Art
The Elusive Painter Who Predicted Minimalism in the Mid 1950s
John Ferren did not so much work outside the mainstream as circle it continuously in a personal and highly meditative quest for meaning.
Abstract Expressionism
Interview
Finally, an Exhibition Devoted to the Women of Abstract Expressionism
The paradigm of the "overlooked female artist" is both a cliché and a truth.
Art
Learning from an Artist's Early Experiments with AbEx
For young painters today, Abstract Expressionism is ancient history; a few rooms in MoMA’s permanent collection galleries, a handful of images from the pages of Gardner or Janson, all set before a backdrop of a now mythical Downtown Manhattan of $200-dollar-a-month lofts.
Art
Abstract Paintings that Reflect the Rhythms of Our Time
In terms of freewheeling, soul-bearing angst, Abstract Expressionism might once seemed to have had the final word.
Art
Joyce Pensato's Messy Imagination, Laid Bare
Joyce Pensato is best known for her stark, large-scale paintings of cartoon characters and in particular for her series of Batman paintings that depict the cape crusader’s iconic mask using splashy skeins of black and white paint.
Art
A Native American Painter's Modernist Exploits, Recognized at Last
ST. PAUL, Minn. — Modern Spirit: The Art of George Morrison, now on view at the Minnesota History Center in Saint Paul, Minnesota, is a disarmingly beautiful exhibition.
Art
When Painting Was an Unreasonable Vocation
In our times, the sincerity and passion of Ab-Ex look pretty good again, especially when the formal strengths of the work add up to more than just stylistic adventuring. Elizabeth Harris Gallery’s current show is a case in point.
Art
Pat Steir and the Properties of Paint
Pat Steir cut her teeth in the 1970s and went on to become part of the fabric of the New York art world. From her quasi-conceptual paintings of that decade to the Waterfall paintings of the late '80s, Steir has long been something of a ubiquitous presence — but, like many of her generation, she also
Art
The Gentle Tension of Abstraction
LOS ANGELES — Time slows within the work of Spanish painter Juan Usle. Though he fits stylistically within the realm of Abstract Expressionism, he shows us again that not all brush strokes need to jump off the canvas, as if caught in a nervous seizure, that there is something to be said for pace, ti
Art
America’s Grand Gestures Reign Supreme Again in Basel
BASEL, Switzerland — Fifty-five years ago, the exhibition The New American Painting arrived at the Kunsthalle Basel. It was the first stop on a yearlong tour that touted the work of seventeen Abstract Expressionists before eight European countries — the first comprehensive exhibition to be sent to E
Art
A Blood on the Moon Fierceness: Fritz Bultman's Paintings and Collages
Artist and editor Robert Motherwell proclaimed that of all the painters of his generation, Fritz Bultman was "the one [most] drastically and shockingly underrated." A survey of his paintings is now on view.
Art
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