John Yau reviews Anne Harvey: Private Life at Steven Harvey Fine Art Projects, New York, on view through June 11, 2017.

Yau writes: “Harvey’s observational paintings were described by John Ashbery, in 1966, as ‘the probing anguish of an almost Jamesian dissecting eye.’ Ashbery went on to state: “A curious anxiety, tempered by the exhilaration of her novel optics is the result.’ … The subjects include still–lifes, landscapes, and portraits. The ‘novel optics’ Ashbery speaks of is key to every work, whatever the medium. In [Harvey’s] hands, observational painting attained a level of scrutiny and intensity we associate with hallucination… Matter stays matter in her work, while simultaneously becoming something strange.”