It’s Ugly, Drafty, Ghastly: Stella’s Work in a Garage

Frank Stella, whose highly rebarbative Recent Work exhibition is currently on view in a big, drafty, appropriately grungy garage adjoining the Paul Kasmin Gallery in Chelsea, was born in 1936. He thus now qualifies as a senior citizen, but as an artist he is still plugging away at the role of enfant terrible . This Read More

MoMA’s Modern Starts Slights Abstract Art

Certain exhibitions require repeated visits if we hope to attain a serious understanding not only of their constituent parts but of the ideas and intentions that govern their organization and execution. The Modern Starts exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art has been especially challenging in this respect. It has been open to the public Read More

With Watercolors, Cézanne Knew When to Stop Painting

There is a passage in William Rubin’s text for the catalogue of the Cézanne Watercolors exhibition, which is currently on view at Acquavella Galleries, that every visitor to this extraordinary show would do well to keep in mind as a guide to the esthetic discipline that governs the artist’s work in this difficult medium. Mr. Read More