Modern Art

Helen Lundeberg’s painting grew from a unique blend of intense intellectuality and California cool. By John Dorfman Running alongside the foaming rapids of avant-garde art in the 20th century is another stream, quieter, often in the shadows, but steadily flowing nonetheless. In that current can be found movements such as Precisionism, the New Objectivity, Metaphysical…

Pattern-Seeking Nancy Callan’s glass art is all about exploration, discovery, and collaborating with the material. By John Dorfman Nancy Callan has caught on fire. Not metaphorically—literally. When she’s working on her pieces in the hotshop, assistants have to hold wooden paddles to shield her arms and torso from the heat, and on more than one…

An unusual exhibition foregrounds the Renaissance and Baroque art of painting on surfaces of semi-precious stone, marble, or slate. By Rebecca Allan Anyone who has hiked a mountain or combed a beach to seek out unusual stones can appreciate our shared affinity for the special qualities of rocks—their age, origin, resilience, coloration, textures, and shapes….

Milton Avery created a unique blend of figuration, abstraction, and color wizardry that influenced generations of artists who came after him. By John Dorfman Milton Avery (1885–1965) was a man of few words. He would go whole days without saying anything, until his wife, the painter Sally Michel Avery, would finally get him to speak….

Sean Scully’s painting takes geometric abstraction into a realm that is both emotional and philosophical. By Rebecca Allan Painting is a mercurial discipline. Creating a work of art from the combination and manipulation of pigments, liquid binders, and tools manipulated by the hand to metaphorically convey an idea, memory or a place is a slippery…

In Florence, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see Donatello’s greatest works together reveals the power and influence of the Renaissance sculptor’s innovations. By John Dorfman Donatello may well be one of the most radical artists of all time. Virtually single-handedly, he reinvented sculpture in the early 15th century, making it a thoroughly three-dimensional, vital art form….

Jack Wright’s abstract paintings open a portal into a realm of inner vision and beatific light. By John Dorfman Jack Wright’s studio in the hills of northern California’s Marin County had a such a beautiful view that he had to slather a window with white paint to block the distraction. That’s because Wright was painting…

The legendary glass art of Venice made a deep impression on American painters and collectors during the Belle Epoque. By Rebecca Allan Reflected, refracted, and poured, light is at the core of our capacity to perceive color, form, and space. These evanescent elements, present in glass objects, beckoned American artists and other visitors to Venice…

An innovative exhibition reveals the complex ways in which indigenous Mexicans redefined themselves and preserved their culture after the disaster of the Spanish conquest. By John Dorfman On August 13, 1521, the last Aztec ruler of Mexico, Cuauhtemoc, was captured by the Spaniards under Hernán Cortés, and the last defenders of the capital of Tenochtitlan…