I fear that the visual culture in which these works were admired is now one of those distant “you had to be there” moments, which are impossible to reconstruct.
Kenneth Noland
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The Colors of the Sixties
Spilling Over: Painting in the 1960s at the Whitney Museum expands the common understanding of a pivot point in American art, while basking unapologetically in the pure pleasure of looking.
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Circling Back to Kenneth Noland
Noland’s current exhibition at Yares Art, brings together prime examples of one of the artist’s signature motifs: concentric rings of color centrally and symmetrically ordered in square canvases.
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Why Does the CIA Keep Its Art Collection Secret?
Twenty-nine abstract Washington Color School paintings hang in the halls of the CIA’s headquarters in Langley, Virginia. But unless you’re one of the CIA’s undisclosed number of employees, your chances of ever seeing these paintings, or even digital images of them, are pretty slim.
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A View from the Easel
Artist studios in Pennsylvania, Florida, Illinois, and the Netherlands.
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Visual Treats at DC’s Phillips Collection
Washington, DC is a great museum town. During my dozen or so trips over the years I have yet to see all the Smithsonian institutions so I didn’t feel the need to ventured far from The Mall for my art fix. This time I avoided the Smithsonian all together and headed for one situated in the Dupont Circle neighborhood of the city, The Phillips Collection. This jewel box of modern art — and not soo modern — avoids -isms so you ended up encountering the art of 19th C. America to 20th C. France or 17th C. Spain in just a few steps.
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Art Basel Miami in Pictures
There’s no point in giving you a “review” of the mothership of art fairs in Miami, Art Basel Miami Beach, so I thought a photo essay with some observations were more appropriate.
I admit that I got a little bored after three hours of wandering around. I found myself seeing the same thing and getting the same numbness I get during marathon holiday shopping trips or walks through ancient souks … there’s only so much merchandise you can see in one stop.
It was still refreshing to see some galleries display the prices of their wares freely, and examples of excellent abstraction by names mostly absent from the art history survey books, but I was most shocked to discover what must be the most awful Basquiat I have even seen in my life.