Painting: Martin Mugar

Laura Owens and the New American Century
Painting: Martin Mugar

Martin Mugar considers recent critical attention to the work of Laura Owens whose mid-career retrospective was recently on view at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. Mugar writes: “The post-modern view implicates that we are always moving away from our origins, yet even in the continual distancing from the origins something of the […]

Lorraine Shemesh & the Impossibility of the Romantic
Painting: Martin Mugar

Martin Mugar considers the paintings of Lorraine Shemesh. Mugar writes: “Whereas [Shemesh’s] earlier painting retained the notion of an observation of swimmers in a recognizable setting, the latest work puts the observer in with the observed. She does not rely on a romantic search for connections between herself and the environment that allows [Edwin] Dickinson […]

Lester Johnson’s Painting
Painting: Martin Mugar

Martin Mugar considers the achievements of painter Lester Johnson. Mugar writes: “Lester Johnson’s work is a profound meditation on our being in the world, with all the ambiguities between self and society. A psychologist and a sociologist can use these terms to describe the structure of both but they can’t tell you how it feels […]