Link posts — Page 2

Picasso’s Transformations

New York Review of Books

With numerous exhibitions and publications marking the fiftieth anniversary of Pablo Picasso’s death in 1973, 2023 has been a year to reconsider the most famous artist of the 20th century. Reviewing a number of these shows and books about the artist, Jed Perl laments that for all this attention and celebration, “Picasso, a titan among

Conversation with Alan Gouk

Instantloveland

Painter Alan Gouk discusses his six decade career as a painter and writer in a lively, wide-ranging conversation with Matt Dennis. In his introduction Dennis notes that while "any serious consideration of [Gouk’s] lifetime’s achievement must ... begin and end with the paintings themselves, there is so much more to be taken into account: his

James Brooks reconsidered

Two Coats of Paint

Laurie Fendrich reviews James Brooks: A Painting is a Real Thing, curated by Dr. Klaus Ottmann on view at The Parrish Art Museum from August 6–October 15, 2023. Fendrich writes: "On the rare occasions I’ve encountered Brooks’s paintings, I’ve paid them scant attention. Like many, I have walked on by, presumptively ranking him well below

Gwen John at Pallant House

London Review of Books

Alice Spawls reviews Gwen John: Art and Life in Paris and London at Pallant House Gallery, Chichester. Spawls observes that: "The pictures themselves are not large or flamboyant, and some are almost austere. But they seem to vibrate. There are suggestions of movement in the cloth, in the stippling of paint (which sometimes looks like

Constable’s Quiet Tumult

New York Review of Books

Christopher Benfey reviews three books about John Constable: John Constable: A Portrait by James Hamilton, Constable’s White Horse by William Kentridge and Aimee Ng, and Late Constable by Anne Lyles, Matthew Hargraves, and others. Benfrey reviews each book while considering the question "What do John Constable’s seductive paintings—those cunningly constructed scenes of English rural life

Ed Clark: The Big Sweep

Brooklyn Rail

Charles Moore reviews Ed Clark: The Big Sweep, on view at Hauser & Wirth, New York from September 7– October 21, 2023. Moore notes that "the exhibition, titled The Big Sweep, —named for the artist’s revolutionary use of the push broom as paintbrush—examines how Clark worked at the frontiers of abstract expressionism, experimenting with materiality

On Hans Hofmann & Nicolas de Staël

The New Criterion

Dana Gordon links the evolution of Hans Hofmann's abstract expressionist paintings of the 1950s to the influence of Nicolas de Staël, whose work was prominent and popular in New York galleries at that time. Gordon asserts: "Both Hofmann and de Staël championed the life of abstract forms, the communicative presence of the material of paint,

JAKE! @ Betty Cuningham Gallery

johnmitchellworld

John Mitchell visits the exhibition JAKE! at Betty Cuningham Gallery, New York, on view through February 23, 2020. More than a standard review, Mitchell chronicles his thoughts about Berthot's paintings and drawings over six extended visits to the show. Mitchell recounts how the show inspired him to dig deeply into Berthot's body of work, carefully

Evan Fugazzi @ Gross McCleaf

Hyperallergic

Stan Mir reviews an exhibition of new paintings by Evan Fugazzi at Gross McCleaf Gallery, Philadelphia, on view through March 30, 2019. Mir observes: "Color has become the driving force of [Fugazzi's] work. His aesthetic commitment calls to mind Stanley Whitney, who has continued to distinguish himself as a 'call and response' painter. As the

Donald Martiny: Interview

Whitehot Magazine

Noah Becker interviews painter Donald Martiny about his work. Discussing the germination of the ideas that inform his current work Martiny recalls: "A turning point occurred one day in the studio a little over a decade ago while I was starting a new painting—a de Kooning kind of gestural study. I had painted a single

Charline von Heyl: Interview

Brooklyn Rail

Raphael Rubinstein interviews painter Charline von Heyl whose exhibition Charline von Heyl: Snake Eyes will be on view at the Hirshhorn Museum, Washington D.C. from November 8, 2018 through January 27, 2019. Von Heyl remarks: "At the root of my painting is the line. As an outline, line defines a shape. In repetition, line creates

Berthe Morisot @ the Barnes Foundation

Hyperallergic

Ilene Dube reviews Berthe Morisot: Woman Impressionist, on view at the Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia through January 14, 2019. Dube notes that "... unlike many Impressionist painters who depicted women as ornamental, a part of the decoration, Morisot set her eye on working women — the cooks, the maids, the nannies and governesses who made it

Peter Plagens: Interview

New City Art

Alan Pocaro talks to painter and critic Peter Plagens whose show, The Age of Innocence: Abstract Paintings by Peter Plagens, was recently on view at the Farmer Family Gallery at The Ohio State University at Lima. Pocaro notes that: "If the project of our lives is to integrate the many conflicting aspects of self into

Rackstraw Downes @ Betty Cunningham

Hyperallergic

John Yau reviews Rackstraw Downes: Paintings and Drawings at Betty Cunningham Gallery, New York, on view through October 14, 2018. Yau writes: "In 'Outdoor Passageway at 15 Rivington,' Downes recognizes infinite time (the sky above), seasonal time (the air conditioning units), and historical time (the dirty walls), as well as time passing (the passageway). Despite

Peri Schwartz: Interview

Painting Perceptions

Larry Groff interviews painter Peri Schwartz on the occasion of her recent exhibition at Gallery NAGA in Boston. Asked about her most recent work, Schwartz comments: "My new work uses the same elements that have been my subject for almost twenty years. The difference is that in the early Studio paintings it looked more like

Abstraction with a Political Conscience

Hyperallergic

Gwenaël Kerlidou examines the career of Olivier Mosset. Kerlidou concudes: "The critique of the art system has often been done from a neo-conceptual standpoint, but rarely from a painting standpoint, since painting has been the standard scapegoat of the conceptual critique. In both cases, however, the objects produced can never be seen simply literally: no

Peter Halley: Interview

Brooklyn Rail

Tom McGlynn interviews painter Peter Halley on the occasion of a new installation of Halley's work at Lever House entitled New York, New York. Halley remarks: "I just don’t think the power of abstraction is going away. Our whole cultural universe is built on abstraction, beginning with the abstraction that is money. But in the

Ninth Street Women

The New Yorker

Claudia Roth Pierpont reviews Mary Gabriel’s new book Ninth Street Women: Lee Krasner, Elaine de Kooning, Grace Hartigan, Joan Mitchell, and Helen Frankenthaler: Five Painters and the Movement That Changed Modern Art (Little, Brown and Company). Roth Pierpont writes: "Mary Gabriel’s timely and ambitious new book, “Ninth Street Women,” provides a multifaceted account of the

David Row @ Loretta Howard

artcritical

Peter Malone reviews David Row: Counter Clockwise at Loretta Howard Gallery, New York, on view through October 20, 2018. Malone writes: "Considering much of current abstract painting’s focus on spontaneity and one-off effects, Row’s tendency to revisit abstract elements embraced by earlier painters—not just Noland but Ellsworth Kelly, Dorothea Rockburne and Al Held, with whom

Ribera, Mantegna & Bellini

AbCrit

Robin Greenwood reflects on work from two London exhibitions: Ribera: Art of Violence at the Dulwich Picture Gallery and Mantegna and Bellini at the National Gallery, London (both on view through January 27, 2019). Greenwood concludes: "I feel both with Mantegna and Ribera a potent link with art now, if we could but unlock that