Sharon Butler blogs about the paintings of Robert Bordo, featured in the exhibition Greater New York at MoMA, PS1, on view through March 7, 2015. Butler writes: Set aside in their own room [at MoMA PS1], hung on white walls and carefully lit, the paintings walk the lines between painting and drawing, and representation and
John Goodrich reviews Ying Li: Paintings at John Davis Gallery, Hudson, New York, on view through November 8, 2015. Goodrich observes that "what’s most remarkable about these paintings is the way they combine this indulgent technique with a respectful eye for traditional composition. Her paintings reflect the visual aspect of real scenes — landscapes in
Martin Gayford reviews Giacometti: Pure Presence at the National Portrait Gallery, London, on view through January 10, 2016. Gayford writes: "Although the works in the exhibition are ostensibly portraits, they have little sense of individual personality, psychology or even appearance. The people seem more like everyman and everywoman, staring out. The subject is more, as
Emyr Williams reviews John Hoyland, Power Stations, Paintings 1964-1982 at Newport Street Gallery, London, on view through April 3, 2016. Williams writes: "Hoyland is a pictorial artist and 'in' the painting is a key phrase too. Although he admired the American abstract painters, he eschewed their more singular approaches, feeling it limiting structurally. Unlike Hoyland
Rob Colvin review the group show Paul Klee at Underdonk on view through November 1, 2015. The show features works by Peter Acheson, Britta Deardorff, Jared Deery, Lori Ellison, Amy Feldman, Glenn Goldberg, Brenda Goodman, J Grabowski, Loie Hollowell, Christopher Joy, Hein Koh, Jonathan Lasker, June Leaf, Dona Nelson, Carl Ostendarp, Kim Sloane, Joyce Robins,
Blog post revisiting Philip Leider's 1978 profile of painter Frank Stella republished on the occasion of a retrospective of Stella's work at the Whitney Museum of Art, on view through Feb. 7, 2016. Leider, whose profile focuses specifically on Stella's work from the 1970s, notes: "Every artist of the better sort, wrote Thomas Mann, 'carries
Scott Noel and David Cohen remember Lennart Anderson (1928 - 2015). Noel writes: "Although the best paintings are summit achievements in their form, Anderson’s work functions as both a destination and a door. Certainly for painters of my generation the discovery of his pictures came as a completely unexpected recognition of visual eloquence and surprise
Gwenaël Kerlidou considers the oeuvre of Martin Barré, comparing and contrasting his work to that of Frank Stella and Jasper Johns. Kerlidou observes that "Stella and Barré both reject illusionism and its implications of space deeper than the surface of the painting. Both also reject the seduction of the expressionist touch, advocating instead a neutral,
Sharon Butler blogs about Marie Thibeault: engineering at George Lawson Gallery, San Francisco, on view through November 14, 2015. Butler writes: "In these new paintings, [Thibeault's] focus has shifted to the uncertainty created by violent environmental upheaval and the individual's vulnerability in the face of powerful forces. The jangled, saturated color, buckling architectural forms, shifting
James Kalm visits an exhibition of works by John Lees at Betty Cuningham Gallery, New York, on view through November 28, 2015. Kalm notes that: "This exhibition ... is a welcome relief from a recent bombardment of 'Zombie Formalism' and 'Flipper Art'. Lees often lingers over these works for decades, providing his quotidian subjects with
Xico Greenwald considers the political history of Morandi's paintings from the 1930s on view at The Center for Italian Modern Art (CIMA), New York, through June 25, 2016. Greenwald writes that "the myth of Morandi is that the artist kept a low profile as Fascism raged around him. Legend has it, the unassuming artist developed
Thomas Micchelli reviews Gregory Gillespie: rorschaching at Steven Harvey Fine Art Projects, New York, on view through November 15, 2015. Micchelli writes: "Dispensing entirely with modernist emotional distancing, Gillespie’s most effective works go well beyond a mere horror of the flesh; in his own private netherworld, any act of intimacy — incarnated in his sensual,
Zachary Keeting and Christopher Joy visit the studio of painter Georgia Elrod. Elrod remarks her interest in examining and presenting an inside-out view of the body, "in a way that hopefully anybody can see and understand... then it becomes a poetic space." The press release for Elrod's 2014 exhibition at Novella Gallery notes that her
Ploughshares
John Skoyles blogs about Milton Resnick: Painter in the Age of Painting, Geoffrey Dorfman's new manuscript about New York School painter Milton Resnick. Skoyles writes: "The narrative contains transcriptions of interviews about the lives of artists of that period. Dorfman’s and Resnick’s sensibilities complement each other perfectly. As Dorfman notes, 'There are two voices running
Blog post revisiting Steven Litt's 2007 profile of painter Dana Schutz republished on the occasion of Schutz's exhibition Fight in an Elevator at Petzel Gallery, New York. The exhibition press release notes that "Schutz’s figures are placed within compressed interiors where they are forced to struggle against the boundaries of their painted environments and up
Joanne Mattera blogs about Jack Tworkov: Mark and Grid at Alexander Gray Associates, New York, on view through October 24, 2015. Mattera writes: "I was most taken with the work from the last two decades of [Tworkov's] life. The title of the show, Mark and Grid, best describes the work on the second floor ...
Diana Copperwhite interviews artist Helen O'Leary. O'Leary remarks: "I’m very aware of the collision between the old and new, destruction and rebuilding are very much a part of my practice. I think of how people construct lives and I construct paintings with awareness of the failures and foibles that are part and parcel of being
Catherine Lampert, author of the recent book Frank Auerbach: Speaking and Painting (Thames & Hudson), writes about her experiences sitting for portraits by Frank Auerbach. The exhibition Frank Auerbach is on view at Tate Britain through March 13, 2016. Lampert writes: "With a portrait his aim is not exactly to convey likeness, more an experience:
Steven Alexander visits the studio of painter Paul Pagk. Alexander notes that "[Pagk] makes his own paint with ground pigments to achieve extraordinarily nuanced color. The entire space and its contents reflect Paul's relentless visual, intellectual and intuitive explorations - probing painting's endless possibilities."
David M. Roth reviews Alex Kanevsky: Unstable Equilibrium at Dolby Chadwick Gallery, San Francisco, on view through 31, 2015. Roth writes that "[Kanevsky] is above all else a sensualist and a formalist. He paints to describe the eternal tug-o-war between the tangible and the ineffable, and, more specifically, to chart how bodies behave at different