What Meets the Eye

Philip Guston: The In-Between Years at Hauser and Wirth

June 26, 2016

To begin with, intense satisfaction. We knew he got from point A to point B and now we know how and can confirm it by checking the dates to figure out the progression. Next, an assessment of the individual paintings to see if any of [...]

Eisenman-ia at The New Museum

June 6, 2016

And yet. And yet, Eisenman is a terrific painter, full of invention, so much to look at, so much to argue with and and talk about. This genre of historical painting, maybe it is the “noblest form of art” as Alberti said because it is difficult [...]

Jennifer Bartlett and Me

May 10, 2016

Now on top of everything else, Jennifer Bartlett is painting my paintings for me. As I learned courtesy of Raggedy Ann’s Foot (*) a couple weeks ago—do you see? And it pained me. Fearing to be supernumerary, I visited the show and I [...]

What’s Behind the Papered-over Windows at Outlet Gallery: NSFW | Male Nudes by Female Painters

April 18, 2016

OK, the women are finally getting their day, turning the objectifying tables and whatnot, and now we’re going to see some female subtlety and range of emotion. However, when I take a hard look (haha), it stands (haha) to reason that what women are [...]

“Nice Weather” on the Upper East Side at Skarstedt

April 5, 2016

I was considering going to the Met Breuer “Unfinished…” when I walked into “Nice Weather”, and that is probably why I started wondering if these paintings were finished. The Met has pitched a curveball at contemporary art– or do I [...]

“Darkness of My Life”, too. George Condo in “Nice Weather” at Skarstedt Gallery

April 1, 2016

Do you ever experience a dream that’s like falling down steps in the dark? And one time I fell off a country road down a wooded hill because I was looking at the moon, which is just an aside and was nothing like this except that it was falling [...]

Liz Gargas and Brent Ridge at the New Art Center in Newton, Mass.

March 15, 2016

In a two-person show I look for what connects the painters. Well, actually, I am always looking for connections between painters (as well as ideas I might use myself) because for the most part, these days, painters work alone and don’t often [...]

The Second Time Around at “Greater New York” at PS1

February 23, 2016

…is better than the first time. The reason? Lowered expectations (possibly the key to happiness in all things.) So I didn’t hurry from room to room in search of something else without knowing what that something else should be. Others did, [...]

Important Conversations: Fred Valentine at Schema Projects

February 9, 2016

The Pumpkin Festival and Other Portraits” is a show of large and small scale portraits in charcoal that Valentine made 1989-91. The large scale portraits drew me into surprisingly intimate conversations. Actually they are not exactly portraits, [...]

Sifting “Thru the Rabbit Hole” at Sideshow Gallery “Nation IV”

January 31, 2016

Walking the quiet weekday streets of Williamsburg, a bit stunned from a marital battle more pitched than usual, I turned into Sideshow Gallery’s “Thru the Rabbit Hole,” the 15th annual loosely uncurated show of all the painters of NYC. Or [...]