ArtSeen
The Filipino Roots of Minimalism
By Jim LongThis exhibition presented works from 1964-1967 by two pioneering reductive painters, Leo Valledor and Mario Yrisarry. Valledor (1936-1989) was born in San Francisco, and grew up in the gritty Fillmore district, while Yrissary was born in Manila in 1933; both were Filipino.
Louise Bourgeois
By Stephanie BuhmannAs one of the most important living American artists, Louise Bourgeois certainly isn’t lacking in exposure. Her works are frequently, if not permanently, on display in international galleries and museums.
Raoul De Keyser
By Shane McAdamsMuch is made of Raoul De Keyser’s belated recognition in the United States, and to a slightly lesser degree, by the art world in general. Although it is unfortunate that it took so long for him to receive the attention he deserves, it is also not hard to understand.
Charles Garabedian
By Thomas MicchelliThe most arresting image in Charles Garabedian’s exhibition of recent works on paper is a large acrylic called “Channel Swimmer” (2006).
Eva Zeisel at 100: A Lifetime of Masterwork in Design
By Valery OisteanuAt the recent opening of the Eva Zeisel centennial exhibit at the Pratt Manhattan Gallery, a small white-haired women with a playful look in her eye swept in as if it were her own studio—and in a sense, it was.
Elizabeth Murray
By Tomassio LonghiFrom the very beginning of her career through the monumental retrospective last year at The Museum of Modern Art, Elizabeth Murray has never lost sight of the humanity and dignity of her work.
Picasso and American Art
By Ben La RoccoTo a certain degree, Picasso is behind the eight ball in Picasso and American Art, which sets out to demonstrate that for each aesthetic territory staked out by an American painter, Picasso had already been there. “That man missed nothing,” in the words of Jackson Pollock, quoted at the exhibition’s entrance.
Dennis Oppenheim
By Chris HowardPublic art, said Dennis Oppenheim in the late 1990s, “may be a domain that looks good simply because everything else looks so bad.
Sam Easterson
By Lynn LoveA peculiar kind of evidence is offered up in Sam Easterson’s videos and photographs of birds—be they falcons or pheasants, turkeys or ducks—as well his videos of an astonishing range of other animals.
Joseph Kosuth
By Matthew L. McAlpinIf Joseph Kosuth’s latest exhibition works, it works as installation; if not, then a labyrinth into which I can venture is at best a retrospective of a historically intriguing, though no-longer-relevant artist.
Joseph Kosuth – a labyrinth into which I can venture
By Joan WaltemathIn the context of Joseph Kosuth's monumental installation at the Sean Kelly Gallery a quote from Michale Foucault (1969) that appears at the entrance to Kosuth's black sheet-rock maze seems pointed: "Aren't you sure of what you are saying? Are you going to change yet again, shift your position according to the questions that are put to you..."
Report from London
By Sherman SamEach day seems to find more curators bemoaning the ability of commercial galleries, with less bureaucracy and more financial clout, to create strong shows with speed and efficiency. The frieze art fair proves and disproves just this.
Sean Scully
By Craig OlsonSean Scully has been making unfashionably large, abstract oil paintings for over twenty years. His current exhibition, Wall of Light, is no exception. Begun in 1998, the paintings range in size from the imposingly large to the intimately small, but rarely anything in between (with the exception of several watercolors and prints).
Jessica Stockholder
By Stephanie BuhmannIn this exhibition of works from 2006, Stockholder continues to transform commonplace objects into sculptural microcosms of saturated color and vivid form.
Brice Marden
By Ben La RoccoBrice Marden’s paintings are hard to love. Their sheer composure leaves little room for intimacy. Even within the austere arena of monochromatic painting, the muted green-gray of “Nebraska” (1966) is cool and removed.
Alfred Jensen
By Ben La RoccoThe Number Paintings by Alfred Jensen at Pace Wildenstein is a great exhibition. Superlatives such as this are generally of little use in criticism, but every so often you see something that reaffirms your love for art, reminds you how it is truly constituted and reveals why it is so hard to come by.
John Baldessari
By Geoffrey Cruickshank-HagenbuckleIn 1970, John Baldessari cremated all his paintings, baking some of the ashes into cookies. Documented as a cutoff point in his career by the photo piece “The Cremation Project,” included in his Ways of Seeing exhibit now at the Hirshhorn, Baldessari has since strictly sought to keep his hand out of painting by imposing counterintuitive constraints such as hiring sign painters to execute his artworks.
Gustav Klimt: Five Paintings from the Collection of Ferdinand and Adele Bloch-Bauer
By Hrag VartanianIn one fell swoop Ronald Lauder’s $135 million purchase in June of Gustav Klimt’s 1907 portrait, “Adele Bloch-Bauer I,” bestowed Manhattan’s Neue Galerie with a destination artwork and a steady flow of tourists gawking at the most expensive painting in the world. Even hype-resistant New Yorkers stopped by to take a look.
Stanley Whitney
By John YauWhen contemplating Stanley Whitney’s matter-of-factly painted geometric abstractions, we should keep in mind these words of Ad Reinhardt: “all art is political.” The reason we should remember Reinhardt’s statement is because Whitney is an African-American abstract painter who makes no overt connection between the author and the self or, in academic parlance, his identity.
Mary Temple
By Shane McAdamsImagine yourself in a summer cottage somewhere in the north woods of Wisconsin, unlatching the doors and windows for a new season. It is twilight, and shafts of light are peeling in from the fading Edenic sunset. Children giggle in the distance. The oak trees outside cast their shimmering silhouettes on the interior walls.
George Schneeman
By Eric HolzmanGeorge Schneeman’s painting and collages from the 1960s and 70s at First Floor Gallery offer a view into another world. The subjects are the great, still unsung New York Poets of the downtown scene: confident, young and owning this town (which is practically unrecognizable today).
