Tag Archives: art

Of the 40 ‘Best’ Illustrations, 4 Are Good

Posted on December 29, 2025 by JMN

Sadly, many of the New York Times’s “best” Illustrations of 2025 are animated, removing them from consideration. Many others are merely garish, or negligible in diverse ways. Not a good year for illustration, but for the craver of artful graphics … Continue reading →

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‘Earrings for a Giraffe’

Posted on December 24, 2025 by JMN

In 1948, American artist Ruth Asawa (d. 2013, age 87) took classes at Black Mountain College in North Carolina with the dancer Merce Cunningham. Her mentor there was the architect Buckminster Fuller. … Such works were described dismissively by one … Continue reading →

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‘Beginnings Are the Most Difficult’

Posted on December 20, 2025 by JMN

James Grashow uses cardboard as a prime material for creating his sculptures. Continue reading →

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Beauford Delaney: ‘A Yearning for Ornament’

Posted on December 18, 2025 by JMN

It leaves more room to follow what’s actually happening on the paper. … Though he drew them with confidence and care, you can see him yearning to ornament and exalt his subjects rather than just transcribe them. … The pulsing … Continue reading →

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Marlon Mullen Talks With Paint

Posted on December 17, 2025 by JMN

“I think he feels understood through his painting, and that gives him a way to talk to the world.” (The artist’s sister) I feel an uncanny affinity with Marlon Mullen’s ceremony of preparation! A colleague and I have lately ruminated … Continue reading →

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Mel Leipzig, the ‘Chekhov of Trenton’

Posted on December 5, 2025 by JMN

The acrylic canvases of Mel Leipzig, a painter christened by Peter Schjeldahl as the “Chekhov of Trenton,” reach me as analogs to the loudest arena-rock virtuoso guitar hero solos you can think of. They are an ostentation of look-what-I-can-do. They … Continue reading →

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Rooms That Photograph Like Paintings

Posted on October 31, 2025 by JMN

“I’m going to hesitate and say it’s settled into what it’s meant to be.” (Martyn Thompson) I was taken with the handmade rooms in Martyn Thompson’s Sydney, Australia home. They’re atmospherically profiled in the photographs. Each shot has a painterly … Continue reading →

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He Wants to Get Run Over by a Song

Posted on October 21, 2025 by JMN

“We keep moving. We keep putting one foot in front of the other and wanting to be here. It takes a lot for somebody to decide they don’t want to be here… The world’s kind of painful — but God, … Continue reading →

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‘What Is an Image?’

Posted on October 19, 2025 by JMN

The only constants in his oeuvre, which takes in every traditional genre… are change, relentless curiosity and, perhaps most of all, an insistent question: What is an image? (Emily LaBarge) [Gerhard Richter’s] painting “Tisch” (1962), has the daunting catalog position … Continue reading →

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Eric Fischl and Other Eye Catchers

Posted on October 16, 2025 by JMN

[Eric Fischl] “Eric Fischl: Stories Told”Featured here are about 40 large-scale works by the figurative painter Eric Fischl, created from the late 1970s to today. The artist largely had to teach himself traditional painting styles, studying early modern artists like … Continue reading →

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