Modern Art

An exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, shows why some consider Winslow Homer the greatest American watercolorist of the genre By Fred Voon The art of Winslow Homer (1836–1910) is well known, but his mind is a bit of a mystery. Famously reclusive, he left no diaries, avoided mingling with other artists, and…

By David MaMasello Kenny Harris is not an interior decorator, but some of what he does to create his subject matter has similarities to that profession. While the Venice, California–based Harris is best known for his evocative, poetic depictions of the interiors of rooms and unassuming cityscapes, what he reveals on panel or canvas is…

San Francisco’s de Young Museum refreshes its Indigenous America galleries to center Native voices and connect the ancestral with the contemporary. By Fred Voon When Meyo Maruffo, a Pomo artist and curator, was invited years ago to the de Young Museum and asked for her thoughts on the Native American exhibits, she said, “It’s a…

Art, nature, and a sense of timelessness converge at quiet Meridiano, a contemplative, experimental, open-air art gallery in Mexico’s Oaxaca region By Jean Nayar Completed only two years ago, Meridiano, an enchanting new exhibition space in Mexico, looks as though it could have been constructed by the region’s indigenous Zapotecs, when they flourished in Oaxaca…

Three masterful still lifes by the 17th-century master of the genre, Pieter Claesz, are now on display at the Kunsthistoriches Museum, in Vienna, each relating an active story  By David Masello There’s an art to setting the table and Pieter Claesz knew how to do it. In his home and painting studio in Haarlem in…

Grandma Moses became every American’s grandma through her quaint and poignant depictions of American life and landscapes By Ashley Busby In her 1952 autobiography, My Life’s History, Anna Mary Robertson Moses, wrote, “If I didn’t start painting, I would have raised chickens. I could still do it now. I would never sit back in a…

Cakes & Pies (1995) Self-described “art thief” Wayne Thiebaud made a case for appropriating from masterworks and styles—as a way to forge his own iteration of art. By Patti Zielinski “It’s hard for me to think of artists who weren’t influential on me because I’m such an obsessive thief,” Wayne Thiebaud once unapologetically told The…

A lotus-inspired design for a competition commemorating the 2500th anniversary of the birth of Buddhism in New Delhi Marking its 40th anniversary, The Noguchi Museum in New York revisits the original vision of its founder, Isamu Noguchi By Fred Voon Scattered across Western Europe are single-artist museums that were founded by 20th-century masters during their…

Summer Stillness (16” x 24”) By David Masello Andrew Orr spends much time with his subjects before committing them to a gesso- or oil-primed panel. While the painter of landscapes might initially be captivated by a stand of trees reflected in a river or clouds hitting a mountain or the circuitous path a dirt road…