Edward Hopper is the quintessential painter of American loneliness. Would Hopper’s characters ever have Facebook pages? What if they were checking their Twitter feed in the night cafe? Of course, it is absurd to ask these questions. His subjects seem not just like people naturally inclined to isolation but as though they were operating during Read More
Who’s responsible for mounting the superb exhibition devoted to the paintings, drawings, prints and notebooks of Edward Hopper (1882-1967) at the Whitney? The accompanying press materials don’t say. The show, part of the museum’s ongoing anniversary celebration, is a world apart from the rest of Full House: Views of the Whitney’s Collection at 75, an Read More
Who’s responsible for mounting the superb exhibition devoted to the paintings, drawings, prints and notebooks of Edward Hopper (1882-1967) at the Whitney? The accompanying press materials don’t say. The show, part of the museum’s ongoing anniversary celebration, is a world apart from the rest of Full House: Views of the Whitney’s Collection at 75, an Read More
Starry-eyed cynicism coupled with careerist savvy characterizes an increasingly youthful contemporary-art world. Critics, dealers and collectors, eager to exploit the drive of untried talent, snatch students from their M.F.A. cradles and hope for star material. The scene is heady as a result, but ultimately, we’re left with a glut of product that nobody needs.
As Read More
The American painter Charles Burchfield (1893-1967), whose work is the subject of a splendid exhibition at the DC Moore Gallery, was one of the most accomplished artists of his generation. He was also one of the most popular. He had the distinction, moreover, of creating a vision of the American landscape that established itself as Read More
I had in mind the sort of casual place I used to frequent in the Village: doors folded back onto the street, a few tables under the awning, relaxed and quiet on a warm summer night, a place where you could linger over a bottle of wine. Fillip’s, a small French restaurant in Chelsea, sounded Read More
I had in mind the sort of casual place I used to frequent in the Village: doors folded back onto the street, a few tables under the awning, relaxed and quiet on a warm summer night, a place where you could linger over a bottle of wine. Fillip’s, a small French restaurant in Chelsea, sounded Read More
Abstract painters like to bitch and moan about their lot in life. Abstract art, they complain, was once the standard-bearer of high culture, but now it’s just another item on display in the dizzying contemporary art bazaar. Still, I’m not so sure figurative painters don’t have a harder time of it. Abstraction, largely because it Read More
Nowadays, neither the art nor the writings nor even the name of the American painter Guy Pène du Bois (1884-1958) is likely to be familiar to the New York art public. The passage of time, changes in taste and the steady, often cynical drumbeat for the promotion of hot new reputations all conspire to consign Read More
Let’s face it: There’s a class of highly accomplished American painters whose work has been consistently rejected by the New York museum establishment when it comes to mounting full-scale retrospective exhibitions. Although otherwise diverse in style and spirit, these painters can generally be characterized as representational but not confrontational. They deal with recognizable subjects, but Read More
