The position Shear has been defining in his work is one that accepts, contemplates, and reimagines the possibilities of abstract painting.
Cheim & Read
Ron Gorchov’s Art of the Here and Now
Gorchov is an artist whose best pieces are purely aesthetic and totally present, here and now.
An Icon of Unconventional Abstraction
Serge Poliakoff: Gouaches 1938-1969 furthers the case for Poliakoff’s importance and continuing relevance to abstract painting.
Matthew Wong’s Indelible Impressions
Just three years after he first devoted himself to art, Wong assembled an abstract vocabulary to create an entire world that is parallel to ours.
Lynda Benglis Is Back — Knots, Pours, Dildos, and All
The patron saint of provocation is back with Early Work 1967-79, her first major New York show since 2011.
Ron Gorchov’s Guardians
In responding to Judd and Greenberg, it is apparent that Gorchov wanted to find his own way past what he saw as the limits of their theorizing and make something that was recognizably his.
Beer with a Painter: Tal R
Tal R talks about “watching” paintings — not just looking at them. It might be a language tic, but it also feels specific.
Turning the Male Gaze on Its Head
It’s an oh-so-good premise for an exhibition: exploring the female gaze.
How Sean Scully Bent the Grid
The Irish-born, London-educated, abstract painter Sean Scully established a signature style of painting nearly four decades ago.
How Serge Poliakoff Predicted 60 Years of Painting
Deep inside every great painting is the question of what it means to paint.
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.
Discourse, Dazzle, and Snap: Jonathan Lasker’s New Paintings
Jonathan Lasker’s approach to painting hasn’t changed materially in decades, and so why would his work, which struck me as an alienating (if not irritating) closed system when I first started looking at it in the 1990s, now feel so open, urgent, and fresh?