Debu Barve interviews painter Andrea Belag about her work and process. Belag remarks: "My paintings have also been described as a performance, albeit, a very private performance. Most of the paintings are completed in one working session and they are painted in one layer wet into wet paint. Therefore, I need to concentrate fully. It
Carol Kino profiles Andrew Masullo whose paintings are on view at the Whitney Biennial through May 27, 2012. Kino notes that Masullo is "One of only a few living painters in the performance-heavy display, Mr. Masullo has been acknowledged by many as a star of the show."
Caleb De Jong reviews the exhibition Avigdor Arikha: Works From the Estate at Marlborough Gallery New York, on view through April 21, 2012. De Jong writes: "Usually intimately small, a few inches up and down, or medium sized, a few feet either way, Arikha's pictures are curtailed and often blank. Corners of desks, the spines
Altoon Sultan blogs about the paintings of Vilhelm Hammershøi. Sultan writes: "The close harmony of grays and blacks, the stillness, the soft light, the simple compositions lend to Hammershøi's paintings a sense that we are seeing what is essential in his world and thus in ours."
In the second part of his essay Without Elaboration, John Yau traces the history of Forrest Bess' rise from obscurity to recognition. Yau describes Forrest Bess' influence on subsequent generations of painters noting: "Amidst all the hoopla about the return to painting, specifically figuration (and the overheated frenzy about Neo-Expressionism), Bess offered an alternative, particularly
Charlie Finch bemoans the emphasis on performance art in the 2012 Whitney Biennial. His excoriating critique concludes: "Painting and sculpture exist for a reason, folks: to inspire contemplation of the fixed and unchangeable across the fluxing ages, to comfort us and give us the illusion of depth and meaning in life."
Video interview with painter Peter Sharp about his work and process, posted on the occasion of the exhibition Peter Sharp: Will To Form at the Hazelhurst Regional Gallery, Sydney, Australia. Sharp says: "The work will end up as an abstraction of something, but everything comes from the drawing... The work that I make has to
Sharon Butler posts a new video on the painter Jules Olitski produced on the occasion of the exhibtion Revelation: Major Paintings by Jules Olitski, at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Texas, on view through May 6, 2012. In the film Olitski dicusses the "meaning" of abstracion and his work, noting: "Decisions are being made
Joanne Mattera photo blogs a range of paintings on view at the Armory Week art fairs. She writes that the paintings on view encompassed "a range of esthetic and material expression. Here it includes the mineral pigments of Suzan Frecon, to the egg tempera and gold leaf of Mary Obering, to the puddled paint of
EJ Hauser blogs images from the exhibition Tamara Gonzales: Unititled at Norte Maar, Bushwick, on view through April 29, 2012, as well as photos from a visit to Gonzales' studio. The gallery notes that Gonzales' new paintings "spring to the optical extreme through her unique process of spray painting through found lace tablecloths, doilies, and
Tyler Green interviews Craig Harbison, author of the recently revised monograph Jan Van Eyck: The Play of Realism. Green notes that the book is "a too-rare example of a top art historian willing to allow his sense of wonder at his subject’s work to infuse every page." Green also interviews Ron Spronk, coordinator for the
D Richmond reflects on the film Gerhard Richter Painting now showing at Film Forum in New York through March 27, 2012. Richmond writes: "The major thing I walked away from with a new appreciation was how [Richter] thinks about his making and the process. It many of these he starts out using old motifs or
Paul Behnke visits the studio of painter Ravenna Taylor whose recent work is the subject of an online exhibition Re-Visions at Galerie Cerulean. Of her process Taylor writes: "Visual sensation stirs my attention to perception and thought; as emotion and thought impact senses and perceptions, my curiosity engages. My imagery derives from such observations, the
Bernhard Gaul profiles Austrian painter Max Weiler (1910 -2001). Gaul recalls that visiting an a 1980's exhibition of Weiler's work and hearing him talk "was the first time painting was revealed to me as an attitude, and as a physical experience." Recalling a visit to an 2004 exhibition of Weiler's large scale paintings, Gaul writes:
The February Review Panel held at the National Academy Museum and School of Fine Arts, New York focused on painting. Faye Hirsch, Franklin Einspruch, Christina Kee, and David Cohen discuss recent exhibitions by four painters: Mary Corse, Ridley Howard, Glenn Goldberg, and Joyce Pensato. Cohen notes that the panel "gathered four painters on this occasion
Eric Sutphin blogs about the work of Kadar Brock and Matt Jones on view in the exhibition Evil Dead 2 at Horton Gallery, Berlin through March 30, 2012. Sutphin writes that "Brock cannibalizes old endeavors (his canvases) and sands away layers leaving disjointed fragmentary bits of the paintings former self, revealing a kind of hollowed
James Kalm visits the exhibition Eve Aschheim: New Work at Lori Bookstein Fine Art, on view through March 24, 2012. Kalm notes that Ashheim's new work "investigates a richer palette of intensities and tints, and emboldens her compositions with blocks of solid color. Expanding her style from a near minimal approach, Aschheim seems to enjoy
Sam Rose considers the work of Mary Heilmann, now on view at Hauser & Wirth, London, in relation to the recent exhibition The Indiscipline of Painting: International Abstraction from the 1960s to Now at Mead Gallery Warwick Arts Centre. Rose writes: "Can one be playful and 'indisciplined' in a way disciplined enough to justify the
Joy Garnett interviews Amy Wilson about her work on the occasion of the exhibition Amy Wilson: We Dream of Starfish and Geodesic Domes on view at BravinLee Programs, New York through March 24, 2012. Wilson remarks "As far as what kind of art inspires me - I've always been really drawn to Conceptual art and
Emil Robinson considers paintings by David Miretsky on view in the exhibition Uniquely Ukraine at Phyllis Weston Gallery, Cincinnati, Ohio through March 31, 2012. Robinson writes: "Miretsky seems to be saying that the artist must exist in, and be removed from the world at the same time. The distant introspective men in Miretsky's paintings are