Subscribe to Our Newsletter
Abstract Expressionism
Flower Power
Fantasy Enriches Reality in Magical Paintings by Inka Essenhigh ByLilly Wei Inka Essenhigh has always been a wizard with line. The whiplash fluidity and finesse of her draftsmanship made her an artist to be reckoned with ever since the 1990s, when she was starting out. And what she achieved with it was unique, her own…
Out of the Shadows
Gabriele Münter was a spirited champion of the avant-garde in Germany, a brilliant draftswoman, and a daring colorist ByAshley Busby In a diary entry from 1926, Expressionist painter and artist Gabriele Münter (1877–1962) ruminated on her continued position on the periphery of the art world, noting: “In the eyes of many, I was nothing but…
Table for Two
The Met Considers the Intertwined Lives of Manet and Degas in an Exhibition Organized in Conjunction with the Musée d’Orsay By Sarah Bochicchio Édouard Manet (1832–1883) and Edgar Degas (1834–1917) met for the first time in the grand gallery of the Musée du Louvre. It was the early 1860s; both artists were in their late…
A Marvelous Thing
From its beginnings to Abstract Expressionism and beyond, the work of James Brooks is reassessed at the Parrish Art Museum by Lilly Wei While James Brooks was one of the pioneering first-wave Abstract Expressionists who settled in the South Fork of Long Island long before it became synonymous with the “One Percent,” he is now…
Exceptional Creative
Lavinia Fontana, a Bolognese painter of the Cinquecento, broke barriers for women artists all while demonstrating extraordinary talent by Ashley Busby An exhibition at the National Gallery of Ireland, “Lavinia Fontana: Trailblazer, Rule Breaker” (on view through August 27th), highlights the groundbreaking achievements of a lesser-known, late Cinquecento painter from Bologna. To be certain, Fontana…
Subject and Style
A New Exhibition at the Muskegon Museum of Art Reexamines American Painting as It Confronted the Modern World and Modern Art by James D. Balestrieri After having a glance at the images of the artworks on the pages of this essay, you would be forgiven for flipping back to the title of the featured exhibition,…
The Alchemist
With roots in the School of Paris, John Ferren helped define Abstract Expressionism, while finding his own reality By William Corwin Jimmy Stewart’s sleeping face turns blue, then flickers purple; he awakens and his eyes open; his face dissolves into a bouquet of roses, which in turn flutters away into a deconstructed assemblage of animated…
Making the Rules
In an exhibition that considers the effect of shifting societal norms on the lives and legacies of working artists, the world of Paul Wonner and Theophilus Brown is revisited by Lilly Wei The sympathetic black and white photo that appears in the opening pages of the hefty, generously illustrated, informative catalogue that accompanies the…
The Elements of Art
Exhibition Offers Bounty of Artifacts from Medieval Europe to Define Links Between the Artist and the Natural World—Even in the 21st Century by James D. Balestrieri If earth, air, fire, and water are the ancient alchemical elements of the universe, the elements of art—art before the computer, anyway—are wood, plants, clay, stone, minerals, and metals….