There are artists who, despite their abundant gifts, seem destined to endure a melancholy fate, and one of them was Oscar Bluemner (1867-1938), the subject of a fine exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art. Bluemner was too “advanced” for the traditionalists at a time when modernism was still a contentious issue, and he Read More
It’s both amazing and amusing to be recalled to a time-1917 or thereabouts-when Elie Nadelman (1882-1946), whose work is the subject of a marvelous retrospective at the Whitney Museum of American Art, was denounced as “outrageous,” “unwholesome,” “gruesome,” even “degenerate,” for exhibiting sculpture that depicted adult men and women in modern dress. Proper people-the very Read More
Time has not been kind to the reputation of the American photographer Edward Steichen (1879-1973), whose work is now the subject of a very problematic exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art. Although he was twice a power in the primary venues that advanced photography as a fine art in this country–first as Alfred Read More
It will be recalled that when the first installment of The American Century: Art & Culture 1900-2000 opened at the Whitney Museum in April, both the exhibition and its oversize, overdesigned catalogue met with-how shall I put it?-a critical response that fell short of universal acclaim. My own verdict in The Observer of May 3 Read More
