Tag Archives: painting

The Landscapes of the Face

Posted on August 17, 2026 by JMN

The landscapes of the face possessAnd repossess my hand. Even stillIt’s on the move: peak, fissure, defile;Shadow here, just there a vegetation,A blink, a snout, a rumination —Fondest barbarism captured yet!The face solicits pen and ink to nail the stink,Charcoal, … Continue reading →

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Confession

Posted on August 5, 2026 by JMN

I confess to a proclivity (morbid?) for depicting faces in various states of contortion. A face at rest, unless it’s grizzled or reflective of a corrupt soul, has bland contours. States of agitation are what lay bare the deserts, mountains … Continue reading →

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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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Glimpses and Manias (I’m So All About This Painting)

Posted on February 28, 2026 by JMN

This thumping doodle by Lee Krasner — whatever it is, I like it, not least because it looks like some kind of writing devised by a sensibility going for broke. For that matter it could be the shower tile of … 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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Writing Not Sterling, But Some Nice Painting

Posted on December 22, 2025 by JMN

Reflection on an article about painter Aubrey Williams that could use some editing. The article is informative about circumstances of Williams’s life, but light on useful appraisal of his art. 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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