ARTES MAGAZINE

Place, memory, and emotion are closely intertwined in the paintings of Charles Burchfield (1893–1967), at a exhibition currently on view at the Whitney Museum of American Art. Thoroughly grounded in the landscapes and neighborhoods of Western New York, Burchfield meticulously observed and freely interpreted places that others might overlook—sites not conventionally scenic or remarkable—transforming them [...]

“Every portrait is, in some sense, a self portrait that reflects the viewer. Because ‘the eye is not satisfied with seeing,’ we bring to a portrait our perceptions and our experiences. In the alchemy of the creative act, every portrait is a mirror.” In his opening paragraph of the chapter entitled, The Image as Reflection”, [...]

Stereotype and cliche are to Marjorie Strider as Istanbul is to Orhan Pamuk or the chador to Shirin Neshat. They are goads to her art. She first came to art world attention in the 1965 “International Girlie Show,” with her blandly outrageous bikini girls flaunting their flawless suntans and smiling their Ipana smiles. They were [...]

      If ever there were a middle-of-the-road exhibition, this year’s Whitney Biennial is it. In the spirit of an Obama promise for ‘Change’ and to ostensibly try to please everyone—traditional nattering nabob art critics included—guest curator Francesco Bonami and Whitney senior curatorial assistant Gary Carrion-Murayari transformed, with a few standout exceptions, what is usually a [...]

By the mid-17th century, English claims in the New World were well-established for those colonies along the New England coastline. The hard-scrabble existence and high mortality which had so characterized the early years of settlement had given way to communal permanence and relative prosperity. Still, the relationship of these growing settlements, with the surrounding forest [...]

This is the tale of a man and an island—and how, in the course of time, their stories became entwined. It is also a tale of devotion to a craft, passion for a cause, and the recognition that sometimes, when we least expect it, fate charts an unexpected course for each of us.          The man [...]

The persistent autumn rain had turned the streets of lower Manhattan to patent leather, slick and reflecting a maze of city lights, like slender, broken threads of yellow, red and white at my feet. With daily regularity, in late afternoon, Houston Street serves as a busy cross-island artery, draining the living city of its commuter [...]

Like her ooze paintings that were Happenings in the 1970’s – enacted at The Clocktower, where wanton ooze descended a spiral staircase, and at PS1, where orange and red urethane foam swept ladders in their wake and tumbled out of the windows – Marjorie Strider’s canvas works signal emotional release and fusion with their surroundings. [...]

Little did Michael Aram know the role that providence would play in his life while on a trip to India twenty years ago. As a recent college grad with a degree in fine arts and a care-free style, a trip to New Delhi to visit a sister and some friends seemed like a splendid idea. [...]

The Sculpture of Nancy Graves On exhibit at Ameringer | McEnery | Yohe  Gallery 525 W 22nd Street New York, NY 10011 She was a painter, printmaker, and avant-garde filmmaker, but the American artist Nancy Graves (1939-1995) is perhaps best known for her groundbreaking sculpture that integrated Abstract Expressionist style with inspirations from science, archaeology, [...]