Christopher Joy and Zachary Keeting talk with Sangram Majumdar at his recent exhibition of new work at Steven Harvey Fine Art Projects. Majumdar remarks that "Things you think about when you're painting, to me, it's interesting… I'll be painting… and I'm daydreaming about a moment of the painting somewhere else. Some people when they work
John Goodrich reviews the exhibition Deborah Rosenthal: Journeys and Topologies at Bowery Gallery, New York, on view through February 25, 2012. Goodrich writes: "Deborah Rosenthal continues to infuse a highly personal approach with intimations of the mythic. Stylistically, the artist's abstracted paintings have always recalled for me Robert Delaunay in their melodic, organic overlapping of
Chloe Nelkin visits the exhibition Mondrian, Nicholson: In Parallel at The Courtauld Gallery, London, on view through May 20, 2012. Nelkin writes that "The exhibition explores the creative relationship between Piet Mondrian and Ben Nicholson... When Nicholson first visited Mondrian's studio in 1934 he had to rest in a café afterwards to try to take
Nicola Homer reviews the exhibtion Cézanne in Paris at the Musée du Luxembourg, on view through February 26, 2012. Homer writes that "The show takes as its starting point the year in which the 21-year-old Cézanne arrived in the city, after a number of letters from Zola encouraging him to escape the confines of Aix.
Andrea Kirsh reviews the exhibition Van Gogh Up Close at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, on view through May 6, 2012. Kirsch writes that a few of the paintings "rather startlingly, have no discernible focal point. They are the sort of all-over painting we associate with Abstract Expressionism; Pollock avant la lettre... The subjects of
Larry Groff talks with Seattle-based plein-air painter Kurt Solmssen. Solmssen says "The thing about working from life… I tend to like more directional light, especially when I'm outside. The light changes in about three hours, so that kind of gives you a framework, as you know, for doing that. So, setting up the paint and
Kenneth Tyler remembers Helen Frankenthaler's groundbreaking printmaking work at Tyler Graphics. He not only fondly recalls working with Frankenthaler, but also describes in detail the collaborative process involved in creating her large-scale woodcut prints. Tyler describes: "For the Genji and Madame Butterfly woodcuts, she made wonderful painted wood panels that were used as the guide
Caleb De Jong reviews the exhibition Allison Miller at Susan Inglett Gallery, New York, on view through March 3, 2012. De Jong writes: "Slightly rough-hewn surfaces, pinks, fuschias and warm liquin blacks skillfully balances influence and intention into an easy coherence. Partaking of a tradition that stretches back to Diebenkorn's inhalation of Matisse, Allison Miller,
Jonathan Goodman reviews an exhibition of paintings by Lisa Abbott-Canfield and Bettina Blohm at the Amelia A. Wallace Gallery, SUNY College at Old Westbury, on view through March 15, 2012. Goodman writes: "Painting is far from being moribund in New York, despite the elegies of critics and academic writers; its place as the dominant medium
John Yau looks at new work by artist Fabian Marcaccio. Yau writes that Marcaccio's "recurring subject is the repeated and insistent destruction of the human body. Marcaccio has juiced Gerhardt Richter's flatfooted pictoriality into something visceral and strange. He has gone way beyond the photographic blur into a sci-fi realm where deformation is the norm."
Altoon Sultan blogs about the work of Luminist painter John Frederick Kensett whose work is on view in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's new American wing. After viewing the new installation, Sultan writes, "It's as though I saw a completely new painter, one who looked at the world with a sense of its essential nature,
Painter Robert Anderson considers Edward Hopper's Sun on Prospect Street (Gloucester, Mass), 1934, in the collection of the Cincinnati Museum of Art. Anderson writes that "The piece is very familiar yet foreign at the same time... the painting pulls you in and makes you stay with it. In its bold use of economy, it opens
Frank Hobbs finds contemporary relevance in the 18th century Discourses of painter Sir Joshua Reynolds. Hobbs writes that Reynolds' discourses "are rich indeed, and still speak to the concerns of students of painting today, if you have the patience to parse the meat from the embroidery of 18th century rhetoric... My favorite of the Discourses
Ilka Scobie review the exhibition Janet Fish: Recent Paintings at D.C. Moore Gallery, New York, on view through March 17, 2012. Scobie writes: "Combining defined movement with detailed arrangement, Fish's still lives mirror her reality: shelves of glass and pottery, both in the artists Soho and Vermont studios, reflect many years of collecting. She has
An extensive 2009 history of Mark Rothko's life and work in Portland, Oregon by Arcy Douglass; posted here on the occasion of the Mark Rothko Retrospective exhibition on view at the Portland Museum of Art, Oregon through May 17, 2012. Douglass' reasearch examines "the time that Mark Rothko had spent in Portland and what implications,
Celia White reviews the exhibition The Mystery of Appearance: Conversations Between Ten British Post-War Painters at Haunch of Venison, London, on view through February 18, 2012. White notes that "The question of how painting, and representation in general, can make objects, ideas or impressions come into being can hardly be considered specific to these artists'
Gary Stephan discusses his work with Zachary Keeting and Christopher Joy. Stephan comments: "What I want to do is set up a set of parameters that let me to do things and then hopefully get a picture, that at the end, is pretty unexpected… I'll very often go in with a plan. I'll have a
Megan M. Garwood interviews painter Jacob Ouillette about the work in his recent exhibition Brushstroke Paintings at Nancy Margolis Gallery. Ouillette remarks: "Each brushstroke is applied in one single motion, one pass, from left to right with no revisions allowed, or necessary, like the mark of a calligraphers brush. The paintings are created almost as
An essay by Ben Street on Hugh Mendes' Obituary paintings which will be on view at Charlie Smith Gallery, London from February 24 - March 31, 2012. Street writes that "Mendes' paintings are really only portraits at a remove. Strictly speaking, they're portraits treated as still lifes, paintings of photographic images made distant in the
Mario Naves reviews the exhibition Andrew Lenaghan: Recent Paintings at George Adams Gallery, New York, on view through February 18, 2012. Naves writest that "Lenaghan has long been drawn to areas of Brooklyn that, when not mundane, are distinctly unlovely - a graffiti-laden building in Greenpoint, anonymous industrial structures in Williamsburg and the stained and