At the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, curators Eric Crosby and Bartholomew Ryan have organized “Painter Painter,” an exhibition comprising work by fifteen artists, some of whom are working with painting materials in ways that are often labeled “painting” but may be more firmly rooted in Minimalism and Process Art […]
Museum Exhibitions
Medium unspecificity prevails
For artists like Robert Rauschenberg, Claude Viallat, Elizabeth Murray, Blinky Palermo, Rochelle Feinstein, and Michael Venezia, painting has arguably been about the object more than about the image, and in the past decade or so, a slew of artists working with found materials, furniture, lumber, and more have adopted a […]
Symbolist landscapes in Scotland, including Munch, Gauguin and Ensor
At one point in my painting life, I was drawn obsessively to Symbolist landscape painting, and I’m still rather fond of it. This summer, the National Galleries of Scotland has mounted a show in collaboration with the Van Gogh Museum and the Ateneum Art Museum Finnish National Gallery to organize […]
Happy Birthday, Alex Katz
Contributed by Sharon Butler / I learned via artnet’s Twitter feed that today is Alex Katz birthday, so to celebrate, here are some images from “Alex Katz: Maine/New York,” an exhibition at the Colby Museum of Art that runs through December 30. Curated by Carter Ratcliff, and including work from […]
Sly and witty: Female Surrealists in Los Angeles
Contributed by Sharon Butler / Past surveys of Surrealism have either largely excluded female artists or minimized their contributions, so the exhibition of lady Surrealists at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art that runs through May 6, 2012, is a big deal.
Who is Kay Sage?
Contributed by Sharon Butler / A few years ago I was at the Mattatuck Museum checking out the Connecticut Biennial, and I ran across a haunting painting by Kay Sage in the permanent collection. From the painting’s label I learned that Sage had died in 1963, but I didn’t know […]
Abstract Expressionist New York: Line and legacy
Adolph Gottlieb (American, 1903-1974), “Blast, I,” 1957, oil on canvas, 7′ 6″ x 45 1/8.” The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Philip Johnson Fund � Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY Hans Hofmann (American, born Germany, 1880�1966), “Memoria in Aeternum,” 1962, oil on canvas, 7′ […]
A 2010 Whitney Biennial biopsy
In their opening remarks on Tuesday, the 2010 Whitney Biennial curators Francesco Bonami and Gary Carrion-Murayari confessed that they approached the selection process (gasp) open-mindedly, without a preconceived theme. Fortunately, the exhibition itself faithfully reflects their intent, presenting a resonant sampling of contemporary art practice. That is not to say […]
The Constructivist’s battle against aestheticism
In case you’ve heard the term “constructivism” bandied about in discussions of Shepard Fairey and ObamArt, but aren’t quite sure what it actually means, check out the Tate Modern’s current exhibition, “Aleksandr Rodchenko and Liubov Popova: Defining Constructivism.” In the Telegraph Richard Dorment reports that Rodchenko and Popova thought abstraction […]
Munch: Navigating the messiness of his own present
The Munch exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago, curated by Jay A. Clarke, brings together approximately 150 works, including 75 paintings and 75 works on paper by Munch and his peers. It is organized around the following themes: loneliness and solitude, the street, anxiety, love and sexuality, death and […]