Perhaps the most prolific exemplar of free-spirited collaboration from the New York art scene of the 1960s was the painter George Schneeman, the unofficial artist-in-residence of the Poetry Project at St. Marks Church from its earliest days.
Tim Keane
Tim Keane's writing on art has appeared in Modern Painters, The London Magazine, Brooklyn Rail, and many other publications. He has written extensively on visual art and poetry, most recently in Joe Brainard's Art (University of Edinburgh Press, 2020) and Abstract Expressionist Women of the 9th Street Show (Katonah Museum of Art, 2019). His writing earned a fellowship from The National Endowment for the Arts and he holds a PhD in Comparative Literature from CUNY Graduate Center, where he focused on Modernism.
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As Above, So Below: The Aerial Revelations of Yvonne Jacquette
Reflecting on urban spaces, Italo Calvino writes, “Cities, like dreams, are made of desires and fears […] the thread of their discourse is secret, their rules are absurd, their perspectives deceitful, and everything conceals something else.” Yvonne Jacquette: The High Life, currently at DC Moore Gallery, epitomizes this enigma.
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Action at an Impasse: Esteban Vicente and the Art of Collage
ASHEVILLE, North Carolina — Esteban Vicente was a lyrical abstractionist whose work over eight decades redefines that category. A current exhibition at the Asheville Art Museum, Esteban Vicente: The Art of Interruption, takes its title from Elaine de Kooning’s insight into her longtime friend’s technique.
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Languages of Devotion: Basil King’s Life in Art
One day in 1965, as he was walking by St. Mark’s Church in New York’s East Village, Basil King came to a dreadful realization. “You’re a painter,” he told himself, “who’s never been.”
The verdict, which he relates in Learning to Draw / A History (Skylight Press, 2011), was, of course, wrongheaded. King had been making art since he was a boy. Still, he brought it up again during my visit to his brownstone in Brooklyn, where he and his wife, the writer Martha King, have lived since moving from Manhattan in 1969.
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Hearing the Rhythm of Mass: Nicolas Carone in Jackson Pollock’s House
THE SPRINGS, NY — Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning so dominate the creation story of Abstract Expressionism in New York that these two hard-drinking celebrities continue to busy biographers, often crowding out other artists who had the mixed fortune of painting during their twin ascendancy.
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Painting at the Speed of Sight: Franz Kline’s Rapid Transit
On leaving the recently closed exhibition, Franz Kline: Coal and Steel at Baruch College’s Sidney Mishkin Gallery, I wasn’t thinking of the remarkable range of work on display. Instead, I kept dwelling on a small ink painting doubly named by Kline “Untitled-Locomotive” (ca. 1945-1947). It was one of a series of very small works with a private warmth that called to mind Van Gogh’s letter sketches. But that wasn’t the only reason why I remembered it.
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“I Noticed My Friends”: Allen Ginsberg’s Photography
In his poem “America” (1956) Allen Ginsberg addresses the nation as if it were a codependent lover, asking, “Are you going to let your emotional life be run by Time Magazine?” followed immediately by the confession, “I’m obsessed by Time Magazine. I read it every week.”
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Artist Unknown: Reflections on Works by Eddie Johnson
Poring through a cache of my late uncle’s works on paper, I come across an arresting print purporting to be a self-portrait. It is on delicate and weathered paper. The notes at the bottom state simply: “10/10 Self-Portrait Serigraph, 7 Color” followed by an undecipherable signature that ends with the year “’64.”
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“The Line Into Which I Shall Merge”: Jean Genet Among the Painters
Stendhal on Correggio, Baudelaire on Guys, Zola on Manet, Proust on Moreau. It’s a long-standing practice, French poets and novelists taking up art criticism. In the 20th century, the roster continues: Apollinaire,Breton, Leiris, Malraux, Sartre, Bataille, Bonnefoy, and there’s the French poet-painters: Picabia, Cocteau, Nouet, Jacob.