Tyler Green talks to Elizabeth Easton, curator of the exhibition Snapshot: Painters and Photography: Bonnard to Vuillard, on view at the Phillips Collection, Washington D.C. through May 6, 2012. The curatorial statement notes that "none of the artists thought of themselves as photographers. These were private objects, often made for the same reason people use
Mario Naves reviews the exhibition American Vanguards: Graham, Davis, Gorky, de Kooning, and Their Circle, 1927–1942 at the Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase, New York, on view through April 29, 2012. Naves writes that these four artists "were united by an unshakable sense of purpose. 'American Vanguards' is installed with an eye toward underscoring that
Painter's Bread
Michael Rutherford discovers a great trailer for the documentary film Sean Scully: The Bloody Canvas, produced by Yellow Asylum Films for RTE, directed by Alan Gilsenan with photography direction by Richard Kendrick. The film mixes audio interview with footage of Scully working in his studio. As the film begins, Scully remarks: "In my kind of
David Moxon blogs about the exhibition John Cecil Stephenson Pioneer of Abstraction, on view at the Durham Art Gallery through April 29, 2012. Moxon blogs "Stephenson is known in Britain for being a pioneer of abstraction... [his] immediate circle included Ben Nicholson, Barbara Hepworth, Piet Mondrian, Naum Gabo, Henry Moore and the art critic Herbert
Christopher Knight reviews the exhibition Richard Diebenkorn: The Ocean Park Series on view at the Orange County Museum of Art, Newport Beach, California through May 27, 2012. Knight writes: "The narrative in these paintings is a story of their making... One result is an intensified sense of the here and now, a moment that seems
Vince Contarino blogs installation photos from the recent exhibition Abstract Kansas City at the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art in Overland Park, Kansas. The exhibition showcases the museum's collection including a fantastic selection of paintings and painting inspired work by artists with Kansas City roots, including Dan Christensen, Rachel Hayes, Anne Lindberg, Wilbur Niewald, Warren
Nadiah Fellah looks at composer John Cage's printmaking at Crown Point Press. Fellah notes that "Cage both explored and challenged the medium by setting fires on the printing bed, or saturating the paper with water until it nearly disintegrated... Ironically, the extreme to which Cage relied on chance and randomness actually generated a body of
Brian Dupont reflects on Bill Jensen's recent exhibition of new paintings at Cheim & Read, New York. Compared to his contemporaries, Brice Marden and Terry Winters who share a "specific and identifiable interest in their respective thorough procedures," Dupont writes, "Jensen has remained restless and constantly searching within his painting practice, forgoing the comfort of
John Seed reviews the new book David Park: A Painter's Life by Nancy Boas (University of California Press). Seed writes: "A Painter's Life offers countless fascinating insights into Park and his development, including revelations about the artists who he was exposed to and influenced by early on. Who knew, for example, that 19-year-old Park had
Valerie Brennan interviews painter Martin Bromirski about his work and studio process. Bromirski notes that he starts with "Something to disrupt the blank canvas. Most of [the paintings] get taken to the sink and scraped at some point... much or all of the paper/sand/paint on a painting will come off... lots of unexpected things happen.
Melissa Stern reviews the exhibition Modernist Art from India The Body Unbound at the Rubin Museum, New York, on view through April 9, 2012. Stern writes: "As the show progresses, both chronologically and thematically, one sees the powerful influence of western painters like Milton Avery and Ben Shahn. What keeps this show constantly interesting is
Victoria Webb visits the studio of painter Alan Loehle. Webb writes that "Leohle works with emotional content. He tackles the big issues; lust, death, life. Few of his works are outright humorous, but those that are rock with color and conflict; the human condition as seen by an 'other' creator; the artist. His objective to
Mario Naves reviews the exhibition Storytelling in Japanese Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, on view through May 6, 2012. Naves writes that "The advent and subsequent triumph of modernism did much to diminish the role of narrative in the visual arts, insisting, as it did, that the exigencies of craft should take precedence
Steven Alexander writes about the work of painter Gonçalo Ivo for a new monograph on the artist. Alexander notes that Ivo's paintings are "deeply vibrant... with subtle saturated color and chunky oil surfaces – work that is charged with cultural resonances and inclusive in scope... his remarkable Teresopolis studio [is] an expansive magical space, loaded
In a video interview, Christopher Joy and Zachary Keeting talk with Bill Jensen at his recent exhibition of new paintings at Cheim & Read, New York. Speaking about his new multi-panel paintings Jensen remarks that "it's not a shaped canvas, it's internally divided, so at that physical divide, I can be very abrupt with time
Christopher Bedford speaks to five contemporary painters, Tomma Abts, Tauba Auerbach, Matt Connors, Charline von Heyl and Bernd Ribbeck, about the role of abstraction in contemporary painting. Beford writes that "There is a dissonance between the directness of their work and the fuzzier set of interests and objectives – high-minded, metaphysical and historical – that
In a two-part video, Alan Gouk discusses his paintings which were recently on view at Poussin Gallery. Gouk speaks directly in front of his paintings, describing his process. Discussing color he notes that "Matisse said a 'square meter of green is greener than a square centimeter of green' ... color needs surface area to in
Terry Winters talks to Tyler Green about his work on the occasion of his exhibition Cricket Music, Tessellation Figures, & Notebook at Matthew Marks Gallery, on view through April 14, 2012. Green and Winters discuss "The evolution of [Winters'] palette over the years and how he comes to color" as well as the "importance of
Nova Benway reviews the exhibition George Grosz: Way of All Flesh at David Nolan Gallery, New York, on view through March 3, 2012. In the exhibited drawings, Benway writes, "both skill and rectitude are physical characteristics. Resigned pigs are carted to slaughter by equally resigned laborers; the images are as concerned with the drama of
Paul Behnke photoblogs an exhibition of paintings by Martin Bromirski, Rachel LaBine, and Elizabeth Riley at Storefront Bushwick, on view through March 11, 2012. The gallery notes that Bromirski, LaBine, and Riley share a free-wheeling, fractured sense of space, time, and reality, which they investigate in their work by stretching the boundaries of their practice."