Piri Halasz reviews three current painting exhibitions in New York: Surrealism and the rue Blomet at Eykyn MacLean (through December 13), Roy Lerner, Peter G. Ray: Wizards with Paint at Sideshow Gallery (through December 15), and Jules Olitski On An Intimate Scale… and Friends at Freedman Art (through January 31, 2014).

Writing about the Surrealism show, Halasz notes: "Masson’s automatist drawings and paintings in this show make me feel that the surrealist claim that such images leap spontaneously & unbidden from the artist’s unconscious can only be understood in the more general context of how every artist makes a picture. It was always more of a talking point than a reality—though for many artists, I am sure, a very helpful one."