No superlative seems too lofty for this show, which has been eight years in the making. One critic gushes “we’re seeing an artist stop and start, reconciling deep inner urges, his own probably thwarted homosexuality, surging religiosity, and pride all mixed with a classicism now filled with elemental unconscious, id, asymmetry, and imbalance. Nothing like it had existed on Earth before.” More images are here.
Laura Owens’s show at the Whitney is notable. Firstly she is not well known. Further the accolade is being directed to a woman artist. Notwithstanding her use of fun colours and an eclectic feminine style Owens is being recognised as an important artist. “This smart, beautiful exhibition [shows] that painting can be renewed in ways we haven’t seen before … [and the artist is not] among the usual white male suspects”.
An exhibition of Modigliani’s drawings focuses on the issue of identity. When he moved to Paris, Modigliani encountered anti-Semitism for the first time. This experience changed his art. Subsequent portraits of friends “conveyed … a degree of masklike opacity. In the artist’s late paintings, there are those who see, those who do not see, and those who cannot be seen or known.” More images are here.
Plans by the Berkshire Museum to sell the cream of its art collection (covered in an August newsletter) has been halted by the courts. Everyone agrees, in principle, that deaccessioning can occur – but should this apply to the best works in a collection? What if a museum faces a “donor drought”? As this admirably balanced writer observes “deaccessioning … cuts to core issues about the public trust and nonprofit stewardship”.
Carolee Schneemann is not your average painter. Often referred to as a “first generation feminist artist”, she has long focused on how men and women view their bodies differently. She commonly appeared nude in her early works in order to present the female body as other than the object of male desire. After decades of critical disapproval, this year’s Venice Biennale recognized her with its lifetime achievement award.
Just over a dozen of Murillo’s portraits survive, a handful of which are on show in New York. They are celebrated for their lively, naturalistic style. Included are two self-portraits – intended as advertisements of artistic prowess. One shows him young and in his pomp; the second as a weary single parent. Technical virtuosity is evident in both but the older image has a rarer quality – truthfulness. An excellent video is here.