Category Archives: Commentary
Vivian Browne
In 1965, the artist, educator, and activist Vivian Browne (1929-1993) began a series titled Little Men. Considered her first major body of work, it consists of oil and acrylic paintings of white-collar middle-aged white men… They’re dressed in button-down shirts … Continue reading
Yes, It’s in Focus, I Think
Suh Seung Won, a pioneer of the process-based Korean painting movement known as Dansaekhwa, or monochrome, started out with hard-edge, translucent rhombuses that evoke unreal architectural spaces. In the large-scale recent canvases comprising most of “Suh Seung Won: Simultaneity” at … Continue reading
The Agony of Deaccessioning
This article has useful and graphic information about how and why so many art museums display so little of their collections. At first blush there is ample fodder for irony for persons possessed of the notion that art’s first purpose … Continue reading
Defamation Nation
How Australia Became the Defamation Capital of the World A court ruling in favor of a billionaire businessman against The Sydney Morning Herald illustrates the sorry state of the country’s defamation laws. By Louisa Lim Ms. Lim is a … Continue reading
Titans in Natty Attire
Joni Mitchell describes herself as a “painter derailed by circumstance.” (“Joni Mitchell,” Wikipedia) (Photo from Guy Trebay, “Of David Hockney and Joni Mitchell Holding Hands,” NYTimes, 2-28- 19) (c) 2019 JMN.
The Screaming “Caravaggio”
Eric Turquin, art dealer: “Look at the execution of the lips, the way the chin and eyelids are painted… It belongs to Caravaggio. How could it be by anyone else?” Keith Christiansen, MOMA-NY: [Contains details too crude to be by … Continue reading
How Things Actually Appear
Artists of the Spanish “golden age” in the 17th century seemed to delight in manipulating paint on the canvas to create dazzlingly realistic effects, such as the light shimmering on silk gowns in Velázquez’s “Las Meninas,” or the churning clouds … Continue reading →