Art
For those weary souls who claim that there is nothing new under the sun, especially in the realm of art, where everything has already been done, I offer this observation by Kenneth Baker, which appeared without fanfare in the pages of the San Francisco Chronicle …
Beer With a Painter
I visited Mary Heilmann recently in her Bridgehampton studio. At the end of our time together, she took a small painting of a wave, and turned it upside-down. It was the perfect gesture to sum up our conversation and the themes of her work — an offhand reminder of its yin-yang quality.
Art
Just the other day, I was deep in the bowels of the permanent collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art when I thought of Paul Resika. I had met him briefly many years ago, when I was a graduate student and he was a guest critic. In the middle of a group critique he mentioned that he visited the
Interview
Wandering through the Museum of Modern Art, I came across the gallery partially devoted to the work of Robert Rauschenberg. It was the first time I had been there since the iconic “Canyon” (1959) — the one with the stuffed bald eagle — was donated to the museum by the Ileana Sonnabend estate.
Opinion
As soon as we published Samantha Villenave's essay "Kate Middleton Portrait Buzz: Art Criticism, Sexism, or Something Else?" (01/11/13), we immediately saw readers respond, particularly on Facebook.
Opinion
Richard Serra explains the role process has played in his artistic evolution. For the world-renowned artist it is, he explains, an integral part of his work.
Opinion
VALENCE, France — The internet has its royal panties in a bustle, once again. Today's unveiling of the portrait of Kate Middleton, or rather the British Duchess of Cambridge, met with gasps of horror, followed by a cascade of sarcastic media and Twitter wit. The subject of much of the outrage and ve
Art
CHICAGO — Edie Fake is a radical punk queer feminist activist. He is currently "at large" in Chicago. Before that, he was driving around the country in a yellow school bus doing the gay performance "Fingers." At the opening of his solo exhibition Memory Palaces at Thomas Robertello, he told me that
Art
Like ghosts of a future that never arrived, the United States is littered with space age relics that landed in the 1940s to 1960s in the form of diners, banks, motels, and other commercial architecture. While the futuristic style definitely made its mark on the big coastal cities, like with Eero Saa
Art
Moby is a polymath, that we know. If we didn’t know that, we found out after visiting the tea shop he used to own on the Lower East Side. Maybe you’ve also heard other factoids about him too, like his support for animal rights or his alleged ancestral link to Herman Melville. We do not jest. (Actual
Art
SAN FRANCISCO — When learning Chinese, it's often difficult to appreciate the subtle beauty of each character. In the mist of trying to hammer each one into memory, a Chinese learner rarely pauses to admire the carefully crafted order of strokes and hidden meanings.
Books
LOS ANGELES — Brazilian Art under Dictatorship, a new book by John Jay College's Claudia Calirman, takes a look at the works of three artists: Antonio Manuel, Artur Barrio and Cildo Meireles. These artists worked during the height of Brazil's most repressive military regime in the late 1960s and ear