Kathryn Murphy considers the motif of the curtain in painting in works by Adriaen van der Spelt, Piero della Francesca, Rembrandt, Vermeer, and Gerhard Richter. Murphy writes: "Leon Battista Alberti, in his De pictura (1435), famously recommended that a painting be conceived as an open window through which its subject – the historia – might
Chris Miller reviews Marguerite Hohenberg & Medard Klein: The Guggenheim Years at Richard Norton Gallery, Chicago, on view through September 13th, 2015. Miller writes: "Marguerite Hohenberg (1883-1972) and Medard Klein (1905-2002) were two Chicago abstract artists who enjoyed national recognition in their heydays but vanished from view soon thereafter. In this show of works on
Sharon Butler previews Susan Jane Walp: Paintings on Paper at Tibor de Nagy, New York, on view from September 10 - October 17, 2015. Butler writes that Walp's "still life paintings on paper conjure both the extraordinary flower paintings that Manet made on his sickbed in 1882, and Morandi's remarkable still lifes. If anything can
Thomas Micchelli reviews Jack Tworkov: Mark and Grid at Alexander Gray Associates, New York, on view through October 24, 2015. Micchelli writes: "One of the many striking works in the exhibition ... is a large abstraction from 1977 called “Knight Series #8 (Q3-77 #2).” Resembling a Synthetic Cubist floor plan, it is in fact an
Corinna Lotz reviews Stockwell Depot 1967-1979 at The Stephen Lawrence Gallery and Project Space and the Heritage Gallery in the University of Greenwich Galleries through September 12, 2015. Lotz also interviews exhibition curator Sam Cornish about the show. In the interview Cornish notes that "the Depot was first set-up in 1967 by sculptors from St
Christopher Volpe writes about the paintings of Wolf Kahn. Volpe notes: "That Kahn’s work is 'pleasing' (he’s likely the most popular colorist in America) belies its unsentimental formalism. In fact, his fields of blazing color are deeply nuanced and almost as a rule moderated by subtle countering complexities applied in complements, neutrals and composite grays.
Altoon Sultan blogs about the paintings of Hilma Af Klint. Sultan writes: "The seeds of this work was in a spiritualist group that she and four women friends formed in the 1890s, called The Five, where they would practice automatic drawing. A spiritualist medium was one profession in which women excelled and were respected. And
Bradley Rubenstein reflects on paintings shows from the past season and looks forward to several upcoming shows including: Albert Oehlen: Home and Garden The New Museum (through Sept 9), Magalie Guérin at Lyles & King (Sept 8–Oct 4), Brenda Goodman: Selected Work 1961–2015 at the College for Creative Studies, Center Galleries, Detroit (Nov 14–Dec 19),
Nicholas Spice reviews a retrospective exhibition of works by painter Agnes Martin, on view at Tate Modern through October 11, 2015. Spice writes: "It is often remarked about our engagement with Martin’s paintings that we are uncertain, when standing in front of them, where they reside. There are said to be three basic viewing positions:
Mario Naves reviews Navigating the West: George Caleb Bingham and the River at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, on view through September 20, 2015. Naves observes that "the centerpiece [of the exhibition] is Fur Traders Descending the Missouri (1845), a staple of the Met’s collection and the exhibition’s sine qua non. Bingham’s masterpiece
Nadja Sayej profiles painter Frank Stella. A retrospective of Stella's work will be on view at the Whitney Museum, New York, from October 30, 2015 - February 7, 2016. Sayej writes: "Even though his work has evolved drastically – from monochromatic to colorful, sculpted to fabricated – Stella cringes at the word 'reinvented'. 'I don’t
Christopher Knight reviews Paintings of Moholy-Nagy: The Shape of Things to Come at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, on view through September 27, 2015. Knight writes that the "exhibition centers on Moholy-Nagy's paintings, a medium he set aside as old-fashioned for a few years but picked up again in the early 1930s. He experimented
David Ebony interviews Michelle White and Bradford A. Epley, co-curators of the recent exhibition Barnett Newman: The Late Work at The Menil Collection, Houston. White comments: "In the late works, compared with the better known earlier paintings—of the 1940s and ‘50s—changes in the way he treated the painted surface are readily apparent. A lot of
Larry Groff interviews painter Jane Culp. Culp comments: "To me, Cezanne made landscape painting into real golem painting. Before that landscapes were usually the background of things. I studied the 17th century Dutch landscape painters for a while along with Cezanne. Dutch paintings are wonderfully dramatic in the light and shadows, the use of the
Hannah Hughes interviews artist Lothar Götz. Götz comments: "The works are all about tension or discrepancy between the reality of the space and an abstract idea. I see the space, and I design this abstract painting in my studio, which then changes again completely because of the reality of the space. The moment it’s painted
Peter Schjeldahl considers James Abbott McNeill Whistler's Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 1 (Portrait of the Artist's Mother), 1871, currently on loan from the Musée d'Orsay in Paris to the Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, MA. Schjeldahl writes: "The painting represents the peak of Whistler’s radical method of modulating tones of single colors. The paint
Miyoshi Barosh considers the work of Jennifer Wynne Reeves, recently on view in the exhibition A Bolt of Soul: Grooved Foreheads and Dog Teeth at CB1 Gallery, Los Angeles. Barosh observes: "In Soul Bolt, Reeves’s immaterial figures present different degrees of psychological anguish and absurdity. The diminutive beings, cobbled together accumulations of painted debris, play
John Mendelsohn reviews Deborah Remington 1963-1983 at Wallspace, New York, on view through August 7, 2015. Mendelsohn writes that Remington's paintings are works in which "purely visual elements feel both tangible and psychologically compelling. She paints hieratic forms that suggest machined devices, architectural diagrams, interiors of the body, shields, and emblems. In their ambiguity, the
Martin Mugar considers the paintings of William Bailey. Mugar writes that Bailey's work is "realist but does not partake of the history of realism from Caravaggio on since it is not grounded in an exploration of the perceptual base of most realism. It therefore does not have the sort of optical impact of something freshly
Allison Meier previews Richard Diebenkorn: The Sketchbooks Revealed at the Cantor Arts Center, Stanford University. The show will be on view from September 9 to February 8, 2016. Meier quotes the Cantor Arts Center's Alison Gass: “The books are filled with stunningly gestural sketches of bits and pieces of daily life, both mundane capturing of