Art Review
Paying Homage to the Iconoclasts of Abstraction
An exhibition traces the radical advancements in painting by Al Held, Elizabeth Murray, Judy Pfaff, and Frank Stella.
Al Held
Art
The Disorienting Power of Al Held's Black-and-White Paintings
In 1967, the angel of ambiguity rescued Al Held from the burly heaviness of his body and the formalist ideology of his thinking.
Art
From Calder to Kruger, the New Whitney Museum's First Show
The inaugural exhibition at the new Whitney Museum is not perfect, but it is pretty damn good.
Art
How the 2015 ADAA Art Fair Changed My Life
It didn't. I lied. I'm sorry. But I did like these things at the Art Dealers Association of America's (ADAA) art fair.
Art
The Connoisseurship of Al Held
Years ago, Al Held invited me to his place in Boiceville, New York, to see two large paintings that he had all but completed. They were immense, brightly colored works in which geometric forms floated, weightless.
Art
An Implied Critique of Sound Bite Society
Rackstraw Downes doesn’t seem like a radical. He is an understated Englishman who paints understated American landscapes. But when you think about how much of modern and contemporary art relies on juxtaposition or exaggeration for effects, Downes’s approach begins to seem downright revolutionary. “M
Art
A Perceptual Dance Party for Your Eyes
Abstraction is a fickle shapeshifter. Outlines of horses and bulls in caves and geometric markings on ceramic flatware were the earliest embodiment of the craft. Since then, abstraction has travelled through an unbelievable number of incarnations. James McCoy Gallery recently took on the challenge o