Tag Archives: art

Incandescent Kandinsky

I’ve lost the article from which I clipped this painting — something about vicissitudes and provenance. No matter, the painting is the thing. It trips and snares me. It’s like a knotty, naughty doodle done with psychedelic syrups from a … Continue reading

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Pictures Matter

Richard Frishman is a photographer based near Seattle. You can follow his work on Instagram. (Photographs and Text by Richard Frishman, “Hidden in Plain Sight: The Ghosts of Segregation,” NYTimes, 11-30-20) (c) 2020 JMN

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Derek Fordjour

“I love learning other ways to have a conversation,” Mr. Fordjour said after the rehearsal, a collaboration with the puppet artist Nick Lehane. “Painting has its utility, but performance is another register.” “… Black funerary tradition is on my mind,” … Continue reading

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From Concept to Chrome

“Detroit Style: Car Design in the Motor City, 1950-2020,” an exhibition at the Detroit Institute of Arts, opens this month and runs through next June. … The D.I.A. exhibition set out to communicate the journey that started with a designer’s … Continue reading

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‘Hinge’ Figures in Art

Mari Carmen Ramírez, curator of Latin American art at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, has focused on collecting its less traveled avenues. “We have bet on artists who were not that well known in the U.S. or who had … Continue reading

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‘I Cut the Sky in Two’

New York-born Jordan Nassar has Palestinian family roots. His show’s title “I Cut the Sky in Two” is from a poem by Etel Adnan, “the distinguished Lebanese-American painter and poet, and a touchstone for Mr. Nassar.” He is best known … Continue reading

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‘Explicit and Mysterious’

I’m a child of ranchers. Because of how misshapen and reactionary mythic cowboy culture is in America, I’m a fool for painting that introduces what Roberta Smith terms the “subversive theme of the gay black cowboy.” And as usual, Ms. … Continue reading

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Michelangelo Pistoletto

This article introduces me to Arte Povera (poor or plain art), a movement whose heyday ended in the 70s, known for it use of humble materials such as rags and newspaper. A major exponent, Michelangelo Pistoletto, has said, “Art is … Continue reading

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‘Uninvited Guests’

Carlos G. Navarro, curator of “Uninvited Guests,” the Prado’s first post-lockdown exhibition, says it’s “partly an act of self-criticism” for the museum’s complicity in neglect of 19th-century female artists. Of 130 works displayed, 60 are by women. One wonders why … Continue reading

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The ‘Tintanic’ Runs on Octopower

I have a fictitious acquaintance with the Chichester locale via Sir Alistair Chichester of Chichesterton-upon-Hogg. There’ll always be a Britain in my fancies. (c) 2020 JMN

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