Contributed by Jonathan Stevenson / Making deeper sense of some abstract art past its initial visual impact can require extended consideration. Not so much Chakaia Booker’s sculpture, now on view in her solo show “Public Opinion” at David Nolan Gallery. Composed predominantly of exactingly configured pieces of black rubber tires along with wood and metal, the work immediately grips you like a confident advocate, calm and insistent. In Minimum Wage, a shovel entwined in flowing ribbons of rubber appears to struggle to do what it is supposed to do.
Tag: Louise Nevelson
Louise Nevelson: Working small
At Modern Art Notes, Tyler Green reports that art museums are better positioned to weather a recession than other non-profits. “Food banks need to keep buying food, but art museums typically already have art — and they usually have art that isn’t on view and that could be. At a […]
The New York School at Bowdoin College
Surveying Lower Manhattan�s disparate art world in the 1950s and early 1960s, “New York Cool,” at the Bowdoin College Museum of Art in Brunswick, Maine, features over 80 paintings, sculptures, drawings, and prints culled from the collection of New York University. While the post-war period witnessed tremendous creative ferment in […]
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, isn’t the entire messy process of creation, birth, and childrearing the ultimate unexplored content for conceptually-rooted art practice? “Ever since the Abstract Expressionists held forth […]
Masterpiece theater: Edward Albee’s Occupant
Louise Nevelson was a sculptor rather than a painter, and thus outside TCOP’s usual focus, but I saw Albee’s play last weekend, and I’m sure all artists will appreciate it. Set on a sparsely furnished stage, the play begins with a smarmy interviewer, archly played by Larry Bryggman, explaining to […]