Anna McNay reviews Refiguring the 50s at Ben Uri Gallery, London, on view through February 22, 2015. The show features works by Eva Frankfurther, Joan Eardley, Josef Herman, LS Lowry, and Sheila Fell. McNay writes: "Each [painter] is distinctive in his or her style, but a common interest in society, working people as subject matter
Andrea Kirsh reviews V. S. Gaitonde: Painting as Process, Painting as Life at Guggenheim Museum, New York, on view through February 11, 2015. Kirsh writes that seeing the show is "imperative for anyone wishing to engage with modern, non-Western art of the 1960s–1990s. Beyond that, it offers an intensely rich vision of the possibilities of
Dona Nelson reviews a recent exhibition of paintings by Matthew Craig at Simon Gallery, New Jersey. Nelson writes: "Craig is extremely intentional in regard to all of the physical decisions that go into making his paintings. The 20×22 inch format stubbornly resists any kind of illusionistic reading. The thick stretchers feature a frank bedsheet fold
Christopher Knight reviews Delacroix's Greece on the Ruins of Missolonghi at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), on view through February 15, 2015. Knight writes: "They don't make paintings like 'Greece on the Ruins of Missolonghi' anymore. The slow, ruminative medium of oil paint on canvas has pretty much had it as the
Interview Magazine
Mirabelle Marden interviews her father, painter Brice Marden, about his work and career. Brice Marden comments: "My work has always been involved with nature, no matter how abstract. Sometimes it's more formal and less involved with the real world. But there's always been some sort of involvement with nature... Western art has a certain relationship
Dan Piepenbring blogs about the exhibition Mamma Andersson: Behind the Curtain at David Zwirner Gallery, New York, on view from January 8 - February 14, 2015. Piepenbring writes that Andersson "paints with a muted palette—she tends to draw from old photographs and films, theater sets, and well-preserved interiors. There’s a look-but-don’t-touch quality to her subjects,
Stephen Maine reviews Cy Twombly: Treatise on the Veil at the Morgan Library & Museum, New York, on view through January 25, 2015. Maine writes: "On loan to The Morgan Libraryfrom the Menil Collection ... Cy Twombly’s Treatise on the Veil (Second Version) ... is immersive, sensuous and pictorial. Roughly ten by 33 feet, it
Anoka Faruqee considers Bridget Riley's painting Cataract 3 (1967). Faruquee writes: "For me, this painting endures unlike more facile examples of Op Art, because, like a work of thoughtful science fiction, it uncannily compresses the past, present and future. Throughout her writing, Riley recalls the impact of specific perceptual memories. In this painting, one sees
Jeffrey Collins blogs about the exhibition Disconnected: Bishop / Hantai / Marioni at Paul Rodgers 9W, New York, on view through January 10, 2015. Collings writes: "Paul Rodgers 9W is, as you can tell, on the 9th floor, West side. It is a gallery that usually flies under the radar of most gallery hoppers. Which
Maria Calandra visits the studio of painter Saira McLaren whose exhibition a day and the night will be on view at Sargent's Daughters, New York from January 8 - February 8, 2015. Calandra notes: "Like much good painting, McLaren's deceptively effortless process convinces the viewer that the cool and composed serenity of the canvas comes
James Panero reviews Claire Seidl and Kim Uchiyama: Plain Sight, Selected Paintings, Prints and Photographs at Fox Gallery (through January 31), Tom Goldenberg: Landscapes at The Graduate Center, The City University of New York (through January 18), and paintings by Tom Goldenberg at George Billis Gallery, New York (through January 24). Panero writes: "Both [Seidl
Jackie Wullschlager profiles painter Luc Tuymans whose show The Shore will be on view at David Zwirner Gallery, London from January 30 - April 2, 2015. Wullschlager writes: "Distrust of the image underpins Tuymans’ entire oeuvre but in these new works he builds that questioning for the first time into rich, painterly brushwork, with a
Carl Belz blogs an essay entitled Studio Romance: Jake Berthot's Paintings 1969 - 1988 written for a 1988 exhibition at the Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University. Berthot passed away last week. Belz concludes: "Jake Berthot's paintings spread before us, a landscape of feelings and ideas, of powerful assertions and acknowledged doubts. More felt, more felt,
Sharon Butler blogs an essay by Carter Ratcliff written for a recent show of paintings by Michael Voss at George Lawson Gallery, San Francisco. Ratcliff begins: "Abstract painting was born from a yearning for absolutes. In 1915 Kazimir Malevich presented his Black Square as absolutely rectilinear, perfectly symmetrical, and precisely right-angled. By 1921 Piet Mondrian
Susie Pentelow interviews painter Mairead O'hEocha. O'hEocha comments: "For me intention and realisation are often at variance with each other when making paintings. I like this uncertainty and continual shifting of the space between conception, intention and intuition. What is also interesting is how painting and drawing allow unconscious and imaginary material to emerge from
Emyr Williams explores influence and homage in works by Helen Frankenthaler, Kenneth Noland, and Jules Olitski. Williams argues that abstract paintings are less convincing and original when they reference past figurative art. Williams concludes: "I want to believe that abstract painting can be as great as figuration, but this is a battle that must be
Elisa Jensen remembers painter Jake Berthot (1939-2014) who passed away on December 30, 2014. Jensen concludes: "With Jake’s passing on December 30 we have lost a wonderful man, and a brilliant artist. But the paintings that he used his freedom to create continue to live among us. As Auden wrote in his elegy for Yeats:
William Eckhardt Kohler reviews Helen O'Leary: The Geometry of Dirt at The Irish Art Center, New York, on view through January 5, 2014. Kohler writes that the show 'is comprised of works that straddle painting and sculpture. Grounded in an ethos of work, sweat and hard fought emotional truth, they convey, at the same time,
Mario Naves reviews William Glackens at The Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia, on view through February 2, 2015. Naves writes that the exhibition "proves, history should also consider [Glackens] an artist of, if not quite the first rank, then closer than might have been expected. Those inclined to fob off Glackens as the maker of pre-Armory Show
Susanna Coffey considers Pierre Bonnard's The Terrace at Vernonnet (1920-39) in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Coffey notes that "The picture brings us to a summery get together on a golden terrace above a shimmering blue/violet/green/pale yellow landscape. The canvas itself is about the size of a commodious dining table that Bonnard has set up