In art circles, it’s sometimes forgotten that the first generation of Abstract Expressionist painters in the 1940′s were indebted to the modernist writers of the 1920′s, who elevated an interest in myth and symbolism to the level of an aesthetic imperative. James Joyce’s Ulysses and T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land, both published in 1922, were Read More
There are works of art so spellbinding in their beauty that they transport us beyond the mundane and often dismaying exigencies of day-to-day existence and prompt the kind of experience-uplifting, expansive, profound -that we expect from art. I was transported in this way when I visited Cultivated Landscapes: Reflections of Nature in Chinese Painting , Read More
The role played by friendship in the life of art is a seldom-discussed subject. This is probably why so few exhibitions have been devoted to exploring the aesthetic consequences of such friendships. In chronicling the course of modern painting, for example, we have generally preferred to codify its history in terms of movements and “schools,” Read More
New Yorkers driving out to East Hampton, L.I., for Thanksgiving may notice that the blue-and-yellow sign for Maya’s restaurant has been taken down from its perch near Ronald Perelman’s house on Route 27 in Wainscott. Whether the local branch of Randy and Maya Gurley’s famous St. Bart’s restaurant will also disappear from the Hamptons landscape Read More
