Reviews
Watteau’s Art of War
New York Sun Arts
Xico Greenwald reviews Watteau’s Soldiers: Scenes of Military Life in Eighteenth-Century France at The Frick Collection, New York, on view through October 2, 2016. Greenwald writes: “The paintings gathered here might have been integral to Watteau’s artistic development. Perhaps these early experiments composing figures outdoors sparked the idea for fête galante scenes, with wounded soldiers […]
Paula Modersohn-Becker
Studio International
Anna McNay reviews the recent exhibition of works by Paula Modersohn-Becker at the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris. McNay writes: “[Modersohn-Becker’s] short but highly fertile career – she produced more than 700 paintings in seven years (1900-07), working seven days a week, ‘with a passion that excludes everything else’ – took place at […]
John Santoro @ Richard Gray Gallery
New City Art
Chris Miller reviews John Santoro, Slow Painting at Richard Gray Gallery, Chicago, on view through September 7, 2016. Miller writes that Santoro’s paintings “reflect cosmic rather than psychological forces, even if they have been scaled down to personal size. Each painting is a tempest in a teapot, with the same swirling intensity often found in […]
Seen in New York, September 2015
Paul Corio reviews a selection of exhibitions, including shows of work by Dana Schultz, Gabriele Evertz, Jaqueline Cedar, Nate Ethier, Stephen Maine, Terry Haggerty, and others.
Avital Burg at Slag
Arts in Bushwick
Etty Yaniv reviews Avital Burg: Fancy Seeing You at Slag Gallery, Bushwick, Brooklyn, on view through August 9, 2015. Yaniv observes: "Each of Burg’s portraits evokes a distinct sense of staged theatrical drama, in which both the artist and her animate or inanimate models co-inhabit. She affirms that her models have to be people who […]
Stanley Whitney: Care of the Brush
Whitney’s abstractions remind us of the sumptuousness that surrounds us, then propel us back out into the world to see it for ourselves.
Pat Passlof: Paintings from the 50s
An exhibition of early works by Pat Passlof tells the story of a talented, audacious painter coming of age during a legendary decade of New York painting.
Masterpieces from the Scottish National Gallery @ The Frick
New York Sun Arts
Simon Carr reviews Masterpieces from the Scottish National Gallery at The Frick Collection, New York, on view through February 15, 2014. Carr writes that the show “is a feast… in this small yet broad selection of jewels from Scotland, the standouts are canvases by Antoine Watteau, John Constable, Thomas Gainsborough and John Singer Sargent… For […]
John Walker at Alexandre Gallery
John Walker’s recent paintings, on view at Alexandre Gallery, continue to revitalize abstraction through intense, prolonged immersion in nature.
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.”
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 […]
Milton Resnick at Mana Contemporary
artcritical
Jonathan Goodman reviews the exhibiton Milton Resnick (1917-2004): Paintings and Works on Paper from the Milton Resnick and Pat Passlof Foundation at Mana Contemporary, Jersey City, New Jersey, on view through August 1, 2014. Goodman writes: “Resnick lived his artistic life under the shadow of more famous painters, but that fact should not be allowed to […]
Stephanie Pierce: Sight & Sound
Stephanie Pierce’s paintings evoke a sense of place that extends beyond the visual.
Ying Li: Foreign Terrain
Ying Li’s recent paintings, on view at the College of Staten Island, fuse natural phenomena and the act of painting.
Grand Gestures
Three artists exhibiting side-by-side at the Painting Center are presenting refreshingly straightforward abstractions.
Joan Thorne’s Musical Paintings
Supreme Fiction
James Panero reviews an exhibition of recent paintings by Joan Thorne at Sideshow Gallery, on view through November 10, 2013. Panero writes: “One of abstract painting’s earliest interests was the depiction of sound… Joan Thorne explores this legacy with a finely tuned suite of work.Like the recent sculptures of Frank Stella, which visualized Scarlatti, Thorne’s abstractions have […]
David Rhodes: Schwarzwälde
Rhodes’ paintings embody minimalism’s factuality, employ the techniques of color field painting, and evoke the existentialism of the New York School.
Braque at the Phillips Collection
Braque’s “second career” may, in retrospect, constitute his greater legacy.
Terrific Twosomes
Two recently opened downtown exhibits bring together artists with much in common, as well as contrasts that, when seen together, allow for deeper appreciation of their respective works.