Tag Archives: painting

The Forest and the Trees

Posted on September 29, 2020 by

I had a photograph of a forest. A Sherwood of a forest — florescent, bosky, a thing you can’t make up. And I made up a Mickey fantasia of a forest — florid, tumescent, burnt down with color and intricate … Continue reading →

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Rimbaud and Verlaine

Posted on September 28, 2020 by

The seventy-five persons interred in the French Pantheon include Voltaire, Rousseau, Dumas, Hugo and Malraux. None is there for poetry. (Victor Hugo was honored for his political attainments.) There is now a movement afoot to transfer the remains of Arthur … Continue reading →

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Reframing Philip Guston

Posted on September 27, 2020 by

This week, the directors of [the National Gallery of Art in Washington, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Tate Modern in London, and Museum of Fine Arts, Boston] released a joint statement saying that they were “postponing the exhibition until a … Continue reading →

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Late ‘Adamantine Crudeness’

Posted on September 26, 2020 by

Roberta Smith faults Hauser & Wirth for “an exhibition of mostly bland self-portrait drawings showing the artist [Luchita Hurtado] as a simple outline or silhouette… redeemed by too few of her more intense acrylic paintings from the last two years…” … Continue reading →

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Virginia Jaramillo

Posted on September 26, 2020 by

Her art began as an experiment in color blocking, the pairing of contrasting tones, and it got even leaner as she went along. “I just kept simplifying, simplifying,” she said. “I dropped the form and kept the line.” “I’m working … Continue reading →

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‘Manlift’!

Posted on September 8, 2020 by

The locale in which these paintings hang reminds me of the shed I inhabit on a smaller scale. The old grain tower retains “a wood, steel and rubber contraption ascending through a chute in the ceiling” with a sign reading: … Continue reading →

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Friday Morning

Posted on September 4, 2020 by

I’m struggling. My remote interlocutor in life of the mind is keeping me afloat insofar as having a rational dialog with someone. But that dialog is private. Of the muchness on my mind, I’m conflicted as to which of it … Continue reading →

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‘A Difference That Adds Up’

Posted on August 16, 2020 by

In 2019, the Serpentine Sackler Gallery in London hosted the first international retrospective of Ms. Hurtado’s art, “I Live I Die I Will Be Reborn.” Reviewing it in The Guardian, Adrian Searle wrote, “Vitality, tenderness, spookiness, intimacy, gawkiness, sexiness, subtlety, … Continue reading →

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Boredom, Doubt and Isolation in the Arts

Posted on August 6, 2020 by

The Kunsthaus Bregenz in western Austria exhibits “Unprecedented Times,” comprised mostly of works produced by artists as the virus spread and they sheltered in place this year. The only work created pre-pandemic is by the Austrian artist Markus Schinwald, who … Continue reading →

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‘Stretched by an Unholy Desire’

Posted on August 2, 2020 by

“Stretched by an unholy desire to be outrageous.” More than I care to admit, my pleasure in reading art criticism can amount to quivering at a splash of brandished lingo. I also quiver to Kahn’s paintings, which remind me of … Continue reading →

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