Zaha Hadid, in her home. Now that’s what flamboyant looks like! (Photo: Miles Aldridge) Two weeks ago I read the article written by John Seabrook for The New Yorker about architect Zaha Hadid. Up until now I’ve watched her international success with a curiosity and respect, but with a certain detachment. Her work doesn’t exhibit […]
Aesthetics
Seeing and Looking
Bridget Riley Bridget Riley describes her mother thus: “She was always pointing out colours: in the sea; the sparkle of dew: changes of colour when the dew was brushed away. If she arranged anything on the table like a bowl of fruit […] she would point out the colours. ‘Look it’s almost got a blue […]
Smorgasbord
I suddenly found myself with a basketful of things to share, so here is a potpourri of links to explore in more depth: The great Jerry Saltz, who has been a tireless champion for gender equality in the visual arts, has done his best with the 2010 Whitney Biennial: 52 percent women! Regina Hackett at […]
Cracking the Nut
Ert, by Tomma Abts, 2003. 48cm x 38cm. Boros Collection, Berlin Timing can be a bitch. One of the most poignant examples for me is the 2008 publication, Seven Days in the Art World by Sarah Thornton. The “sociologist of culture” (self-titled perhaps?) spent five years assembling her book about the red hot, way cool, […]
Turner Prize Goes Wright
Richard Wright (Photograph: Linda Nylind) The Turner Prize has no equivalent in the United States. This annual award to a U.K.-based visual artist is like awarding just one Oscar for “Best Artist in All the Land”. The build up, the anticipation, the dissenters, the enthusiasts—it is a yearly cycle that I observe with interest from […]
Still Enchanting After All These Years
Looking south from Cordova NM The view from Carson NM I’m back from five days in New Mexico. Born in the desert and more at home in that landscape than anywhere else, I have been in a deep need for that stark horizontality, for the vistas that read both minimally and maximally, for the understated […]
Written on the Body
Tribute, by Anne Truitt (Photo courtesy of Anne Truitt) More thoughts about Anne Truitt, mostly through commentary by others: Her son-in-law, art critic Charlie Finch, wrote an essay about Truitt that brings her work and her persona closer together. He begins the essay by describing Truitt as “the driest, most detached person I had yet […]
Art and Meaning
John Perreault’s popular blog, Artopia, has a recent posting that brings together a disparate variety of themes. Braided into Perreault’s personal ruminations is reference to “Icons of the Desert: Early Aboriginal Paintings from Papunya”, the aboriginal art show at Grey Gallery (NYU), the “Mandala” show at the Rubin Museum, as well as a discussion of […]
Moses in Motion
Ed Moses, Untitled, 1987 (Photo: Sylvia White Gallery) Moses is a member of that increasingly interesting group of California artists that constellated around the Ferus Gallery scene (along with Billy Al Bengston, Robert Irwin, John Altoon, Larry Bell, Ed Ruscha et al) back in the 60s. He has a new show at the Sylvia White […]
Working Along the Nerve
A scanning electron microscope image of a nerve ending. It has been broken open to reveal vesicles (orange and blue) containing chemicals used to pass messages in the nervous system. (Photo: Tina Carvalho) Sally Reed, friend and artist, left the following quote from Anne Truitt’s Daybook as a comment to the posting below. It is […]