Author: Sharon Butler

Museum Exhibitions

Lucian Freud, authentic modernist

Contributed by David Carrier / The National Gallery’s retrospective celebrating the centenary of Lucian Freud’s birth is first exhibition of his work in a museum of historical art. Freud himself was very familiar with The National Gallery. As the catalogue says, he thought of it “as a doctor to whom, as an artist, one turned for help.” With more than 60 paintings on display, we get a full picture of his career.

Gallery shows

An exhilarating gut punch at Shoot the Lobster

Contributed by Jacob Patrick Brooks / I take it as a bad sign when galleries seize an opportunity to “respond” to something. At best, it’s slightly out of touch. The nature of putting on a thoughtful show is that it takes time and effort to pull off. Generally, the result is that it misses the moment. “New Images of Women” at Shoot the Lobster avoids this pitfall. It manages to be both provocative and timely. The work is carefully chosen, the message well-crafted and delivered like a perfectly timed punch in the stomach. 

Uncategorized

Projects: Red Shoes in East Hampton

Contributed by Abby Lloyd and Hadley Vogel / The progenitor of the East Hampton Tow wasn’t on wheels. It was a shed in the backyard of Hadley�s childhood home. She founded East Hampton Shed in 2012 with Nate Hitchcock, and for eight years, mostly during the summer, the shed functioned […]

Gallery shows

Assistants: Connected through circumstance

Contributed by Adam Simon / Lineage is not a concept with a lot of currency these days; too close, perhaps, to its more d�class� kissing cousin, tradition. We look to academia and art history to find precursors for artistic innovators. Typically, the presentation and criticism of art tend to focus […]

Gallery shows

Amna Asghar: Plumbing orientalism

Contributed by Jonathan Stevenson / Amna Asghar�s gently captivating new paintings, on display at Klaus von Nichtssagend Gallery on the Lower East Side, explore a rich variety of experiences and perceptions associated with the geographical movement or cultural displacement. Such a shift could be a matter of orderly emigration, traumatic upheaval, or […]

Film & Television

Art and Film: Argentina�s haunting precedent

Contributed by Jonathan Stevenson / Argentina�s decade-long �dirty war� (1974�83) during which a right-wing military junta �disappeared� about 30,000 left-wing dissidents � that is, executed them without acknowledgement of their deaths � ended over 35 years ago. Yet Argentina�s outstanding contemporary filmmakers continue to revisit the dirty war. In 2009, […]

Gallery shows

Caroline Wells Chandler: Pied Piper of weirdness

Contributed by Jennifer Coates / I met Caroline Wells Chandler when he was an MFA student at Yale, and we immediately connected in a lunatic mind-meld way. Together, our imaginations sparked, and last year we collaborated on �Electric Mayhem,� a two-person exhibition at Crush Curatorial inspired by the band on The Muppet Show. For […]

Gallery shows

Yevgeniya Baras: Impastoed strata

  Contributed by Jason Andrew / Spend anytime out in the rural West, particularly the plains of southwest Texas, and you�ll discover the daunting challenge of repelling dust and dirt. At some point, you just have to accept a little discomfort as a small cost of the region�s wondrous horizons, […]