(An Appropriate Distance)

FROM THE MAYOR'S DOORSTEP

By Piri Halasz

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

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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EARLY MODS IN MONTCLAIR

July 9, 2013

Tags: Jonas Lie, Allen Tucker, Walter Pach, Oscar Bluemner

Oscar Bluemner (1867-1938). Paterson Mills, ca. 1911. Colored pencil and ink on paper. Vera Bluemner Kouba Collection, Stetson University , DeLand, Florida

The Montclair Art Museum is an easy commute. The De Camp Bus lines’ #33 route from Port Authority decants you on the doorstep of the museum in only 40 minutes or so, and the museum has long had a reputation for exhibitions that match the ambition – if not the scale – of Manhattan’ s museums. A year or so ago, I vastly enjoyed its presentation of “Cézanne in America,” and this time, I looked forward to seeing two new shows: “The New Spirit: American Art in the Armory Show, 1913” and “Oscar Bluemner’s America: Picturing Paterson, New Jersey” (both, alas, closed June 16). Read More

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