Kelly Grovier reviews Agnes Martin at Tate Modern, on view through October 11, 2015. Grovier writes: "Ghosting among these diaphanous canvases, room by room, one’s eyes are slowly heightened to the uplifting paradox that undergirds Martin’s artistic conviction: apprehension of life’s beauty and its intensities does not require a retinal mimicry of physical forms in
D. Creahan reviews Joan Miró: Oiseaux dans L’Espace at Nahmad Contemporary, New York, on view through July 18, 2015. Crehan writes: "Taking the artist’s 1947 visit to the United States as its starting point, the show reflects both Miró’s irrepressible energy and the return of his own stylistic innovations in the work of his American
William Poundstone blogs about Andrea del Sarto: The Renaissance Workshop in Action at the Getty Museum, Los Angeles, on view through September 13, 2015. Poundstone writes that the show "presents about a quarter of Andrea’s known 180 drawings... The Getty show isn’t a painting exhibition per se, but its four paintings must be the most
Cate McQuaid writes an obituary for Boston Expressionist painter David Aronson (1923–2015). McQuaid notes that: "Mr. Aronson’s achingly poetic, often mystical work is in the collections of numerous museums around the world ... He created the visual arts program at Boston University, where he taught from 1955 until 1989, and he established the Boston University
Rob Sharp reviews a new, permanent installation of works by Sean Scully at the monastery of Santa Cecília, Montserrat, Spain Sharp observes that "22 of [Scully's] artworks, including six abstract canvases with his signature bands and blocks of color, energize a space that is more than 1,000 years old... As well as advising the restoration
Joanne Mattera blogs about Washington Color Painters Reconsidered at Loretta Howard Gallery, New York, on view through August 1, 2015. Mattera notes that: "Taking advantage of the newly available acrylic paints at that time, [the Washington Color artists] created geometric compositions, often applying the pigmented polymer directly into unprimed canvas. Their coolly measured work was
John Yau reviews works by Stanley Whitney at Karma Gallery, New York, on view through July 26, 2015. Yau writes: "Drawing and mark making are what all of the artist’s works, whatever their size, share... Working within the self-imposed restraint of a loosely defined structure, Whitney draws different colored lines within a rounded abstract shape.
Harriet Thorpe reviews Cy Twombly: Fifty Years of Works on Paper at the Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, on view through August 30, 2015. Thorpe writes: "The works in the final room are a combination of styles accumulated throughout the exhibition; drawing, collage and painting on paper. We see the emergence of Twombly’s celebrated
Tim Doud writes about Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec's painting At the Moulin Rouge 1892 - 1895 in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago. Doud writes: "My initial interests in At the Moulin Rouge were the large figure with an under-lit greenish face in the lower right hand corner of the painting and the dynamic
Alan Pocaro reviews Abstraction: A Visual Language at Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Chicago, on view through July 31, 2015. The show features works by Samantha Bittman, Kika Karadi, Linnéa Spransy, Raychael Stine, Jackie Saccoccio, Nancy Haynes, Magalie Guérin Pocaro notes: "Aside from the obvious aesthetic concerns of making objects of lasting beauty, the central problem of
Ridley Howard interviews painter Greg Bogin whose show Sunny Disposition is on view at Marlborough Chelsea, New York through July 31, 2015. Bogin comments: "I have a long-standing interest in logos and signage and their ability to communicate a wide range of information in a compact image. By coopting parts of that language I am
Megan Abrahams reviews Julie Heffernan's recent exhibition Pre-Occupations at Mark Moore Gallery, Culver City. Abrahams begins: "Dramatic, intense, surreal and rich with metaphor, Julie Heffernan’s recent series of large figurative tableaux transport us to an apparently post-apocalyptic place and time conceived from the artist’s imagination. In her elegantly realized, often disturbing vision, the earth’s environment
Jennifer Samet interviews painter Henry Taylor about his life and work. In her introduction Samet notest that Taylor's "paintings bear that emotional porosity. His painting world is his personal world, and our shared cultural world. He makes solo and group portraits of his brothers, his lovers and friends, and people truly living on the edge,
Larry Groff interviews painter Andrew Wykes. Wykes comments: "I find looking and returning to the same subject over numerous sessions rewarding. I tend to go deep into a subject—not wide... Observation is vital. I have always got great enjoyment from seeing. I feel privileged that I have this gift to see. I also think it
Kelly Reaves reviews Claire Sherman: Funeral Mountain at Kavi Gupta Gallery, Chicago, on view through August 1, 2015. Reaves writes that the show "blends Romantic-era geological drama with mid-century action painting, modernizing it by default in the process... Half-inch-deep paint strokes are sliced with thin, tumbling lines, physically mimicking shattered boulders and scraped sand. They
Sharon Butler interviews painters Judith Dolnick & Lucy Mink about their thoughts on color. Dolnick's and Mink's paintings are on view at OUTLET, Bushwick, Brooklyn through June 28, 2015. Dolnick comments: "My choice of color is all very intuitive. One color calls for another. Encourages another. Mix as I go. You know, as I move
John Yau reviews Peter Reginato: Fiction at Adelson Galleries, Boston, on view through August 21, 2015. Yau writes: "There is an infectious exuberance to the paintings — a feeling that they are trying to break out of their rectangles, as well as jump out of their skin — which doesn’t feel forced. In four of
Steven Alexander blogs about Alison Hall: East of Blue at Steven Harvey Fine Art Projects, New York, on view through July 31, 2015. Alexander observes that show "reveals Hall's deep connection to the history of painting -- the materials, processes, systems, and iconography, as well as the ritualized labor of traditional practice. While it might
Anne Sassoon reconsiders the work of painter Clyfford Still. Sassoon writes: "Like the best painting from cave art onwards, Still’s work is as alive and raw as if made today. His characteristic lightning shapes are a bit like the flashes that follow on the heels of Superman. They direct the eye, they activate the composition;
Ridley Howard interviews painter Benjamin Butler whose exhibition Another Tree, Another Forest was recently on view at Galerie Martin Janda, Vienna. Butler comments: "I used to be very interested in combining dissimilar art historical reference points, into singular paintings. It was definitely important for me to use a simple/modern subject matter, the landscape, as a