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John Hoyland, "3.12.65," 1965. Acrylic on canvas, 88”x 154” (223.5 cm x 391.2 cm). No. 62228. © The John Hoyland Estate. All rights reserved, DACS 2017. Photograph by Colin Mills, courtesy of Pace Gallery.
Report from the Front
Art criticism, sometimes with context, occasional politics. Published in hard copy 5-7 times a year. New shows: "events;" hard-copy rates & how to support the online edition: "works."
JOHN HOYLAND: STUNNING VISITOR
October 4, 2017
STARS ALL OVER TOWN—
September 29, 2017
This autumn is a golden moment for lovers of fine modernist abstraction. There are four – count ‘em, 4 – excellent Manhattan gallery shows of stars of that persuasion currently on view. At the new Hales Project Room, we have Frank Bowling (through October 15). At Pace, we have John Hoyland (through October 21). At Paul Kasmin, we have Jules Olitski & Anthony Caro (through October 25), and at Yares, we have Larry Poons (through October 28).
I am a great fan of all five of these artists. However, since I started this website in 2010, I have written about Caro and Bowling 9 times apiece, about Poons 11 times, and about Olitski, 17 times. Therefore, I will confine my enthusiasm for all four of them to relatively modest dimensions this time around, in the interests of posting my remarks on all of them sooner rather than later. Since I have never written about Hoyland before, though, I will have more to say about him (and take a little longer to say it).
I am a great fan of all five of these artists. However, since I started this website in 2010, I have written about Caro and Bowling 9 times apiece, about Poons 11 times, and about Olitski, 17 times. Therefore, I will confine my enthusiasm for all four of them to relatively modest dimensions this time around, in the interests of posting my remarks on all of them sooner rather than later. Since I have never written about Hoyland before, though, I will have more to say about him (and take a little longer to say it).
FIRST, THE BIRTHDAY BOY: POONS
September 29, 2017
Larry Poons (b. 1937). Dimension, 2017. Acrylic on canvas, 64 x 114 inches. Courtesy Yares Art.
His latest paintings, too, bespoke an-ever youthful enthusiasm, as well as his hallmark medley of bright, mellifluous colors in delicately brushy configurations suggestive of floral motifs (I’m not the first to be reminded by this latest style of his of the lily-pads of Monet). (more…)
SECOND, THE OCTOGENARIAN: BOWLING
September 29, 2017
Frank Bowling, Metropolitanblooms, 1982. Acrylic on canvas, 35 1/8 x 26 5/8 inches. Courtesy Hales Project Room.
The show as a whole is called “Frank Bowling: Metropolitanbloooms” (through October 15). (more…)
THIRD, CLIMAX TO AN EVOLUTION: CARO & OLITSKI
September 29, 2017
Installation view of "Caro & Olitski: 1965-1968, Painted Sculptures and the Bennington Sprays," Paul Kasmin Gallery, 515 West 27th Street, through October 25. Photo by: Christopher Stach/Paul Kasmin Gallery.
This fall, all three of his venues opened the season with what can be read as a progression tracing the history of modernism in America, and thereby hopefully serving to nail down color-field painting and sculpture as its logical apogee. (more…)
TWO AT THE MET: CRISTÓBAL DE VILLALPANDO & THE AVANT-GARDE IN RE WORLD WAR I
September 20, 2017
Cristóbal de Villalpando (ca. 1649–1714), Moses and the Brazen Serpent and the Transfiguration of Jesus, 1683. Oil on canvas. Col. Propiedad de la Nación Mexicana. Secretaría de Cultura. Dirección General de Sitios y Monumentos del Patrimonio Cultural. Acervo de la Catedral de Nuestra Señora de la Inmaculada Concepción. Puebla, Mexico.
PLEASURABLE POLLOCK PRINTS & AVEDON PHOTOS AT THE GUILD HALL IN EAST HAMPTON
September 16, 2017
Jackson Pollock, Untitled, CR1082 (P19) c. 1944-45. Printed in 1967. Engraving and drypoint on white Italia paper. Edition 11/50. Sheet: 19 13/16 x 27 ¼ inches. Courtesy Washburn Gallery, New York, and The Pollock-Krasner Foundation.
FUN & GAMES AT THE WHITNEY WITH HÉLIO OITICICA
September 12, 2017
Hélio Oiticica (1937–1980), installation view of Tropicália (1966–67) at the Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, 2016. Plants, sand, birds, and poems by Roberta Camila Salgado, dimensions variable. Collection of César and Claudio Oiticica. © César and Claudio Oiticica. Image courtesy Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh. Photograph by Bryan Conley.
LOVERLY LIMEY ORIGINALS ON PAPER IN PRINCETON
September 7, 2017
Joseph Mallord William Turner, English, 1775–1851. Christ Church College, Oxford, 1832–33. Watercolour and bodycolour over graphite with scratching out, on paper. The Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. Image © Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford.
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