(An Appropriate Distance)

FROM THE MAYOR'S DOORSTEP

Report from the Front
Art criticism, sometimes with context, occasional politics. New shows: "events;" how to support the online edition: "works."

3 TIMES & PLACES

November 30, 2013

Tags: Joan Miro, Andre Masson, Roy Lerner, Peter G Ray, Jules Olitski

Peter G. Ray. "The Garden of Earthly Delights" 2013. Acrylic and oil on canvas, 72" x 102".

Three worthwhile gallery shows I’ve seen recently present art from three times & places. The earliest takes us back to the 1920s in Paris. The latest presents art as it is now, in exurban New York and Canada. The middle focuses on a painter who worked during the five decades in between, all the way from Florida to New Hampshire. Read More

4 Comments

Comments

Dec 09, 2013 1:05 PM EST

Regarding the Lerner/Ray exhibit- you are much, much too kind.

- jerald webster

Jan 03, 2014 9:31 AM EST

Re my first comment, I want to add that I too feel Roy's best work remained in his studio-to his detriment. His "range" of novel activity is irrelevant - his level of quality is what matters. It is not what gets you into the studio to paint, its what you come out with when you are done. He has far better paintings than what was shown and I wonder if he was happy with the selection. I know shows are hard to come by but....this was detrimental.

I have already taken flack for my first posting so I may as well get some more.Two things have shaped my thinking in the past ten years. I almost died from a heart attack at 52 in 2005. I no longer suffer fools and suck ups, its a waste of my time. I also have been a boss where I worked and have found that honey only works with some people but others will keep feeding on it until you take it away. A foot in the ass always gets results. The problem with that is it inevitably is met with whining and resistance and the back stabbing repercussions can cost you your job and in the end, for me, it did. That is what B.B.King was getting at - "Payin the Cost of Being the Boss". I have found that even though I have taken a lot of sh#t for speaking my mind, it gets results. I don't back down.

- jerald webster

Jan 03, 2014 10:03 AM EST

Actually, with the exceptions of "Clear as a Bell" and "Gravity," I too felt that I'd seen better Lerners in other situations (exhibitions as well as in his studio). However, I also suspect that the reason Moffett chose to exhibit those other, less successful experiments was because he wanted to encourage Lerner to experiment more, or at least to stay with his experiments until they've developed into something more. I myself have observed over the years how now & again, Lerner will try something different, and then, if it doesn't pan out immediately as he wanted it to, he goes back to painting the same kind of picture he's been painting since the 90s. They're lovely paintings, but after 20 years, I am running out of things to say about them, so I can sort of sympathize with Moffett on this one.

- Piri Halasz

Jan 03, 2014 10:11 AM EST

PS. Although you say you've taken flack for your first posting, I found it a most refreshing change of pace . When there are disagreements, it's always stimulating (as long as they're politely phrased). I might add, I am aware that you're not the only one who thought I'd been too kind (just the only one to commit such views to print).

- Piri Halasz

GOODIES AT THE FRICK

November 23, 2013

Tags: David d Angers

David d Angers (1788-1856). La Douleur, 1811. Plaster. 21 1/4 x 12 5/8 x 10 1/4 inches (54 x 32 x 26 cm). Collection Roberta J. M. Olson and Alexander B.V. Johnson

The Frick Collection this fall has two stellar exhibitions on view. One has fifteen magnificent 17th century Dutch Old Masters, visiting from Holland. The other is a mini-retrospective of David d’Angers, who in the early 19th century would become one of France’s first Romantic sculptors. Both shows are well worth seeing. Read More

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ARMORY SHOW THOUGHTFULLY REVISITED

November 18, 2013

Tags: Arthur B. Davies, Walt Kuhn, Walter Pach, Elmer McCrae, Matisse

Henri Matisse (French, 1869-1954), Blue Nude, 1907. Oil on canvas, 36 ¼ x 55 ¼ in. The Baltimore Museum of Art: The Cone Collection, formed by Dr. Claribel Cone and Miss Etta Cone of Baltimore, Maryland, BMA 1950.228. © 2013 Succession H. Matisse / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photography by Mitro Hood.

Nobody could recreate the 1913 Armory Show as it originally existed, with approximately 1300 works of art by over 300 European and American artists. Two museums have recently tried to stage an evocation of it, in honor of its centenary, and although I liked the first show a lot, I like the second even better.

Furthermore, Read More

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AND THE BEAT GOES ON

November 11, 2013

Tags: Larry Poons, Paul Feeley, Larry Zox, William Perehudoff, Brancusi

William Perehudoff (1918-2013) AC-87-023, 1987 Acrylic on canvas 55 x 114 inches Courtesy BERRY CAMPBELL, New York

Chelsea is still a place where younger artists & audience go to see and be seen, but it is also getting to be awfully chic. It never really was a low-end platform, even when it first took over the leadership of the downtown art scene from SoHo, but now this is more evident than ever, Read More

1 Comments

SO LONG, TONY

November 1, 2013

Tags: Anthony Caro

Anthony Caro. Red Splash, 1966. Steel, painted. 45 1/2" x 69" x 41". Collection Mr. and Mrs. David Mirvish, .Toronto. Photograph (c) Barford Sculptures, photographer John Riddy.

So—Sir Anthony Caro is gone. At least it was quick and painless (we should all be so lucky). And he was 89: it was the end of a long, rich and full life. I first met him in late 1969, about three months after I'd left Time. I'd decided to leave New York, go to London, and Read More

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