Magazine

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...

The Human Sculptures of Jonathan Borofsky

When he began his art career in the 1960s, Jonathan Borofsky aspired to find a way to unify Minimalism with Pop Art; to merge essentially abstract notions like purity and simplicity with a visual ...

At Yossi Milo Gallery, A Group Show of Artists Painting with Light

On 17 January 2019, Yossi Milo Gallery in New York will open a group exhibition examining the contemporary state of Concrete Photography. Titled Painting with Light, the exhibition will include wo...

How Joseph Csaky Applied Pictorial Cubism in His Sculpture

Though Cubism was most widely translated through the mediums of painting and collage, several pioneering artists also extended the Cubist method into the realms of sculpture and relief. Joseph Csa...

Connecting Points of Milan Houser

Czech artist Milan Houser is proving himself to be a perfect aesthetic representative of this era, in which humanity more and more seeks beauty and meaning in ambiguity. So much is known that we l...

What The Section Or Meant for Cubism, and Abstract Art At Large

Cubism emerged from the minds and paint brushes of Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. But credit for expanding knowledge of the Cubist method to the masses unquestionably goes to the Groupe de Pute...

What The Section d’Or Meant for Cubism, and Abstract Art At Large

Cubism emerged from the minds and paint brushes of Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. But credit for expanding knowledge of the Cubist method to the masses unquestionably goes to the Groupe ...

Why Francoise Sullivan Was Essential for the Quebec Art Scene

A Françoise Sullivan retrospective is currently touring Canada in celebration of the 70th anniversary of the publication of Refus Global (Global Refusal), the most important art manifesto in Canad...

Achille Perilli's Geometrically Irrational Art

An exhibition featuring 35 paintings by Achille Perilli recently went on view at The State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia. At age 91, Perilli is the last surviving member of the Forma ...

Katarzyna Kobro and Wladyslaw Strzemiński – Stars of the Polish Avant-garde

Katarzyna Kobro and Wladyslaw StrzemiÅ„ski were two of the most influential Polish artists of the 20th Century. Their oeuvres are currently being explored in “A Polish Avant Garde: Katarzyna Kobro...

Ernst Caramelle, A Resume

The Museum Moderner Kunst (mumok) in Vienna, Austria, recently opened the first ever retrospective of the work of conceptual artist Ernst Caramelle. The whimsically named exhibition – Ernst Carame...

The Knave/Jack of Diamonds and the Russian Avant-Garde

The roots of nearly every Russian avant-garde movement of the 20th Century lie in a short-lived Russian art collective called Бубновый Валет, which had its first exhibition in 1910. I...

Nicolete Gray's Subtle Contribution to Abstraction

Nicolete Gray was not an artist; she was an expert in typography. And yet her understanding of the semantics of visual languages led her to make a distinctive contribution to the history of abstra...

How Kim Whanki Pioneered Abstract Art in Korea

For the first time in generations it seems possible that North and South Korea might unify as one nation. To mark this important historical moment, The Powerlong Museum in Shanghai, China, recentl...

The Met Explores the Profound Legacy of Abstract Expressionism

The Met Fifth Avenue in New York opened Epic Abstraction: Pollock to Herrera this week. Featuring more than 50 major works by some of the most compelling abstract artists of the past century, the ...

Divisionism and Its Influence on Color in Art

Divisionism was one of the most influential aesthetic developments of the 19th Century. It emerged out of the Post-Impressionist period, and is essentially a method of painting a picture in which ...

Sadamasa Motonaga, Between High and Low Art

An exhibition of mid-career abstract paintings by Sadamasa Motonaga is currently on view at McCaffrey Fine Art in New York. Motonaga was one of the earliest members of the Gutai Group, an experime...

Charlotte Posenenske, a (Forgotten) Minimalist Master

Dia Art Foundation recently announced the acquisition of 155 sculptural elements by German Minimalist Charlotte Posenenske (1930 – 1985). Posenenske voluntarily left the art world at the height of...

Behind Joan Snyder’s Transcending Practice

Joan Snyder has accomplished something few artists do: she has become an icon. Usually in order to be considered iconic, an artist must focus on a single style, a single technique, or a single sig...

The Spatial Reliefs of Hélio Oiticica

An exhibition of early works by Hélio Oiticica at Galerie Lelong & Co. New York is worth a trip to see, as it offers a glimpse into the pure plastic aestheticism that formed the basis of the o...

Why The Irascibles Rebelled Against the Art Establishment

The Irascibles, or The Irascible 18, was a group of American abstract artists who signed an open letter of protest addressed to Roland L. Redmond, then President of the Metropolitan Museum of Art,...

The Monumental Art of Louise Nevelson

This year marks the 30th anniversary of the death of Louise Nevelson, an artist who profoundly influenced 20th Century art and whose legacy still reverberates today. Nevelson is most widely known ...

Alfonso Ossorio and his Congregations of Found Objects

Alfonso Ossorio is almost a forgotten name today. And yet Ossorio was a key figure in the development of Post War Modernist Art. Born into a wealthy family, Ossorio was an avid art collector whose...

Arshile Gorky to Get the First Italian Retrospective in 2019

The Ca' Pesaro International Gallery of Modern Art in Venice will mount an ambitious Arshile Gorky retrospective in 2019. Titled “Arshile Gorky: 1904 – 1948,” it will coincide with the run of the ...

The Story of Hedda Sterne, Between Surrealism and Abstract Expressionism

Hedda Sterne was a versatile and imaginative artist who experimented with dozens of distinct styles over the course of her long career. Yet her legacy has somehow become attached to a single style...

How Alexander Bogomazov Created the Cubo-Futurism

Alexander Bogomazov is an underappreciated hero of Modern Art. He was born in 1880 in a small village near the city of Kiev, Ukraine, when it was still part of the Russian Empire. Despite growing ...

The Joy of the Colorful Abstract Art at Mnuchin Gallery

Mnuchin Gallery in New York is currently showing The Joy of Color, a celebratory group show of colorful abstract art dating from 1939 to 2018. The exhibition offers a unique glimpse into the multi...

The Abstract Figuration of Franz Marc

Franz Marc died at 36, but it is difficult to feel sorry for him. In his brief life he created a body of paintings that were so powerful that they are considered the height of German Expressionism...

The Glorious Austerity of Ben Nicholson

When Ben Nicholson died in 1982 at the age of 88, he left behind a troubled legacy in his homeland of England. On one hand, his abstract reliefs are considered by most British scholars to represen...

Saluting Yun Hyong-keun, Star of the Dansaekhwa Movement

Eleven years after his death, Korean abstract artist Yun Hyong-keun is finally receiving the celebration he deserves, with simultaneous exhibitions at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporar...

Why We Should Pay Attention to Hungarian Artist Ilona Keserü

It is her love of art that makes Ilona Keserü such a successful artist. It is her appreciation for the art of others, and the art of other times, that helped her become one of the greatest artists...

Jackson Pollock’s Convergence – A Masterpiece

“Convergence” by Jackson Pollock is an underappreciated masterpiece. Pollock painted it in 1952, the same year he finished “Blue Poles,” which became one of the most famous paintings of his career...

The Systematic Paintings of Paul Mogensen

Paul Mogensen creates pared down visual compositions based on simple mathematical systems. He expresses those systems through structured arrangements of squares, rectangles and lines. Each image h...