Magazine

Henri Matisse’s The Snail and the Key Qualities of Abstract Art

“The Snail” (1953) was completed the year before Matisse died. It is considered his last major “cut-out,” and also, a masterpiece. To Matisse, though, who was tireless in his prolific output, it w...

Why Naum Gabo Was Instrumental for 20th Century Sculpture

Naum Gabo was one of the quintessential “important artists” of the 20th Century. He was shaped by his time, and he developed an artistic position that shaped his time, and ours, in return. What ma...

Sam Falls’ Abstract Shapes of Nature

Multi-disciplinary artist Sam Falls was raised in rural Vermont, one of the least populated parts of the United States. He grew up wandering his natural surroundings and marveling at the ways the ...

6 Examples of Public Abstract Art on the Verge of the Representational

Sometimes people embrace abstract public art, and sometimes they most definitely do not. Some abstract public artworks become beloved parts of the public landscape; others are misunderstood, or ev...

Achieving Luminescence - Mark Rothko’s Orange and Yellow

Mark Rothko may be the most misunderstood 20th Century artist. His work is almost exclusively discussed in terms of its formal qualities, like color and shape, yet Rothko insisted his paintings we...

The Rigorous Art of Tomma Abts

Tomma Abts has managed a difficult feat: she makes paintings that are simple and straightforward that nonetheless hold the eye for long periods of time. The compositions contain a limited number ...

The Rhythm of Piet Mondrian's Broadway Boogie Woogie

“Broadway Boogie Woogie” (1943) was one of the final paintings Piet Mondrian created before he died. Austere in some ways, chaotic in others, the painting is simultaneously an image of movement an...

How the 9th Street Art Exhibition Stepped Out of the New York Art Canons in 1951

Some people say the 9th Street Art Exhibition was a radical act of culture jamming. Others say it was an act of desperation initiated by a bunch of starving artists who had nowhere else to show th...

On Abstraction and Empathy, Wilhelm Worringer’s Fundamental Work

For anyone interested in understanding how spirituality came to be associated with abstract art, “Abstraction and Empathy: Essay in the Psychology of Style” (1907), by Wilhelm Worringer, is an ess...

Visiting The Bernar Venet Foundation

French conceptual artist Bernar Venet wants you to celebrate the legacy of Yves Klein, but he also wants you to work for it. Klein would have turned 90 this year. In his memory, the gallery of the...

An Interview with Los Angeles-Based Australian Photographer George Byrne

George Byrne has an eye for recognizing the formal visual patterns of everyday life. In his adopted home town of Los Angeles, he wanders the city capturing photographic compositions that mimic the...

Ellen Carey and The World of Color in Photography

An exhibition of new work by Ellen Carey, titled Ellen Carey: Mirrors of Chance, opens at Galerie Miranda in Paris this month. The show introduces a new body of work by Carey called “Zerograms.” F...

Five Noteworthy Sculptures by Anthony Caro

When he died in 2013, Anthony Caro was considered the most influential British sculptor of his generation. His influence stemmed from both his work, and from his teaching. Two days a week from 195...

The Concrete Utopia of the Yugoslav Architecture

Some of the most jarring images I have ever seen are on view right now at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, in an exhibition titled Toward a Concrete Utopia: Architecture in Yugoslavia, 1948–1...

Why Was Kazimir Malevich’s Black Square Painting So Seminal?

For the past several generations, art historians have been telling people that the painting “Black Square” (1915), by Kazimir Malevich, was the most important, most seminal painting of the 20th Ce...

A Word on the International Klein Blue

Had he not died of a heart attack at age 34, Yves Klein would have turned 90 this year. In celebration of this would-be milestone, Blenheim Palace in the UK is currently exhibiting more than 50 Kl...

Motherhood, Maternity, Femaleness, Gender - Judy Chicago’s Birth Project

Between the years 1980 and 1985, Judy Chicago enlisted more than 150 needleworkers to collaborate with her on the creation of dozens of large-scale tapestries that formed the basis for a monumenta...

The Story Behind Wassily Kandinsky's Composition VII

“Composition VII” (1913) by Wassily Kandinsky is considered by many abstract art aficionados to be the most important painting of the 20th Century—perhaps even the most important abstract painting...

Jeff Elrod, Alex Hubbard, Yang Shu and the Three Approaches to the Painted Medium

Simon Lee Gallery in Hong Kong recently opened the eponymously titled Jeff Elrod, Alex Hubbard, Yang Shu, a new exhibition of works by three painters from three different cities. I am a bit baffle...

Lino Tagliapietra, A Maestro of Glass

Abstract glass artist Lino Tagliapietra received the title of maestro when he was only 21 years old. Since it means “one who is distinguished,” it should not come as a surprise to find out that fe...

How Enid Marx Redefined the 20th Century Design

Enid Marx was only 26 years old in 1928 when Virginia Woolf wrote the famous line: “I would venture to guess that Anon, who wrote so many poems without signing them, was often a woman.” But indeed...

A Rush of Colors in Sabine Moritz’s Eden

Sabine Moritz has made a reputation for herself as a figurative painter—a creator of dreamlike floral images and haunting urban scenes. But a new exhibition of her work at KÖNIG GALERIE in Berlin ...

The Science of Color and The Way it Captivated Artists

To get an idea of just exactly how complex the science of color is, take a moment after reading this article to visit the Cooper Hewitt collection website. At the top of the page you will see an o...

A Museum in Tasmania Gathers the Founders of the Zero Art Movement

Australian art collector and gambling magnate David Walsh recently opened a landmark exhibition of the Zero art movement at his Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) in Hobart, Tasmania. Titled ZERO, t...

Ugo Rondinone to Create a New Sculpture for Liverpool

Recently, news came out of Liverpool about a forthcoming sculpture to be installed there by the Swiss-born, New York-based artist Ugo Rondinone. The story has me flashing back, to 2016, when I hap...

The Art of the Process

The term process art describes the sentiment that an art object is less important than the process of its creation. The final artwork might be seen only as a remnant of the act from which it manif...

A Century-Long History of Abstract Hanging Sculpture

One of the happy outgrowths of the recent boom in international art fairs is the coinciding boom in concurrent museum and gallery exhibitions geared towards attracting the attention of fair visito...

The Cool Years in LA and The Early Works of Judy Chicago

Judy Chicago is easily amongst the most influential artists today. Her monumental installation “Dinner Party” (1974-79), part Minimalist icon and part Feminist masterpiece, inspired simultaneous c...

Carlos Cruz-Diez - The Star of Phillips’ Summer Exhibition

Carlos Cruz-Diez is easily one of the most intriguing artists in the world today. For seven decades, he has been fascinating eyes and blowing minds with his optical and kinetic artworks, which exp...

A History of Color and Abstraction with Beth Letain

Pace London recently opened an exhibition of new works on canvas by Canadian artist Beth Letain. The title of the exhibition, Signal Hill, references a rocky cliff on the east coast of Canada, in ...

Orla Kiely's Life in Pattern

If you have visited London in the past month or two you might have noticed that the iconic facade of the Fashion and Textile Museum (FTM) has gotten a make-over. The re-design comes courtesy of Ir...

Remembering the Abstract Textile Designs of Lucienne Day

It is a rare accomplishment for an industrial designer to so successfully capture the spirit of the age that their designs end up not only on consumer products, but also being exhibited in art gal...

Agostino Bonalumi’s Creative Path Through the Polyhedral

This summer, on the occasion of the five-year anniversary of the death of Agostino Bonalumi, the Royal Palace of Milan will present Bonalumi 1958 – 2013, the first survey of its kind in the city w...

Most Notable Representatives of African Fabric Art at Sean Kelly

A new exhibition of African fabric art at Sean Kelly New York, titled Ravelled Threads, has got my mind buzzing with fascination. I confess that I love any chance to see the methods abstract artis...

James Stanford's Shimmering Zen of the Mandala

As a child, James Stanford had little experience with fine art. He was born in Las Vegas in 1948, 13 years after gambling was legalized in the city, and three years before the U.S. Government bega...

The Importance of Anni Albers’ Textiles. At Tate Modern

In October of 2018, in anticipation of the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Bauhaus, the Tate Modern in London will present the first-ever retrospective of the work of Anni Albers to be he...

Sam Gilliam’s Music of Color in Basel

In conjunction with the start of Art Basel 2018, the Kunstmuseum Basel recently opened what is being called the first European solo exhibition ever of the work of American abstract artist Sam Gill...

Between Image and Object - Landon Metz at von Bartha

Over the past half decade or so, Brooklyn-based artist Landon Metz has been gravitating towards an aesthetic position that speaks to the notion of repetition. Using a method borrowed from Helen Fr...

The Importance of “The Field”, Australia’s Landmark Exhibition, 50 Years On

Half a century ago, what would end up being the most influential Australian museum exhibition of the 20th Century opened at the brand new location of the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV). At the...

Space is Silence. Zao Wou-Ki in Paris After Fifteen Years

Inspired by encountering the early abstract work of his new friend, the Chinese-born painter Zao Wou-Ki, the Belgian-born poet and artist Henri Michaux once declared, “Space is silence.” That poet...

NGV’s Special Bond with Artist Robert Hunter, on View in Melbourne

By the time Australian painter Robert Hunter died in 2014 he had earned an international profile, and was considered by many to be the most influential abstract artist in Australia. It was an amaz...

Mary Corse: A Survey in Light at The Whitney

A major retrospective of the career of Mary Corse is on view this summer at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. Titled Mary Corse: A Survey in Light, the exhibition touches on many of ...

Holding Color, Material, and Light - Suzan Frecon at David Zwirner

Suzan Frecon is a master of nuance. She recently opened her first ever solo exhibition in Asia, at the Hong Kong location of David Zwirner gallery. The exhibition itself is subtle—half a dozen pai...

Günther Förg and the Fragile Beauty of Rebellious Art

This year is the fifth anniversary of the death of German artist Günther Förg. Marking the occasion, The Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam has organized a major survey of his entire career titled Günther...

The Interweaving Process of Bernard Frize

The George Pompidou Center in Paris will open a retrospective of the work of Bernard Frize in 2019. In anticipation of that exhibition, the Simon Lee Gallery in Mayfair, London, recently opened a ...

No Boundary Between Reality and Imagination - Katharina Grosse at the Gagosian

Katharina Grosse is perhaps the most honest artist working today. I say that because, when asked by an Art21 documentary film crew why she does the kind of work that she does, Grosse answered, “I ...

Frank Auerbach’s Landscapes and Portraits in New York

A compact and elegant show of paintings by the great British painter Frank Auerbach is currently on view at Timothy Taylor New York. Frank Auerbach: Landscapes and Portraits examines multiple deca...

Frank Auerbach Landscapes and Portraits in New York