Contributed by David Carrier / “Miró and the United States,” now up at The Phillips Collection, offers a useful take on an important, much-discussed issue: the origins of Abstract Expressionism. Joan Miró (1893–1983) taught many Americans how to make a successful abstract painting. Between the First and Second World Wars, when American artists were finding themselves, Miró’s work was a welcome and beneficial influence. The Cubist paintings of Braque and Picasso and Matisse’s works from the early twentieth-century may have been greater. But, like Kandinsky, Miró provided…
Tag: Grace Hartigan
Amy Sherald’s American dreams
Contributed by Margaret McCann /Amy Sherald’s paintings of mostly ordinary and upright African Americans, in “American Sublime” at the Whitney Museum, transcend portraiture, vaulting to socio-political metaphor. Their evocative titles – drawn from Emily Dickinson, Zora Neale Hurston, Toni Morrison, and other cultural figures – suggest an array of personalities or experiences. But the exhibition title, from Elizabeth Alexander’s poem of the same title, unsettles our understanding of what both figures and viewers behold.
Artist’s Notebook: Jim Condron
In addition to his regular practice of solitary drawing, painting, and sculpture, Jim Condron is working on a project that involves an array of other artists, writers, and thinkers. The pieces produced are on display in “Collected Things,” a solo exhibition at Art Cake, through June 17. On the occasion of this charming and poignant show, _Two Coats of Paint_ invited Condron to share some of the artists, objects, and ideas that inform his work. Here’s his list.
Book report: Mary Gabriel’s Ninth Street Women
Contributed by Brece Honeycutt and Anne Lindberg / Mary Gabriel’s Ninth Street Women: Lee Krasner, Elaine de Kooning, Grace Hartigan, Joan Mitchell and Helen Frankenthaler […]
Neo-Maternalism: Contemporary artists’ approach to motherhood
The December/January issue of The Brooklyn Rail is online, so go check out my article about contemporary artists’ approach to motherhood. I mean, come on, […]
Grace Hartigan is dead
In the Baltimore Sun Mary Carole McCauley reports that Grace Hartigan, 86, passed away Saturday after a long illness. “Grace Hartigan was adamant, even imperious […]
85-year-old Grace Hartigan shows new work in Baltimore
“Grace Hartigan: New Painting,” C. Grimaldis Gallery, Baltimore, MD. Through January 5. In the Baltimore City Paper, Kate Noonan reports that Hartigan continues to explore […]

























