Roberta Smith continues her one-woman campaign (or so it seems—are there others on this bandwagon?) of bringing thoughtful and reasonable thinking to the world of art making, viewing and buying. Like so many other subcultures, this is one that regularly runs off the rails and into the hollers of ego, greed and elitism. Her recent […]
Art World
- Aesthetics
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Painting is Dead, Long Live Painting
Roberta Smith keep the dialogue about contemporary painting current and vital. Regarding that old saw, “painting is dead,” Smith is consistent in her refusal to buy in. In today’s New York Times Arts section (I refuse to call that part of the paper by its full title, Arts & Leisure since it is irritatingly effete, […]
- Aesthetics
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A Week’s Worth of Responses to Smith’s “Post-Minimal to the Max”
Terry Winters, Freeunion (Photo: Matthew Marks Gallery) Winters was highlighted as one of Carol Diehl’s favorite “overlooked” artists. He’s on my list too. Over the week since Roberta Smith published her article, Post-Minimal to the Max in the Sunday Times (I wrote about it here) the floodgates opened. Do a search and you will find […]
Kenneth Noland (1924-2010)
Kenneth Noland passed away in early January. Although this is several weeks after the fact, my response to the Roberta Smith article in the Sunday Times has led to a more contemplative approach to the strange journey of painting that I have observed during my many years as an artist and art lover. Mark Dagley […]
Do Something Else Next
Adam, Eve, by Philip Taafe (Taafe is one of several undervalued painters mentioned in Roberta Smith’s Sunday Times piece) Roberta Smith secured the premier position in the Sunday Times Arts section, above the fold and in the center. The visual arts rarely show up in the top slot these days. Her article, Post-Minimal to the […]
Adieu Michael Mazur
Photo: Cape Cod Times/Ron Schloerb I offer a moment of silent respect for the passing of Michael Mazur, a larger than life presence in the Boston art scene for years. Printmaker, painter and professional art advocate, Mazur’s absence creates a void of a very particular nature. Fall Mountains for Kuo Shi Bowdoin College Museum of […]
Art Czar Candidate: Whitmanesque Choice?
Finally, word from those on the inside track has it that Obama has picked someone to head up the National Endowment for the Arts: Rocco Landesman. Here’s the report from the Times in which Tony Kushner has a very memorable quote: “It’s potentially the best news the arts community in the United States has had […]
Wood and Water
Ganesha, festooned with the dried flowers of a Hawaiian lei, in my studio Holland Cotter wrote a piece over the weekend in the New York Times on the state of the art world, The Boom Is Over. Long Live the Art! This article was not unlike about 20 others on the same topic that I’ve […]
Picasso and the Ocular Rape
Pablo Picasso in his Cannes studio, 1965. Photograph: Arnold Newman/Getty Images Like many other artists (and many of them female), I take a detached and ironic stance with Picasso. There’s no arguing his impact on the trajectory of contemporary art. But thanks to the compelling book, Old Masters and Young Genuises by David W. Galenson, […]
Dorothea Tanning: With Our Souls in Our Laps
Dorothea Tanning, painter and poet Evening He told us, with the years, you will come To love the world. And we sat there with our souls in our laps, And comforted them. –Dorothea Tanning Tanning is that rare being who embodies gifts in the poetic domain as well as the visual. A woman with a […]