Tag Archives: art

Paul Thek, Practitioner of ‘Crude Figuration’

Posted on July 16, 2026 by JMN

Although Thek possessed impressive skills as a draftsman and painter, he was an early practitioner of the crude figuration of “bad painting” (a term coined by Marcia Tucker, the founder of the New Museum). I don’t know how seriously to … Continue reading →

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‘A.I. Imagery Is Hollowing Out the Very Basis of Depiction’

Posted on June 20, 2026 by JMN

The beech tree [German Buche] is a witness, a bystander, a memorial. A collection of them would be a beech forest, or Buchenwald. Today we are cursed… to live in a time of extreme image hyperplasia. Computationally produced pictures (there … Continue reading →

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‘We’re More Than the Sum of Our Camera Rolls’

Posted on June 14, 2026 by JMN

“I simply think that we have not yet got over the Romantic epoch. Romanticism is far from dead. Exactly like fascism.” (Gerhard Richter, 1973) … He began to paint directly from photographs: family album pictures, clippings from newspapers or encyclopedias, … Continue reading →

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My Favorite Wire Sculpture ’Til Further Notice

Posted on April 8, 2026 by JMN

“When functioning as art, an object asks its viewers to ‘look harder, look longer, ask questions, interrogate, try to make something of it.’” Alva Noë, philosopher at the University of California, Berkeley) Duchamp helps us understand that “art” shouldn’t be … Continue reading →

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We See Colors With Our Tongues

Posted on April 5, 2026 by JMN

This is my favorite poster ’til further notice. I see yellow, orange, red, violet, blue, green. What do you see? Jean Widmer was born Hans Ulrich Widmer on March 31, 1929, in Frauenfeld, Switzerland, to Emil Widmer, a master mechanic … Continue reading →

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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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