015. Graham begins: "The small show of Vasily Kandinsky’s early work… offers an intimate, insightful glance at the more formative years of this celebrated artist’s career. The 16 paintings and woodcut prints […]
Josh Dihle: Interview
Sofia Leiby interviews painter Josh Dihle about his work. Dihle comments that painting is "about the act, the irrational act, that propels the image which makes the painting. And there’s a labor component, not as a display of labor, but labor towards a density." He continues, noting that his "paintings are more about a space […]
Robert Motherwell: East Hampton Years
Sam Cornish interviews exhibition curator Phyllis Tuchman about Robert Motherwell: The East Hampton Years 1944-52 at Guild Hall, East Hampton, on view through October 13, 2014. Tuchman discusses the rich variety subject matter that underlies Motherwell's early work "There are several paintings in the exhibition that specifically relate to the East End landscape. However, had Robert […]
Judy Glantzman on Dawn Clements
Judy Glantzman considers Dawn Clements' Peonies (2014). "Dawn Clements’ giant watercolor on paper, capturing dying peonies, is achingly beautiful. Her touch is light, her eye, and hand in a lock step; the drawing is a placeholder for where the peonies once were. The power is Dawn’s intense scrutiny, the quiet power of an unnamable truth… […]
Gary Wragg: Modernism Without Irony
Ben Wiedel-Kaufmann considers the work of painter Gary Wragg on the occasion of the new book Constant Within Change: Gary Wragg: Five Decades of Painting: A Comprehensive Catalogue by Sam Cornish. "A wide-ranging engagement with the history of art extends throughout Wragg’s career, with Matisse’s framing, the lure of geometry, the tension between gesture, contour […]
William Glackens @ The Parrish Art Museum
Xico Greenwald reviews the exhibition William Glackens at The Parrish Art Museum, on view through October 13, 2014. Greenwald writes: "Later in life, when Glackens was complimented on an early Ashcan canvas, he replied, “It’s mud, life isn’t like that!” But he does not do his early work justice. Though later paintings had brighter colors, […]
Malevich: The Cosmos & the Canvas
Aleksandra Shatskikh considers Kazimir Malevich's fascination with astronomy and its effect on the development of his Suprematist paintings, on the occasion of the exhibition Malevich at Tate Modern, London, on view through October 26, 2014. Shatskikh writes "Kazimir Malevich’s work tells a compelling story about the dream of a new social order, the struggle of […]
Lion & Lamb: Summer Saloon
Andy Parkinson reviews the Summer Saloon Show at Lion and Lamb Gallery, London, on view through August 30, 2014. Parkinson writes about works by Onya McCausland, Simon Callery, Emma Biggs and Matthew Collings, Floyd Varey, Ralph Anderson, David Webb, Tim Renshaw, Julian Wakelin, Rebecca Meanley, Louise Hopkins, Matthew Musgrave, Vincent Hawkins, Jessica Wilson, Erin Lawlor, […]
Marilyn Lerner: Studio Visit
John Yau visits the studio of artist Marilyn Lerner. Marilyn Lerner: Circle in the Square is on view at the Butler Gallery, The Castle, Kilkenny, Ireland, through October 5, 2014, Yau writes: "For Lerner, colors and shapes, particularly the circle, are synonymous with musical notes and vibrations. While she is considered a geometric abstractionist, I […]
Who’s Afraid of the New Abstraction?
Alex Bacon and Jarrett Earnest discuss current trends in abstract painting, and the labels "crapstraction" and "zombie formalism." Bacon comments: "Today an artist can make anything and painting no longer has any particular weight… Many of these artists don’t have a background in painting, and nor do they need to; after all a shallow thing […]
David Novros @ 101 Spring St.
Andrea Kirsh visits David Novros’ mural Untitled (1970) at the Judd Foundation, 101 Spring Street, New York. Kirsh writes: "In the late-afternoon light from the huge windows adjacent to and opposite the mural, the colors were mesmerizing. Novros’ composition of abstract forms and intervals has both a sensuality and deeply personal quality that goes far beyond any […]
Wendy White: Interview
Kelly Robbins interviews painter Wendy White about the work in her show Madrid Me Mata at Arts + Leisure Gallery, New York, on view through September 1, 2014 White comments: "Sports in general has been a theme in my work for several years. Sports gear, the symbols of speed, the static logo, Adidas’s three stripes […]
Terry St. John @ Dolby Chadwick Gallery
Matt Gonzalez reviews the exhibition Terry St. John, New Work at Dolby Chadwick Gallery, San Francisco, on view through August 30, 2014. Matt Gonzalez writes: "One gets the impression that St. John paints the figure as if it is a plein air landscape, where the focus is trying to capture a particular moment in time. […]
Amy Sillman @ Bard College
Jennifer Samet reviews the exhibition Amy Sillman: one lump or two at the Hessel Museum of Art, Bard College, on view through September 21, 2014. Samet writes: "I was surprised to encounter, after seeing [the show], an oeuvre that was entirely about the body, touch, and the awkwardness of human interaction. Sillman works in a […]
John Heliker: Cranberry Island Years
Franklin Einspruch reviews the exhibition John Heliker: Paintings from the Cranberry Island Years at Courthouse Gallery, Ellsworth, Maine, on view through September 14, 2014. Einspruch writes: "Heliker arrived at his figuration having sampled surrealism at its height in the ‘40s and abstraction at its height in the ‘50s, and having befriended a circle of New […]
Pearlstein, de Niro, van Bart
Elizabeth Stevens and David Carbone visit several recent New York painting shows including: Philip Pearlstein at Betty Cuningham, Robert De Niro, Sr. at DC Moore, and Hannah van Bart at Marianne Boesky. Stevens on Pearlstein: " there is a special and subtle pleasure in Pearlstein’s work that people frequently don’t see. It is a lifelong […]
Greg Gong & Jon Pestoni
Nick Knowlton reviews the exhibition Greg Gong, Jon Pestoni at Shane Campbell Gallery, Chicago, on view through August 16, 2014. Knowlton writes: "Against a current climate of glossily reflective paintings with meticulous edges, Gong and Pestoni present a roundabout, rougher route to creating a seductive surface. Though carefully arranged, marks upon former marks invite immersed […]
Karl Bielik on the Terrace Annual
Brian Edmonds interviews painter Karl Bielik about the Terrace Annual, an outdoor exhibition in London. Edmonds writes that: "Over the last seven years 215 different artists have shown over 400 pieces of work in this now transformed, former wasteland. Exposed to the elements the works have shifted, faded, broken, rotted, remained and in some cases, […]
Deborah Oropallo on Marcel Duchamp
Deborah Oropallo reflects on Marcel Duchamp's Network of Stoppages (1914) in the Museum of Modern Art, New York. Oropallo remarks that it "was the first painting I had ever seen that wasn’t based on representation, abstraction or observation. It was the very first conceptual painting I had ever encountered, and it engaged an entirely different […]