Tag: Walter Robinson

Artist's Notebook

Zombie Formalism vs. Paul Brown’s abundant abstraction

Contributed by Becky Brown / Living through a changing zeitgeist is a trip. Now into my forties, I see that conditions, styles and ideas that loomed as colossal in one moment can fade into obscurity in the next. My parents are octogenarians in the art world, and they’ve told me artistic and theoretical trends are always cycling; now I’m seeing it happen. When the essays on “Provisional Painting,” “New Casualism,” and “Zombie Formalism” emerged, I was in the throes and early aftermath of a graduate degree in painting from Hunter College. Like many, I thought they articulated something I was seeing and feeling but hadn’t yet named. I did not imagine that within a few years, abstraction would be on the margins of contemporary painting, with figuration taking center stage. Was this backlash related to those critiques or just part of a natural cycle?

Continue Reading →
Ideas about Painting

How the term “zombie formalism” killed the next generation

Contributed by Sharon Butler / In 2014, a single phrase reshaped the trajectory of contemporary abstract painting. When the late Walter Robinson – painter, critic, and veteran of the Pictures Generation – coined the derogatory term “zombie formalism” in an essay for Artspace, he set off a chain reaction that would stigmatize a generation of young abstract artists and cast a long shadow over abstraction in general. More than a decade later, the story of zombie formalism reads as a pungent example of aesthetic cynicism and jadedness – a case study in how criticism, commerce, and cultural anxiety can converge to distort and ultimately damage an entire movement.

Continue Reading →
Solo Shows

Richard Bosman at Headstone Gallery

Contributed by Bill Arning / Long-time Bosman watchers often recall his work as a firehose of imagery—gunfights and car chases, sinking ships, kidnappings, and robberies pouring out in rapid succession. Fans might therefore be surprised when entering his first solo show at Kingston’s beloved Headstone Gallery, a venue known for its ambitious program of younger artists. In inviting an older master like Bosman, the gallery has delightfully broadened its scope.

Continue Reading →
Remembrance Studio Visit

Walter Robinson’s big question: What do they want?

Contributed by Sharon Butler / Walter Robinson played an important role in the New York art scene for over five decades, and on Sunday, February 9, he passed away at his New York home. A piece in Artnet reported that the cause was liver cancer. Walter loved artists and the art world, and he believed that anyone could have a piece of it. You want to be a writer? Go ahead and write. You want to have a gallery? Open one. You want to be a painter? Paint. He was a hub of that world and never seemed to lose interest in the wild schemes…

Continue Reading →
Studio Visit

Walter Robinson’s big question: What do they want?

Contributed by Sharon Butler / What happened to all the conceptual painters? I’m thinking of artists, like On Kawara, who were more interested in ideas and process than in developing traditional painterly chops, for whom painting was about more than basic human emotion and formalist exploration of color, line, and shape. By the 1990s, many of the painting-thinkers had stopped painting and moved into other disciplines – relational aesthetics, video, digital, and installation projects. For the relatively few who continued to paint, the starting point remained a proposition rather than a vague if compelling exploration of the subconscious. Walter Robinson, though disguised as a figurative painter, is one.

Continue Reading →