Abstract Expressionism
Cy Twombly @ the Pompidou
London Review of Books
Alice Spawls reviews works by Cy Twombly at the Centre Pompidou, Paris, on view through April 24, 2017. Spawls notes: “For all that his paintings groan under the weight of writing about them, and their own allusiveness (many feature lines of poetry or have ‘poetic’ titles), Twombly wasn’t an ideas artist. He disagreed with the […]
Gutai & the Unraveling of Linear Modernism
Squarecylinder
John Held, Jr. considers Japanese Gutai and its influences and impact in light of three San Francisco exhibitions: Kazuo Shiraga & Kour Pour: Earthquakes And the Mid Winter Burning Sun at Ever Gold Projects (through March 18), Tsuyoshi Maekawa, Alberto Burri, Lucio Fontana, et al.:Beyond Matter at Gagosian San Franciso (through March 18), and Japanese […]
Abstract Expressionism: The Impact of Display
Saturation Point
Paul Carey Kent reviews and compares two versions of the exhibition Abstract Expressionism, first on view at the at the Royal Academy, London this past fall and currently on view at the Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, Spain (through June 4, 2017). Kent concludes: “In all respects, then, Bilbao was superior to London, and what had seemed […]
De Kooning & Zao Wou-Ki Trace Paths to Abstraction
Hamptons Art Hub
Charles A. Riley II reviews Willem de Kooning | Zao Wou-Ki at Lévy Gorvy Gallery, New York, on view through March 5, 2017. Riley writes that the show “features more than 20 paintings from the two artists’ absolute peak decades, the ’40s through the ’70s … The initial presentation certainly makes the case for one […]
Inventing Downtown
Arteidolia
Ron Morosan reviews Inventing Downtown: Artist-Run Galleries in New York City, 1952–1965 at the Grey Art Gallery, New York University, on view through April 1, 2017. Morosan writes: “As we examine more of the evidence presented in Inventing Downtown we start to see how this exhibition shows the missing link in the development of what […]
Mark Rothko: Dark Palette
ARTnews
Alfred Mac Adam reviews the recent exhibition Mark Rothko: Dark Palette at Pace Gallery, New York Mac Adam observes: “The act of superimposing black on color ironically transforms the surface into a mirror that enables viewers to seek and lose themselves in the work. The paintings invite speculation, and speculation generates dynamic narrative, going “on […]
Ed Clark @ the Tilton Gallery
Hyperallergic
John Yau reviews Ed Clark: Paintings at the Tilton Gallery, New York, on view through February 18, 2017. Yau writes: “Clark’s approach is simple and straightforward, and he has not altered it much over the years. I don’t think he needs to. I think what needs to happen is to bring together in an exhibition […]
Matisse/Diebenkorn in Baltimore
ARTnews
Phyllis Tuchman reviews Matisse/Diebenkorn at the Baltimore Museum of Art, on view through January 29, 2017. Tuchman asserts: “Astonishingly, Diebenkorn’s paintings in Baltimore are never overshadowed, as you might expect, by Matisse’s masterpieces. The American … doesn’t just hold his own: he actually upstages Matisse… Like Matisse, he’s become the type of artist we expect to […]
Pat Steir @ Dominique Lévy
Art Observed
S. Ozer reviews paintings by Pat Steir at Dominique Lévy Gallery, London, on view through January 28, 2017. Ozer writes: “Steir creates these very physical images by pinning an un-stretched canvas on the wall, and while standing on a ladder pushes the paint across the canvas horizontally. The weight of the colors rush down, and […]
Agnes Martin @ the Guggenheim Museum
Too Much Art
Mario Naves reviews the Agnes Martin retrospective at the Guggenheim Museum, New York, on view through January 11, 2017. Naves writes: “After flirting with biomorphism, Martin settled into her signature groove: patterning—typically, grids or horizontal stripes—laid out with underplayed concision. The color palette, from the get-go, is limited. Grays and off-whites predominate, so much so that […]
Norman Lewis: Painting Black and Blue
New City Art
Stephen F. Eisenman reviews Procession: The Art of Norman Lewis at the Chicago Cultural Center, on view through January 8, 2017. Eisenman writes: “[Lewis’] paintings are often blue, and they reference the exhilaration and despair of being black in America. Friend and contemporary of Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning and the rest, he never attained comparable […]
Transcending Despair: Rothko, Herrera, Martin
Tamar Zinn
Tamar Zinn finds comfort from current events in three abstract painting exhibitions: Mark Rothko: Dark Palette at Pace Gallery, New York (through January 7), Carmen Herrera: Lines of Sight at the Whitney Museum (through January 9), and Agnes Martin at the Guggenheim Museum (through January 11). Zinn writes: “It is through the arts, as well […]
Betty Parsons & Abstract Expressionism
Patterns That Connect
Andy Parkinson considers the paintings of Betty Parsons. Parkinson writes: “In her paintings Parsons borrows more from her AbEx contemporaries, but without the all-important scale, Clyfford Still in miniature, almost. Parsons also looks back to earlier European modernist works, those of Paul Klee for example, not only in the modest sized of her canvases but […]
Pat Steir @ Dominique Lévy
Studio International
Matthew Rudman reviews works by Pat Steir at Dominique Lévy Gallery, London, on view through January 28, 2017. Rudman writes: “Simple enough at first glance, these paintings reward close observation: secondary colours emerge in the chaos, cracks reveal layers beneath, near-transparent layers of oil paint glint in the changing light. As Steir told Interview magazine, this […]
The Democracy of Touches: A New Reading of Richard Pousette-Dart
Brooklyn Rail
Phong Bui reflects on two exhibitions: Richard Pousette-Dart: The Centennial at Pace Gallery (closed) and Altered States: The Etchings of Richard Pousette-Dart at Del Deo & Barzune, on view through December 16, 2016. Bui writes: “In confronting such an overwhelmingly tactile yet optical experience, I’ve come to realize the impulse to build up surfaces corresponds […]
Agnes Martin: A Resolutely Solitary Endeavor
Two Coats of Paint
Sharon Butler blogs about the Agnes Martin retrospective at the Guggenheim Museum, New York, on view through January 11, 2017. Butler writes: “Martin’s austere paintings, with neutral palette and delicate line, are beautifully installed in the Guggenheim’s warm white ramp. Unlike other artists, Martin didn’t find her voice until she was well past forty and […]
Painting Joan Mitchell
Beyond Print
Julia Greenstreet writes about the Joan Mitchell’s print collaborations with Kenneth Tyler. Greenstreet writes: “Although Mitchell was a painter above all else (oil on canvas was her preferred medium), she was also an accomplished printmaker and produced a significant graphic oeuvre of prints and artist books… Tyler was struck by Mitchell’s ‘mastery of colour unparalleled […]
6 Painters on Abstract Expressionism
RA Magazine
Frank Bowling, Christopher Le Brun, Mali Morris, Vanessa Jackson, Fiona Rae and Sean Scully each share their thoughts on an Abstract Expressionist painter on the occasion of the exhibition Abstract Expressionism at the Royal Academy, London, on view through January 2, 2017.
Bradley Walker Tomlin: A Retrospective
Brooklyn Rail
Joyce Beckenstein reviews Bradley Walker Tomlin: A Retrospective opening at The Dorsky Museum, New Paltz, on view through December 11, 2016. Beckenstein begins: “Filling in the personal and art historical gaps that have lingered in the forty years since Tomlin’s last full dress show, this exhibition deftly tracks this artist’s idiosyncratic style, one that lives […]
Richard Pousette-Dart: Hiding in Plain Sight
From the Mayor's Doorstep
Piri Halasz reviews Richard Pousette-Dart: The Centennial at Pace Gallery, New York, on view through October 15, 2016. Halasz writes: “this show has a number of paintings that yank the artist out of his stately cubo-surrealist orbit of the 40s and situate him far more certainly in the tempestuous ensuing decade… they situate their creator […]