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Newsletters

Painting

Read more about Arts.

For David Hockney, Looking Was Living

He was born in Yorkshire, died in London and never lost his flat Northern accent. Something else he never lost in his 88 years on earth was his love of looking and using whatever tool felt right to capture what he saw.
By Henry Roberts
A woman in a pink long-sleeved shirt leans over a paint-splattered wooden table piled with crumpled paint tubes, with large abstract paintings visible behind her in the studio.

Francesca Mollett’s Architecture of Abstraction

In “Buried Shadow” at GRIMM, she transforms memory, matter and perception into tableau vivants in which light, color and form shift under the eye.
By Elisa Carollo
A painting of a dead, trussed sheep

One Fine Show: “Zurbarán” at the National Gallery in London

This artist looked life square in the face, and painted it in all its beauty and viscerality.
By Dan Duray
An abstract work on paper shows many black and red dots, eyes, stars, spirals and curving lines spread across a cream-colored background, with color calibration bars visible at the top and bottom.

Joan Miró’s Joy Is as Infectious as Ever

By Dian Parker
A portrait photograph shows Manuel Mathieu standing in front of a large abstract painting with purple, orange and white forms, framed by hanging strips of textured material.

Manuel Mathieu’s Venice Biennale Debut Asks How We Carry the Past

By Elise Morton
An altar-like wooden cabinet combines expressive painted panels and handmade puppets arranged in a theatrical tableau against a black wall.

One Fine Show: “Paula Rego, Dance Among Thorns” at MUNCH in Oslo

By Dan Duray
A painter stands in a studio surrounded by large, brightly colored abstract canvases.

50 Years of Groundbreaking Work: Kunstmuseum Basel Puts Helen Frankenthaler Front and Center

By Dian Parker

Painter Renée Levin’s Unhurried Eye

By Xinyi Ye
A painting shows several figures on a ship deck looking out at the sea through windows, including a child and a woman holding a glass, suggesting a moment during a journey.

Archie Rand On the Irreducibility of Painting in a Digital Age

By Elisa Carollo
A loosely rendered still life painting featuring a tabletop with a jar, bottle, and bright orange fruit set against soft, layered fields of color.

The Exacting Nuance of Richard Diebenkorn

By Dian Parker
An artist sits in a studio in front of several large textile paintings featuring layered figurative scenes and vivid atmospheric colors.

Nengi Omuku Sees Value in Beauty During Times of Global Disruption

By Wana Udobang
A portrait of Leah Ke Yi Zheng standing in front of a brightly striped abstract painting, surrounded by softly colored geometric works in a studio setting.

Leah Ke Yi Zheng On Painting as a Relational Phenomenon

By Elisa Carollo
BRITAIN-HISTORY-ART-AUCTION-CHURCHILL

What Happens When a Sitter Hates Their Portrait?

By Daniel Grant
An image of Jessica Taylor Bellamy standing in front of one of her layered, atmospheric paintings, looking directly at the camera.

Jessica Taylor Bellamy’s Captured Realities Are Never Fully What They Seem

By Elisa Carollo
A close-up portrait of Marchesa Luisa Casati, her face framed by her hands, wearing a fur-trimmed garment and her signature heavily kohl-lined eyes. The sepia-toned photograph captures an unusual stillness — intense but unperformed, unlike nearly every other image she left behind.

The Most Outrageous Woman Who Ever Spent a Fortune

By Jennifer Ashley Wright
A portrait of a woman artist seated in her studio, surrounded by paint tubes and brushes, with two of her paintings visible behind her—one a monochrome seascape and the other a surreal composition of headless figures with floating fruit.

As Venice Nears, Arch Hades Traces Her Shift from Verse to Visuals

By Aisling O'Leary
A portrait of a man with mustache and blue shirt against a red brick wall.

Kamrooz Aram On Painting in the Space Between Grid and Gesture

By Elisa Carollo
An image featuring an artist standing in front of a vibrant, colorful abstract painting. The artist wears glasses and a denim apron, with dark hair styled neatly. The background painting showcases various hues of blue, purple, and orange, with dynamic fluid shapes creating a sense of movement.

Vian Sora’s Beautiful Wreckage

By Elisa Carollo
A vibrant abstract painting by Christina Quarles, featuring fluid, distorted human forms and a dynamic play between bold colors and textures. The figures intertwine in a surreal, disjointed composition against a bright purple brick wall, with expressive, fragmented limbs and drips of paint enhancing the sense of fluidity and tension in the work.

In L.A., Christina Quarles Confronts the Tension Between Body, Space and Identity

By Elisa Carollo
An image shows a woman standing against a white gallery wall beside a large vertical painting of an upside-down nude figure holding yellow flowers, providing a sense of scale for the artwork.

Danielle Orchard’s Indescribable Yearning

By Sarah Moroz
An image of a person sitting in a chair between two large paintings: One painting shows a close-up of tuna-stuffed cabbage with bright colors and a traditional dish layout, and the other depicts a vibrant coffee scene with Bambinos, both from recipe card collections.

Abbi Kenny, Beyond the Still Life

By Christa Terry
Vivid red-dominant painting showing a reclining blue nude figure amid green line-drawn plants, scattered architectural fragments and floating portrait panels, evoking memory, loss and symbolic rebirth.

At Hauser & Wirth, Qiu Xiaofei’s Transmutation of Grief

By Elisa Carollo
Julia Jo stands beside a paint-covered table in her studio, surrounded by large abstract canvases and brushes arranged against exposed brick walls.

Julia Jo Paints at the Threshold of Emotion and Psychical Presence

By Elisa Carollo
A black-and-white painting shows a dark bridge lined with small lights stretching across the horizon above a surface of churning waves rendered in layered, silvery brushstrokes.

Karen Gunderson and the Subtle Complexity of Black

By John Scott Lewinski
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