As part of a series on recent acquisitions at LACMA, Virginia Fields blogs about Mexican panel painting from the Oaxaca/Guerrero region. About the LACMA panel Fields writes: "Its palette of strong primary colors and the prominent use of step-fret imagery throughout its composition... identify it as an extraordinary example of the artistic tradition referred to
David Moxon posts about British painter David Whitaker (1938-2007). A retrospective of Whitaker's work is on view at the Grudy Art Gallery, Blackpool through May 14, 2011. Moxon writes that Whitaker was "a contemporary of Bridget Riley" and remained "devoted to geometric abstraction... until his premature death in 2007."
Painter Philip Koch blogs his thoughts on Vuillard's paintings of interiors: "Landscape painting might at first glance seem unrelated to Vuillard's interiors, but actually they're close cousins. Vuillard created what might be called "interior jungles" ... Anyone who's looked at the overwhelming complexity of a forest interior like those painted by a Barbizon School artist
[VIDEO] Painter Jeffrey Collins posts a video of Pierre Soulages painting in his studio. Soulages silently works on one of his signtaure black paintings in the first half of the video. The second half is an interview with Soulages in French.
Beginning with her personal connection to Provincetown painting, Nancy Natale blogs a brief history of painting in Provincetown including the profiles of Charles Webster Hawthorne, Hans Hofmann, Henry Hensche, three "teachers who influenced generations of artists in and outside of Provincetown." Natale also discusses the divisions created by the teachers' "conflicting theories of painting." The
Christopher S. Johnson discovers the paintings of Charlotta Westergren, an artist whose work engages with "Christian themes and imagery that defined the Western tradition for centuries." It's easy to forget that the freedom of limitations the materials and means of painting provide once also included prescribed subject matter, it was up to each artist to
Coining the term "anti-immediate," Mario Naves' latest post finds the internal logic and "elusive sense of, not so much time away, as time passing" in the work of Helen Miranda Wilson to be a meaningful antidote to search engine driven culture. Wilson's work is on view in the exhibition 70 Years of Abstract Painting -
Sharon Butler visits Elisabeth Condon's lively exhibition Climb the Black Mountain at Lesley Heller Workspace. The exhibition, Butler writes, "reveals a painter in the prime of her painting life. Condon's colorful, trippy paintings exude the confidence and energy of a seasoned artist who knows how to unfurl an image with both abandon and control."
Kyle Chayka highlights an interesting documentary film on the painter Francis Bacon in which Bacon "talks through one of his most iconic works [Painting, 1946] and explains how he makes paintings. The documentary features a series of conversations between Bacon and interviewer Melvyn Bragg." Bacon also speaks about Ingres and there is an interlude that
As part of a series Artist vs. Studio, Erin Langner looks at the work of Seattle-based painter Margie Livingston. Livingston's current works, Paint Objects, are simultaneously painting and sculpture. Langer writes: "Livingston’s studio mirrors the direction of her practice through the presence of drills, saws and other power tools throughout the otherwise traditional painter’s studio."
Alli Sharma interviews artist Phoebe Unwin. Unwin speaks about her working process: "I don’t know what any of the paintings will look like when they’re finished, that’s part of it. I like that working process of being surprised by how something might look but that also means that it’s important to be comfortable with failure
John Seed profiles painter Anne Harris. He writes that Harris paints "women who transfix their viewers with projections of uncomfortable and uncanny emotional states. Each of her paintings is a paradox, a challenge, a chimera, and to some degree a self-portrait." The post is illustrated with a selection of Harris' paintings including a work in
Greg Lindquist visits the exhibition Philip Guston: Roma at the Phillips Collection through May 15, 2011. Lindquist writes: "We see Guston developing his visual vocabulary and palette... [and] distilling lessons in overlapping form and space... What is most fascinating about this body of work is how worlds of antiquity and the contemporary meld through Guston’s
Liz Hager writes about the work of Charlotte Salomon whose work is on view in the exhibition Life? or Theatre? at the the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco through July 31, 2011. Completed while evading the Nazis in southern France, Charlotte Salomon's "fictionalized autobiography, Life? or Theater?... 769 of gouache paintings with text and
Paul Doran's post about painter Forrest Bess includes a link to Michael Brenson's article Forrest Bess: Desire Ruled His Vision as well as a link to the Forrest Bess website, a great resource on the artist that includes paintings, letters, articles, and more.
Bruce Boucher writes an in depth review of the exhibition Lorenzo Lotto on view at the Scuderie del Quirinale, Rome through June 12, 2011. Boucher introduces Lotto as "an outlier in Italian Renaissance art, a portrait painter capable of capturing the soul on canvas, a man whose religious art struck a note of sincerity in
Interview with painter Farrell Brickhouse about his current work and studio practice: "...things emerge each time I work that surprise me. Sometimes the whole process collapses, what was a presence in a previous painting now is just a cartoon of its self, it’s frightening but part of the making of things. "
Christopher Knight reviews Daniel Brice Paintings at Western Projects, Los Angeles through April 30, 2011. Knight writes: "Abstract painting never looked more beat up, knocked down, abraded and used... and turns out lovelier for its tenacity... [his] work reminds us of the coincidence between that unfounded assertion of mortality and the slow, steady emergence of
Sharon Butler visits Rochelle Feinstein's exhibition, The Estate of Rochelle F. on view at On Stellar Rays through May 1, 2011. In addition to images from of Feinstein's work, Butler excerpts two recent interviews with artist. Feinstein says: "The Estate relies on the depletion of those things already available, including older paintings. Two rules emerged
Painter Steven Alexander visits Lynn Woods Turner's exhibition at Danese Gallery on view through April 16, 2011. He writes: "This is a surprising show of insistently quiet small objects -- exquisitely simple and sensuous paintings on linen that explore elemental geometric configurations"