Magazine

On a Journey with Antoni Tàpies

When Antoni Tàpies died in 2012, he left a massive hole in the Spanish culture. He was easily the most influential Spanish visual artist of his generation, and in many respects it is hard to imagi...

Lee Krasner at the Barbican - A Look at An Artist of Her Own

This summer, The Barbican Art Gallery in London will mount Lee Krasner: Living Colour, the first European retrospective of the work of Lee Krasner in more than half a century. The exhibition will ...

Joan Mitchell's Polyptych Paintings Land at David Zwirner

Visitors to The Long Run exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York (which closes 5 May 2019) were no doubt transfixed when they first set eyes on the selection of large-scale dipty...

Why Mohamed Melehi Was Crucial for Postcolonial Moroccan Art

A new exhibition titled New Waves: Mohamed Melehi and the Casablanca Art School, at The Mosaic Rooms in London, brings to light the artistic achievements of Mohamed Melehi (b. 1936), an influentia...

Diversity is Key to the Future of American Abstract Artists

When American Abstract Artists (AAA) was founded in 1936, most critics and curators considered abstract art too “European” to be “American.” The irony of that prejudice, of course, is that America...

Robert Motherwell's Monumental Approach to Painting

Some words do not retain the same meaning over time. Monumental is one such word. Its value— at least in relation to painting—is currently being tested in Sheer Presence: Monumental Paintings by R...

Why Jackie Winsor is Eccentrically Abstract

The work of Jackie Winsor provides a perfectly wonderful foil to academic theories about contemporary abstraction. The debate that drives most current conversations about abstract art inevitably r...

Key Figures of the Pattern and Decoration Movement

The Pattern and Decoration movement holds a special place in contemporary art history. Emerging out of the Feminist Art Movement of the 1960s, Pattern and Decoration declared itself as a sort of “...

In The Spotlight - Georgia O'Keeffe's Gorgeous Watercolors

It may be hard to imagine a time when Georgia O’Keeffe was unsure of herself, or lacked confidence in her technique. Today, looking back at photographs of her knowing stare, her eyes glistening wi...

Janet Echelman’s Monumental Hanging Abstractions

A new, monumental, outdoor art installation recently premiered in the air space above The Peninsula Hotel in Hong Kong. Titled Earthtime 1.26 (Hong Kong), it is the newest work by Janet Echelman, ...

Art Of Desire - Huguette Caland at Tate St Ives

This summer, Lebanese-born artist Huguette Caland will have her first solo museum exhibition in the United Kingdom, at the Tate St Ives in Cornwall. Born in 1931 in Beirut, Caland moved to Paris i...

The Tall-Standing Sculpture of Beverly Pepper

Beverly Pepper makes art that subverts the power of the traditional art environment, and returns agency to everyday viewers in the natural and built worlds. Later this year, Pepper will turn 97, a...

The Importance of Adolph Gottlieb's Burst series

Adolph Gottlieb once said, “The role of the artist, of course, has always been that of image-maker. Different times require different images.” Gottlieb witnessed multiple distinctly different time...

Finding the Best Art for Interior Designers

The relationship between art and interior design is complex. Every interior designer has an ongoing need for original fine art. But few fine artists embark on the creation of new work with the sta...

Hirshhorn Extends Charline von Heyl’s Critically Acclaimed Exhibition

Two months after it opened at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, DC, Snake Eyes, a retrospective of the work of Charline von Heyl, was closed to the public—a casualty of a pr...

Sanford Wurmfeld's Impressive Color Painting

The name Sanford Wurmfeld may not immediately ring bells with people outside of the art field, but it elicits awe and admiration from most artists who know his work. The self-taught painter has be...

The Revolutionary, Yet Overlooked Weavings of Otti Berger

As we celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Bauhaus this year, it is a fitting time to remember the inspiring, yet tragic story of Otti Berger, one of the most influential women to study and then...

Anton Ginzburg’s Interpretations of Eastern Europe's Modernist-Formal Vocabulary

For the past few years, Russian-born multi-media artist Anton Ginzburg has been exploring novel ways to bridge trends in global contemporary art with the aesthetic principles of early Russian Mode...

Tracing the Designs of Barbara Stauffacher Solomon

Part artist, part dancer, and part designer, Barbara Stauffacher Solomon is best known for her work in the field of graphic. She was the mastermind behind the so-called “Super Graphics” that helpe...

The Movie-Like Story of Willem de Kooning's Woman-Ochre painting

Next month, restoration will begin on one of the most notorious paintings of the 20th Century: “Woman-Ochre” (1955), by Willem de Kooning. The painting is part of the famous Woman series, in which...

Victor Vasarely's Shaping Forms at Centre Pompidou Paris

For the first time in more than 50 years, a major Victor Vasarely retrospective is on view at a French museum. Centre Pompidou opened Vasarely: Sharing Forms this past February, bringing together ...

A Look at the Art of Jean Le Moal

Jean Le Moal came of age as a painter in Paris in the late 1930s, just as Europe both at its cultural height and also descending into chaos. His entire career expressed echoes of this dichotomy. H...

How Alma Thomas Fought Many Wars To Establish Herself

In 1972, at the age of 80, Alma Thomas earned the distinction of becoming the first African American woman to have a solo retrospective at the Whitney Museum of American Art. Her colorful, abstrac...

Whitney Celebrates the 1960s Color Paintings in a New Exhibition

Bob Thompson died of a heroine overdose at age 28, but he completed nearly 1000 paintings and drawings in his brief career. The Whitney Museum of American Art celebrated his work in a 1996 ret...

5 Current and Upcoming Exhibitions of Female Abstract Artists to Visit

In celebration of International Women’s Day, we are taking time to draw attention to five of our favorite exhibitions by female abstract artists in 2019. Some are on view right now, others are upc...

Let's Talk More About the Art of Larry Poons

After his first show, in the early 1960s at the Green Gallery in New York, Larry Poons became an instant critical darling. It featured his now infamous dot paintings—mathematical arrangements of d...

Blog Home Emma Kunz's Drawings, Between Spirituality and Abstraction

This Spring, Serpentine Gallery in London will open Emma Kunz - Visionary Drawings, the first exhibition of the work of Emma Kunz (1892–1963) in the United Kingdom. A Swiss-born Spiritualist, Kunz...

Tachisme - The Abstract Art Movement of the French

Tachisme was one of the most dynamic and fascinating art movements to emerge in the mid-20th Century, yet it is widely misunderstood. Most writers and historians simply pass Tachisme off as the Fr...

Geta Brătescu - Drawing Stories of Forms

Geta Brătescu was 90 years old when the Romanian Culture Ministry chose her to represent her native Romania in the 57th Venice Biennale. Her third appearance at the Biennale, it attracted global a...

What Kind of Art Does Frank Stella – Own?

Frank Stella is amongst the most famous abstract artists alive today. His fame is mostly based on his mid-20th Century minimal masterpieces, and his thoughtful pronouncements on the substance ...

James Siena – Not Your Typical Abstract Artist

To look at a James Siena painting is to get pulled into a sinuous, methodical maze of color and lines. There is no picture at which to look. Instead, there is a transcendental zone in which to wan...

Ellsworth Kelly's Windows at Centre Pompidou

Right before he died in 2015, Ellsworth Kelly donated “Window, Museum of Modern Art, Paris” (1949), to Centre Pompidou. Regarded as his masterpiece, the painting has confounded viewers, critics, a...

Sandra Blow, A Leading Figure of the Abstract Movement in Britain

A selection of late, large-scale paintings by Sandra Blow on view at Huxley-Parlour Gallery in London offers a fresh glimpse at the inventiveness of this pioneering British artist. Blow was amongs...

The Abstract Art Inside the Schulhof Collection

When Hannelore B. Schulhof died in 2012, she bequeathed eighty works of art to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, with the instruction that they be held in the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Ve...

Playing with Geometric

Geometric Abstract art employs geometric forms in a non-figurative way. The tradition of using geometry in visual art dates back centuries, however in many cases geometric forms were used in a dis...

Remembering the Great Robert Ryman

The American painter Robert Ryman has died at age 88. His death was announced in a statement from his gallery. A self-taught artist, Ryman created a vast oeuvre that has intrigued, delighted, and ...

Norman Lewis’s American Totem, Whitney Museum's Newest Acquisition

The Whitney Museum of American Art in New York recently announced its acquisition of “American Totem” (1960) by Norman Lewis, the first painting by Lewis to enter the Whitney collection. The acqui...

What Der Blaue Reiter Brought With Itself to Art History

German Expressionism, which emerged around 1905 and thrived until the late 1920s, was one of the most influential aesthetic movements of the 20th Century. The movement has its roots in two distinc...

André Mare - Camouflaging the War

No discussion about Cubism can be complete without at least some mention of André Mare. Yet even in conversations amongst experts on the topic, it is rare that the name of this accomplished French...

Who are the Top Selling Women Artists of the 2018 Auctions?

The French online art database Artprice.com recently released its run down of the top women artists of 2018, ranked by auction turnover. This is, of course, only one way to rank the success of an ...

How Die Brücke (The Bridge) Celebrated the Power of Color

German Expressionism was born in the city of Dresden in 1905. That is when four architecture students came together to establish Die Brücke, an artistic movement intended to start a German aesthet...

The Art of Richard Pousette-Dart Is On Point

To the American artist Richard Pousette-Dart (1916 – 1992), the circle was a symbol of eternal life. He considered its form to be an expression not only of eternity but of other universal truths, ...

Norman Lewis, a Neglected Gem of Abstract Expressionism

When the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts mounted “Procession: The Art of Norman Lewis” in 2015, the exhibition was a revelation to most viewers. The subject of the show, the American painter Nor...

Shedding Light on the Drip Paintings by Janet Sobel

In 1945, at age 52, Janet Sobel had the mixed blessing of having her work curated by Peggy Guggenheim into an exhibition called The Women at The Art of This Century Gallery. The paintings Sobel in...

The Hypnotizing World of Franco Grignani

This February, the m.a.x. museo and Chiasso Cultural Centre in Switzerland will open an exhibition exploring the career of Franco Grignani (1908 – 1999). Although you may never have heard of Grign...

Celebrating 100 Years of the Bauhaus

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the opening of the Bauhaus. Widely considered the most influential art and design school of the 20th Century, the Bauhaus was founded in Weimar, Germany, b...

Behind James McNeill Whistler's Nocturne in Black and Gold – The Falling Rocket

When James McNeill Whistler first exhibited “Nocturne in Black and Gold – The Falling Rocket” in 1877, the tiny (60.3 × 46.6 cm.) painting ignited a massive public debate. As the title suggests, t...

When Piero Manzoni Made Abstract Art with Achromes

On 14 February 2019, Hauser & Wirth Los Angeles will open an exhibition focused on the “Achromes” of Piero Manzoni. Titled Piero Manzoni: Materials of His Time, and curated by Rosalia Pasquali...