 |
Basquiat, using a similar opaque covering technique to Pollock and the early Frankenthaler, taken before the guard told me to stop photographing. Gagosian's Frankenthaler and Basquiat exhibitions are not to be missed. I do not have words for Frankenthaler, it pushes me to the studio--but in both exhibitions a relationship to Pollock and his surrealist floating script that both contained and floated above figures (as in She-Wolf) was surprisingly evident and informative.
Check Two Coats of Paint (listed right) for excellent coverage on Frankenthaler, including this approach. |
 |
Jim Lee, form a strong group show at Edward Thorp: Painting Advanced.
What on earth is this magical concoction? |
 |
| Jim Lee, Detail |
 |
| Andrew Spence, one of several, beautiful paintings that with an economy of means create bracing optical illusions. | |
 |
Andrea Belag's sweeping gestures evoking spaces of the mind.
Edward Thorp's site has lovely images of these paintings. |
 |
| Belag |
 |
| Rachel Malin, an artist new to me. Her work initially recalls Amy Feldman's. |
 |
| This is a particularly wonderful Malin, two systems merging as one. In Thorp's front room, to left. |
 |
| Gary Stephan. Clear, direct latticework of the brush--makes you feel it through your body. |
 |
| Al Held at Cheim and Read. The sheer scale of this work is invigorating, also vertiginous. |
 |
| The abundance of paint and odd cropping of letter forms feel immediate and germane. |
 |
| Susanna Heller at Magnan Metz. Drawings show her process of building mark to evolve images. |
 |
Susanna Heller, painting from her show Phantom Pain, which she identifies not only as an
affliction suffered by her husband, but also society in general. |
 |
| Walls of drawings: hospital drawings and .... |
 |
| Landscape drawings. |
 |
There is a beautiful article by Oliver Sacks in the NY Review of Books on hallucination,
which speaks about phantom pain. |
 |
| The hand reveals the anguish as well of the joy of being alive. |
 |
| Surface detail. |
 |
| Heller has said she puts paint down, like a step on the ground (she is an avid walker, logging huge distances across the city) |
 |
Behind the desk at Magnan Metz. Susanna Heller: a beautiful show.
This painting is a small summary of the acuteness that resides in fully present experience. |
 |
Barkley Hendricks at Jack Shainman, his first with the gallery.
I saw his epic exhibition at the Studio Museum in Harlem, in 2008.
What a shape-maker! Crazy compositions, inspired by the Italian Baroque. |
 |
For some time, Hendricks has focused on Jamaican and other landscapes where he travels and paints.
The newer, figurative works as above, reveals a shift in technique from the earlier figure paintings. |
 |
| Hendrick's love for shoeswas also apparent in the Studio Museum show. |
 |
The figures appear less clarified, more scumbled as a result of increased use of a heavier,
gloss medium, but the love of local detail carries through. |
 |
| Detail--Hendricks can be so precise. |
 |
| Barkley Hendricks Landscape |
 |
| Their basic shapes contain more paint handling and detail than one initially imagines. |
Hastening to see Frankenthaler on 20th St., I missed Mary Jones' compelling paintings in her studio exhibition on 26th St., documented here:
maryjonesstudio.blogspot.com. I've known and admired Mary's work for years, since we first met in Los Angeles I don't even remember when. Mary Jones has long been a great abstract painter, her approach filled with buoyancy and edge.I'll never forget her work in the show
Baroque Geometry in 1988-9 at Marlborough Chelsea with Dona Nelson, Karin Davie, Stephen Ellis, Judith Hudson and Stephen Mueller.
 |
| Mary Jones. Front Porch Dreamer, 2012. oil, feathered wallpaper, spray enamel on canvas, 11 x 14 inches. |
 |
| Another Mary Jones, 2012, with Swarkovsky crystals, roughly the same size as above. Wish I'd seen these. |
|
