Magazine

Boundless Energy - The Art of Julio Le Parc

The world has rediscovered Julio Le Parc. The Argentinian-born, France-based artist, who is still active in his studio today in his late 80s, helped define kinetic art in the 1960s and was an earl...

My Plastic Bag - Cheryl Donegan at Kunsthalle Zurich

For artists, it always has been, and hopefully always will be, perfectly reasonable to ask, “What is art?” Cynics, investors, politicians, academicians and other determined non-artists may mock th...

MoMA in Paris - Hosted by Fondation Louis Vuitton

A highly touted exhibition of modern art opened in Paris this week, and it is inspiring quite a bit of celebration. But perhaps it should inspire an equal amount of consternation as well. Being Mo...

The Lightness and Transparency of Gina Werfel

In a 2013 interview in the Huffington Post, Gina Werfel and her husband Hearne Pardee, both lifelong painters and longtime teachers at UC Davis, were asked where their practices intersected and wh...

The Reality behind the Abstract Paintings of Chrissy Angliker

Chrissy Angliker appears to have had a breakthrough. The Zurich, Switzerland-born, New York-based painter has, over the past seven years, developed an instantly recognizable, and perfectly irres...

Why Gauguin’s Vision After the Sermon Was Important for Abstract Art

Paul Gauguin painted Vision After the Sermon in 1888. It was a religious, which took as its jumping off point a story from the Christian Bible. The tale comes from the book of Genesis, chapter 32,...

Abstract Wonders of Cuban Art on View in Miami

What defines Cuban art has long been the subject of debate. The main question: does the term Cuban art refer to art made by Cubans still living on the island, or does it refer to art made by artis...

The Story Behind Jackson Pollock’s Only Mosaic

Most art lovers know who Jackson Pollock was. As one of a handful of bonafide celebrity painters, Pollock is a name even non-art lovers recognize. Though as famous as the Abstract Expressionist pi...

How the Works of Pat Steir Rose to the Top of the Art Market

Gallery representation is key for any artist intent on having a presence in the art market. But what exactly does a gallery do for an artist? And how do artists ensure they join the gallery that w...

Georg Herold and The Luminous West at Kunstmuseum Bonn

Most people would probably categorize Georg Herold as a member of the so-called “older generation.” He is 70 years old, after all. And as a matter of fact, seven years ago the Kunstmuseum Bonn off...

How Paul Klee’s Paintings inspired American Artists

It is often said that Abstract Expressionism was the first purely American art movement. It allegedly represented the first time American artists, exemplified by members of the New York School, br...

Observing Gerhard Richter's Abstract Painting

What is more truthful: a photograph or a feeling? Photographs are more objective, perhaps, while feelings may be more abstract. But both are real. Some painters in their search to convey truth dev...

Transcending Practices - The Art of Julian Schnabel

A show of new work by Julian Schnabel opened recently at the Almine Rech Gallery in New York. It contains a couple of bedazzled chairs and an assortment of new paintings. The work is decisively Sc...

The Emotion in the Fantasy Art Objects of H.C. Westermann

Occasionally into the world of professional aesthetics comes a born artist: someone who remains dedicated to an idiosyncratic vision, and who makes things from the imagination for no other reason ...

When City Maps Become Abstract Art Prints

A spate of articles appeared on the Internet last month drawing attention to a crowdfunding campaign that was raising money a computer program that its developer says can make a customized abstrac...

The Exciting Revolution of Louise Fishman

Louise Fishman has been called a revolutionary before. It is a label that has been hurled at her countless times for reasons that have little to do with her, and a lot to do with a culture that fe...

Why Art Critic Rosalind Krauss Is Still Crucial to Abstraction

Rosalind Krauss is considered by many artists, art educators, and art world professionals to be the most important art critic alive. And while it is undeniable that through her writings she has sp...

Light Meets Chemicals in Mariah Robertson’s Photography

The work of Mariah Robertson has been described as exciting, extreme, even explosive. One look at her large-scale photo paper roll installations and you will understand why. The work is undeniable...

Making Contemporary Tradition - Jeffrey Gibson

I had a rare experience recently while looking at the work of Jeffrey Gibson. Something about the work opened a door for me. It exposed me to a larger, and more interesting relationship with physi...

The (Un)Intentional Controversy in Hermann Nitsch Art

I am a vegetarian. I usually keep that information private because it is irrelevant to almost any professional conversation I would normally have about art. But today I am writing about Hermann Ni...

James McNabb - Seeing Cityscapes in Wood

James McNabb is either living out the ultimate fantasy or the ultimate nightmare of every young artist in the world. Several years back, McNabb created a collection of sculptural pieces out of rec...

The Story of a Pioneer - Lygia Pape

On 23 March, 1959, an essay appeared in the Sunday supplement of the Newspaper of Brazil. It was signed by seven Brazilian artists, among them Lygia Pape. It spelled out in exacting detail what th...

Female Abstract Painters of Color Finally in a Museum Show

If you have not yet had a chance to see it, a fascinating and engaging exhibition closing soon at the Kemper Museum of Contemporary art in Kansas City, Missouri, is guaranteed to please your sense...

Who is Olga Uskova, the Owner of the Future Museum of Russian Abstract Art in Moscow?

Soon there will be a new art museum opening in Moscow, which will feature work from mid-20th Century Russian abstract artists associated with an avant-garde movement called The New Reality. The wo...

The Legacy of German Abstract Art Pioneer Karl Otto Götz

On 19 August 2017, Karl Otto Götz, a singular voice in abstract art, died at the age of 103. I can say without reservation that the body of work Götz created in his lifetime is worthy of reverence...

Two Major Mary Heilmann Exhibition Give the Artist a Long-Overdue Attention

Mary Heilmann is getting a lot of attention right now, which she would probably be the first to admit is all she ever really wanted. That is not a critique. I am only paraphrasing what Heilmann to...

These Artists Continue to Redefine 3D Printed Art

I heard a joke once at an art opening featuring 3D printed art. It went something like this: “How do you know you are looking a piece of 3D printed art?” Answer: “Because everybody tells you.” It ...

At LACMA, Sarah Charlesworth Presents Doubleworld

The Pictures Generation sounds like a great name for children born today. Never before in history have so many people had immediate access to picture-taking technology, along with the ability to s...

Martin Puryear - Between Craftsmanship and Art

The works of Martin Puryear emit a sort of aesthetic gravity. They attract our attention with their presence, pulling us toward them with implicit promises of beauty, comfort, and after looking at...

Mystical and Metaphysical - The Art of Shirazeh Houshiary

It is not always a delight to think about the nature of existence: we are so obviously frail, and this life is so obviously temporary. But I, for one, nonetheless see it as a priority to confront ...

Random Quark - Turning Feelings into Abstract Digital Art

The idea of turning brain waves into abstract digital art has been making the rounds of artist studios, creative agencies and computer labs for years. Back in 2015, I remember visiting an installa...

The Subtle Influence of the Washington Color School

The story of the Washington Color School is a cautionary tale. On the surface (so to speak) it is just a simple story about six painters: Kenneth Noland, Morris Louis, Gene Davis, Howard Mehring, ...

How Victor Pasmore Found His True Style in Abstraction

This coming January will mark the 20th anniversary of the death of Victor Pasmore, a pioneer of British abstract art. Pasmore underwent a unique transformation over the course of his artistic care...

Three Masters of Color Green in Contemporary Art

We have been conducting some research into the meaning of the color green, and the results, frankly, are quite confusing. Many of the most common associations people have with green directly contr...

Edward Burtynsky and Landscapes Like No Other

Canadian photographer Edward Burtynsky has been photographing the natural world for nearly four decades. He began his career in the late 1970s, photographing natural landscapes from a strictly for...

Merging Science and Photography - The Art of Fabian Oefner

Chances are you have seen the work of Swiss photographer Fabian Oefner at some point in recent years. Since he opened his professional photography studio in 2013, his magical-looking photographs c...

Dan Colen, Bad Boy of Post-Pop New York, To Exhibit at Damien Hirst’s Gallery

It has been roughly a decade since New York Magazine ran the article that is widely credited with establishing Dan Colen as an art market star. Titled Chasing Dash Snow, the piece coined the monik...

The Utopian Architecture of Yona Friedman Reviewed at MAXXI Rome

Yona Friedman is part architect, part artist, part poet, part philosopher, and all human. Throughout the course of his long career, which could be said to have officially started in 1956 with the ...

The Meticulous Process of Hard Edge Painter Frederick Hammersley Honored

When it comes to American, Post-War, abstract art movements, Abstract Expressionism tends to get most of the press. But while New York School artists like Pollock, Krasner and de Kooning were expl...

The Politically Abstract Art of Dia al-Azzawi

Iraqi-born artist Dia al-Azzawi is no stranger to conflict. He has spent a lifetime in the crosshairs: sometimes literally, as when he was forced by Ba’ath extremists that had taken control of the...

Why Do Abstract Art Images Make us Feel so Good?

When you look at abstract art images, how do they make you feel? Do you find that they tend to cause you to have a visceral emotional response? Does abstract art make you feel happy? Does it make ...

The Abstract Salt in the Photographs of David Burdeny

David Burdeny belongs to a photographic heritage that uses the camera not only to document the physical world, but also to investigate the mysteries of how shapes, colors, forms and spaces functio...

The Mesmerizing Animations of Oskar Fischinger

This year is the 50th anniversary of the death of Oskar Fischinger, a prescient genius who came closer than any other artist has to expressing the mystifying, abstract commonalities that exist bet...

Helen Frankenthaler Paintings Celebrated in Dual Retrospectives

Helen Frankenthaler paintings are common sights at many of the best museums in the world, as well as at many prestigious Modern and Contemporary art fairs and auctions. But far fewer people have h...

When Hilla Rebay Became the Guiding Spirit of the Guggenheim Museum

We are approaching the 50th anniversary of the death of a great woman, without whom abstract art history as we know it would not exist. The Baroness Hildegard Anna Augusta Elizabeth Freiin Rebay v...

How Latin American Artists Altered Our Perceptions of Modern Art

A new book by Alexander Alberro, a Professor of Art History and the Department Chair at Barnard College, offers insights into the global development of abstract art in the 20th Century. Titled Abs...

Pollock and Motherwell: Legends of Abstract Expressionism at the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art

A recently opened exhibition in Kansas City, Missouri, examines Abstract Expressionism from the perspective that less is more. The exhibition, Pollock and Motherwell: Legends of Abstract Expressio...

British Abstract Art Exhibition Arrives in Nottingham

This year marks the 70th anniversary of the Arts Council Collection, the most substantial loaning collection of British modern and contemporary art in the world. In celebration of this milestone, ...