Tag Archives: art

Arcadia for Straw

Posted on September 9, 2019 by JMN

One can understand a place by what its people make… Locals [from Orkney] have a special relationship with straw, which they have long used for everything from roofing and bedding to shelving, rainwear and furniture. Perhaps the most famous local … Continue reading →

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Ambiguous Freedom

Posted on September 8, 2019 by JMN

Film maker Gus Van Sant is known for “Drugstore Cowboy,” “My Own Private Idaho,” and “Good Will Hunting.” I didn’t know he also painted. Watercolor on linen is an unfamiliar combination for me. I’m not sure I would look too … Continue reading →

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“Storm With a Silent Mist”

Posted on September 5, 2019 by JMN

Isabel Toledo died last week of breast cancer at the age of fifty-nine. Judith Thurman pays tribute to this “designer’s designer” who described couture as a language which she had learned “as a child does, by immersion.” Self-possession is usually … Continue reading →

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“She’s Got It Down”

Posted on September 5, 2019 by JMN

The work of ninety-three-year-old artist Betye Saar will be shown concurrently this fall at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Her assemblages, illustrated in this article, are charming and compelling. … Continue reading →

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“Reach Out from Within”

Posted on August 31, 2019 by JMN

Karen Rosenberg writes that this exhibition of Helen Frankenthaler’s work at the Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill, NY, “presents Provincetown [Massachusetts] as more of a psychic space, one of negotiation and self-discovery, with new family responsibilities but not too … Continue reading →

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Feminine He Ain’t

Posted on August 28, 2019 by JMN

This article describes Richard Serra as “the best-known living sculptor in America.” His medium is steel, in which he enshrines “abstract forms as maximalist feats of mass and scale.” At the Museum of Modern Art… a room-sized assembly of eight, … Continue reading →

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“Ida, Not Georgia”

Posted on August 18, 2019 by JMN

Roberta Smith writes of an exhibition at the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Massachusetts entitled “Ida O’Keeffe: Escaping Georgia’s Shadow.” I don’t warm immediately to the work of Ida Ten Eyck O’Keefe (1889-1961), but I’m glad it has survived against … Continue reading →

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“A Saved Man”

Posted on August 17, 2019 by JMN

I admire Renoir for the valor with which he carried on his work into old age, arthritic hands and all. I don’t care much for his nudes. Nor am I as fond of Boucher as he was, but I get … Continue reading →

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Feminine Manet

Posted on August 4, 2019 by JMN

My favorite touch on this painting is the mauve-against-yellow bonnet garnish — purple-yellow adjacencies enthuse me. Otherwise, the mannequin with the bee-sting pucker and doe-stupid gaze is both masterful and tiresome. Jason Farago writes about the exhibition “Manet and Modern … Continue reading →

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“Auntie Colours”

Posted on August 4, 2019 by JMN

The influence of fashion and grooming on art (and vice versa?) is of great interest to me. The mention of Sonia Delaunay brings back pleasant memories of being thrilled at a receptive age by her work and that of her … Continue reading →

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