I Art Till I Drop
 |
| Nelson |
 |
| pearlstein |
 |
| tomaselli |
 |
| ohr |
 |
| nagel |
 |
| soutine |
 |
| DeFeo |
 |
| Mitchell |
Of course the great exhibition now on view in Chelsea is the Chaim
Soutine show at the Paul Kasmin Gallery. Comprised of only 16 paintings
(but oh what paintings) it’s still a museum quality show and includes
his twisted distorted and gnarled landscapes, a few portraits and his
famous paintings of carcasses of fowl and rabbits, all beautiful,
vibrant and haunting. I grew up looking at his work along with the work
of his pal Modigliani both of whom led sad poor lives, both dying young
and both of them Jews. Maybe I was attracted to them because they were
Jewish, and showed me that Jews could be artists and there was more to
art than just Picasso. Yes I know there was an other Jewish painter,
Chagall and I knew his work but he was too nice and pretty for me, I
didn’t want fiddlers on roofs, I wanted rough and out of control because
that’s how my own childhood was, and these two Jews gave this very
lapsed Jew (I wasn’t even bar mitzfaed) what I needed in my early teens.
I also think my love and sadness for them had to do with their unique
visions and the pictures that they made. Soutine’s work is the more
difficult of the two not only for his subject matter but also for his
fierce and violent use of the paint and how he applied, slapped and
punched it on to the canvas. I know this can appear ugly and disturbing
to some but not to me, to me this is great, haunting and beautiful work.
His power and influence on art and artists especially the abstract
expressionists is well known and is also felt for many young and not so
young contemporary painters.
Other good shows seen include the quite spectacular and terrific large sculptures by Tara Donovan that take up the two large spaces at the Pace Gallery that are imaginative, strange, theatrical and very beautiful. One of the pieces consists of millions and millions of 3 x 5” white styrene index cards that were put together with glue to form 8 large odd monolithic sculptures that have a primordial look to them, that play around with the light almost making them look like rock formations with line drawings on them. The other large piece is made from thousands of acrylic rods into sphere like shapes that at first look appear to be soft and tactile and not hard and pointy. This is the first show of Donovan’s work that I’ve seen, and for once the attention and recognition paid to her is well deserved.
Philip Pearlstein recent work at Betty Cunningham. Nothing surprising here, just strong beautifully painted nudes set in rooms with unusual objects and his trademark cropping. Amazingly Pearlstein just turned 90 and his paintings continue to be sharp and youthful.
Joan Mitchell & her trees at Cheim & Read. Startling and lush large scale abstract paintings that might bring to mind forests of trees even without the title of the show cluing us in. One always goes to Mitchell’s work for her brilliant use of color and her robust and aggressive handling of paint. Much loved by Painters, and a larger than life force in art world lore and myth, this is a life of an artist that would make a great movie.
Dona Nelson at Thomas Erben Gallery. More theatricality. Large freestanding bold abstract paintings that are viewed from the front and back, making them sculptural. There are many pleasures here when you discover the backs of some of them are brazenly not what you expected. Some might complain about the impression that they are just very good room dividers and they’re just right for some chic interior decorator to plop down in a rich client’s living room but hey offer more than this. Rich in textures and surprises (is that sewing that I see) Nelson has a fine flair for incorporating strings and fabrics into her paint drenched canvases.
Jay DeFeo. Mitchell-Innes & Nash. I wasn’t so crazy about the large retrospective of hers last year at the Whitney, it seemed all over the place to me, and the focus on her “The Rose” left me high and dry, maybe there was just too much expectation hanging around this show for me. That said the current exhibition of her work is very wonderful and pretty much changed my opinion I had of her work. I like when this happens. The show includes fifty works of small photographs, drawings a few paintings and photocopy works. Its all black white and gray, intimate and moving.
Fred Tomaselli James Cohan Gallery. One has to be impressed with Tomaselli’s skill. His works with collage and large scale painting and combines mixed media into very compelling and ornate works with a concern for political issues especially ecological. This can become overwrought and obvious at times but happily these stunning works are impressive even without the political baggage. It’s harder to avoid the social and political aspects of his work in his large but small continuing series of collaged and painted images that cleverly find their way on the front pages of The New York Times. In these news of the day photos Tomaselli crops most of the front page away but keeps some of the headlines and stories along with the photo which is front and center as he makes satirical and editorial comments via his mixture of painting and collage that are by and large entertaining but sometimes obvious and jokey, kinda like a visual SNL skit. Still his skills with intimacy, patterns and design are impressive.
Ron Nagle/George Ohr. Look Closer, Look Again. George Adams Gallery
I love the ceramics of George Ohr and Like Ron Nagle’s ceramics so I thought that this duo show would be great. It isn’t and the main problem is the pairing of these two very different ceramists and the installation. Ohr who liked to call himself “the mad potter of Biloxi” (check out his portraits to see why) worked from the late 19th century into the early part of the 20th century and whose wonderful pieces were way ahead of their time. Nagle is a popular California ceramist who makes small loopy sometimes marvelous eccentric pieces that usually are brightly colored and textured, (you want to reach out and pet them) and are sometimes figurative. Ohr’s colors and glazes are usually muted and somber. The pieces are organic and alive with movement in the way the clay was handled which is sometimes folded, twisted, dented and poked and are very unique. In the exhibition the work of the two are placed on shelves lining the gallery sometimes in pairs and sometimes solo and Nagle suffers in the pairing, maybe its the choices of the pieces shown by him, but at times I felt like the premise of the show was a contest between the two, sort of a dancing with the ceramists, and for me “the Mad Potter’ won hands down. I think both artists would have been better served with individual exhibitions than this skimpy showing of only 15 pieces.
Other good shows seen include the quite spectacular and terrific large sculptures by Tara Donovan that take up the two large spaces at the Pace Gallery that are imaginative, strange, theatrical and very beautiful. One of the pieces consists of millions and millions of 3 x 5” white styrene index cards that were put together with glue to form 8 large odd monolithic sculptures that have a primordial look to them, that play around with the light almost making them look like rock formations with line drawings on them. The other large piece is made from thousands of acrylic rods into sphere like shapes that at first look appear to be soft and tactile and not hard and pointy. This is the first show of Donovan’s work that I’ve seen, and for once the attention and recognition paid to her is well deserved.
Philip Pearlstein recent work at Betty Cunningham. Nothing surprising here, just strong beautifully painted nudes set in rooms with unusual objects and his trademark cropping. Amazingly Pearlstein just turned 90 and his paintings continue to be sharp and youthful.
Joan Mitchell & her trees at Cheim & Read. Startling and lush large scale abstract paintings that might bring to mind forests of trees even without the title of the show cluing us in. One always goes to Mitchell’s work for her brilliant use of color and her robust and aggressive handling of paint. Much loved by Painters, and a larger than life force in art world lore and myth, this is a life of an artist that would make a great movie.
Dona Nelson at Thomas Erben Gallery. More theatricality. Large freestanding bold abstract paintings that are viewed from the front and back, making them sculptural. There are many pleasures here when you discover the backs of some of them are brazenly not what you expected. Some might complain about the impression that they are just very good room dividers and they’re just right for some chic interior decorator to plop down in a rich client’s living room but hey offer more than this. Rich in textures and surprises (is that sewing that I see) Nelson has a fine flair for incorporating strings and fabrics into her paint drenched canvases.
Jay DeFeo. Mitchell-Innes & Nash. I wasn’t so crazy about the large retrospective of hers last year at the Whitney, it seemed all over the place to me, and the focus on her “The Rose” left me high and dry, maybe there was just too much expectation hanging around this show for me. That said the current exhibition of her work is very wonderful and pretty much changed my opinion I had of her work. I like when this happens. The show includes fifty works of small photographs, drawings a few paintings and photocopy works. Its all black white and gray, intimate and moving.
Fred Tomaselli James Cohan Gallery. One has to be impressed with Tomaselli’s skill. His works with collage and large scale painting and combines mixed media into very compelling and ornate works with a concern for political issues especially ecological. This can become overwrought and obvious at times but happily these stunning works are impressive even without the political baggage. It’s harder to avoid the social and political aspects of his work in his large but small continuing series of collaged and painted images that cleverly find their way on the front pages of The New York Times. In these news of the day photos Tomaselli crops most of the front page away but keeps some of the headlines and stories along with the photo which is front and center as he makes satirical and editorial comments via his mixture of painting and collage that are by and large entertaining but sometimes obvious and jokey, kinda like a visual SNL skit. Still his skills with intimacy, patterns and design are impressive.
Ron Nagle/George Ohr. Look Closer, Look Again. George Adams Gallery
I love the ceramics of George Ohr and Like Ron Nagle’s ceramics so I thought that this duo show would be great. It isn’t and the main problem is the pairing of these two very different ceramists and the installation. Ohr who liked to call himself “the mad potter of Biloxi” (check out his portraits to see why) worked from the late 19th century into the early part of the 20th century and whose wonderful pieces were way ahead of their time. Nagle is a popular California ceramist who makes small loopy sometimes marvelous eccentric pieces that usually are brightly colored and textured, (you want to reach out and pet them) and are sometimes figurative. Ohr’s colors and glazes are usually muted and somber. The pieces are organic and alive with movement in the way the clay was handled which is sometimes folded, twisted, dented and poked and are very unique. In the exhibition the work of the two are placed on shelves lining the gallery sometimes in pairs and sometimes solo and Nagle suffers in the pairing, maybe its the choices of the pieces shown by him, but at times I felt like the premise of the show was a contest between the two, sort of a dancing with the ceramists, and for me “the Mad Potter’ won hands down. I think both artists would have been better served with individual exhibitions than this skimpy showing of only 15 pieces.
 |
| donovan |
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home