Christopher Knight reviews the exhibition Abel Baker Gutierrez: Swimming at Luis de Jesus Gallery, Santa Monica, CA on view through August 27, 2011. Knight remarks that Gutierrez's paintings, "all but one on wood panel, have the look and feel of oil sketches. The abbreviation of the paint-handling is beneficial. Rather than laborious finish, which would
Maria Calandra visits the Brooklyn studio of painter EJ Hauser. "EJ utilizes text in her paintings in a variety of different ways. It can be used as a springboard for creating a lusciously surfaced multi-layered abstraction, a way of presenting the viewer with a single word or phrase that begs to be spoken loudly, or
David Balzer reviews Caravaggio and His Followers in Rome on view at the National Gallery of Canada through September 11, 2011. Balzer notes: "What emerges above all in 'Caravaggio and His Followers in Rome' is [the curators'] desire for us to read the artist as revolutionarily authentic, down-to-earth, experiential. In other words, realist. ...placing Caravaggio
16 Miles of String
Andrew Russeth reviews the exhibition Flowers for Summer at Michael Werner Gallery on view through September 10, 2011. The show features paintings by Picasso, Kurt Schwitters, Sigmar Polke, Peter Doig, Eugène Leroy and others. Russeth writes that the "... simple title and self-explanatory premise [belie] the high quality of work on view. That Schwitters, for
Jonathan Jones blogs about Hugo Van der Goes' Trinity Altarpiece, currently on view in the Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh. Jones writes that the Altarpiece is one of Van der Goes' "finest extant works... the paintings reveal a king and queen at prayer, flanked by saints, in a church that is painted in depth - a
Reid Singer reviews the exhibition Jim Dine: The Glyptotek Drawings at the Morgan Library on view through September 4, 2011. Singer writes: "...the exhibition as a whole exceeds the sum of its parts. Approaching the drawings in tight succession in a single, dark-toned room, I had the down-right mah-velous feeling of walking around in the
Shana Beth Mason blogs about the exhibition Sandra Gamarra: At the Same Time (Al Mismo Tiempo) on view at the Bass Museum of Art, Miami Beach through October 16, 2011. Mason writes: "Like Struth's photographs of patrons in the Louvre, the Accademia, and the Vatican, Gamarra takes painted snapshots of passersby in a place comparable
Graham Fuller reviews the documentary film Over Your Cities Grass Will Grow. The film's setting is Kiefer's ruin of a studio in the South of France. Fuller writes that "Kiefer took over the 35 hectares of the industrial wasteland La Ribaute, near Barjac, and turned the atelier into a sprawling Gesamtkunstwerk, or 'total work of
Andrea Kirsh blogs about the exhibition Rembrandt and the Face of Jesus at the Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA) on view through October 30, 2011. The exhibition centers around Rembrandt's refusal to paint Jesus according to convention. Kirsch writes: "around 1648... [Rembrandt] broke with the convention, well-established in Western Europe... of portraying Christ as fair
David Cohen writes about painter Stephen Westfall's work and its influence on his recent curatorial efforts. Cohen notes "At first [Westfall's] compositions strike the viewer as well-behaved structures of pattern with decorative correlates in the applied arts... But his visual wit goes beyond mere reference to recent abstract art history. A key element in his
Caleb De Jong reviews the exhibition Paul Branca: Waitings at Scaramouch Gallery, New York on view through August 12, 2011. De Jong writes: "Branca takes from representation, collage, script and abstraction and orders them into an uneasy polyglot whole.... Branca re-arranges the signage that makes up the normal line of vision for an average city
Mel Gooding remembers abstract painter John Hoyland who died July 31, 2011 at the age of 76. Gooding writes: "For Hoyland, it was necessary for paintings to be self-sufficient machines, constructed to convey a powerful charge of visual, mental and emotional energy without recourse to any historically established figurative imagery. The expressive force of his
Bob Duggan blogs about the exhibition From New York to Corrymore: Robert Henri and Ireland at the Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte, NC on view through August 7, 2011. Duggan writes: "In the summer of 1913, after the landmark Armory Show introduced European modernism to America, Henri needed to reassess his life and art. Achill
Sharon Butler blogs about the exhibition Craig Taylor: Paintings and Drawings at Sue Scott Gallery, New York on view through August 5, 2011. Butler notes that Taylor's "best pieces recall the lush, drippy, heavily-worked abstraction of the 1980s and early 1990s while incorporating the charmingly ham-fisted compositional strategies of contemporary abstraction and the vivid, high-contrast
Betsy Lewis reviews the exhibition Picasso and Braque: The Cubist Experiment, 1910-1912 at the Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, on view through August 21, 2011. Lewis notes: " If there is one realm where Picasso takes command of the experiment and distinguishes himself from his friend, it is the Cubism-ization of persons, specifically but not
Painter Valerie Brennan interviews painter Susan Carr about her work and studio practice. Carr remarks: "My work always begins with one mark and the piece is built up from there... I have to get out of the way! Because the work is built in paint, history is involved and memory. Memory of the last time
Christopher Joy and Zachary Keeting continue their video series with a fascinating visit with painter Nathan Lewis including video of the dilapidated architecture Lewis employs in his powerful figure paintings.
David Pagel reviews the exhibition Jack Youngerman: 150 Small Works on Paper at Margo Leavin Gallery, Los Angeles on view through August 20, 2011. Pagel writes: "Youngerman's handmade abstractions are all about physicality. They invite you to see and savor every micro-millimeter of acrylic, every ghostly trace of graphite, every matte expanse of gouache, every
A must read article: David Levine revisits the scandal and trial surrounding the Mark Rothko estate from a moving, personal perspective. Levine's father, Morton Levine was a close friend of Rothko and an executor of the estate along with painter Theodoros Stamos and accountant Bernard Reis. Levine writes: "Black-and-white photos of cocktail parties; that was
John Seed muses on Sam Francis' painting Basel Mural I in the collection of the Norton Simon Museum. Seed writes "If you haven't seen the Basel Mural, you very likely don't know what Sam Francis was capable of at the height of his powers... I also feel strongly that [the painting] has something to do