Tag Archives: painting

What He Simply Tries to Do

Posted on September 22, 2022 by JMN

“In his view, painting and drawing are exactly the same difficulty and take roughly as long as each other.” (William Feaver, art critic and one of Auerbach’s regular sitters) Asked whether he has learned something new about his face, [Auerbach] … Continue reading →

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Robert Colescott: ‘Oh Wow… Oh [Expletive]!’

Posted on July 12, 2022 by JMN

My weakness for parody has emerged at easel in attempts to paint pictures that convey a profound disquiet over gun culture. I read (present tense) the paintings of Robert Colescott (1925 – 2009) with profound amazement, and Roberta Smith’s comments, … Continue reading →

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‘It’s This Old, Fatal Love for the Landscape’

Posted on June 25, 2022 by JMN

The quotation in my title is from nature writer Robert Macfarlane. His book The Old Ways featured British war artist Eric Ravilious, killed in a plane crash in 1942. In the book, Macfarlane “points to the way the artist would … Continue reading →

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Women Irritated the Painter. Oh Dear

Posted on June 2, 2022 by JMN

John Elderfield, who curated the last big de Kooning survey for the Museum of Modern Art, said that originally the Woman series upset different people in different ways… Some were dismayed by the vulgar treatment of the female form… Elderfield’s … Continue reading →

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They Put the ‘Art’ in Partnering

Posted on May 15, 2022 by JMN

Sally Michel (1902-2003) was 17 years his junior when she married Milton Avery (1885-1965) in 1926. A painter herself, she provided income as a freelance illustrator for 30 years while he painted full time. He never had a studio, and … Continue reading →

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In Praise of Walls

Posted on May 8, 2022 by JMN

I’ve admired artist Outside Authority’s (www.outsideauthor.wordpress.com) lyrical renderings of UK churches and churchyards for some time. It’s stimulating to see a similar devotion to these spaces reflected in this Guardian article. “Eight hundred years ago, pagan sites – springs, wells … Continue reading →

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Backlight and Hazy Music

Posted on May 7, 2022 by JMN

I’m a fan of Schiele as well as of interiors. What’s interesting to me in this precocious painting is the backlighting of the subject and the skillful rendering of hazy, natural light suffusing the room. The uniform NW-to-SE directionality of … Continue reading →

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‘He Didn’t Get Out Much’

Posted on May 5, 2022 by JMN

For Matisse, the studio was the place where the real world receded, where magic could be made and art ruled. Once he absorbed what Fauvism had to teach him about natural light and pure color, Matisse didn’t get out much. … Continue reading →

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‘I Would Be a Really Good Artist If I Just Stopped Painting’

Posted on April 27, 2022 by JMN

“The Ordinary Song,” 2017. Credit…via Chiem & Read. Artist Donald Baechler (1956-2022) is remembered in the New York Times by Roberta Smith. Among [Baechler’s] holdings of New York artists was a neon-light wall piece by Joseph Kosuth, a leading Conceptual … Continue reading →

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‘Fella in Hat Cups His Dominos’

Posted on April 13, 2022 by JMN

This gallery contains 1 photo.

I tried to get my dad to teach me dominos once during the last months of his life. He was in hospital and listless. I thought it might raise his spirits. When I dumped the shiny pieces out on the … Continue reading →

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