Tag: painting

David Zwirner: 25 Years

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In 2018, David Zwirner celebrated their 25th anniversary and, on that occasion, New York was treated with a special exhibition of works by some of the artists the gallery represented over the years.

David Zwirner was the only New York gallery on my radar before coming to the City, because they represent one of my favourite Belgian artists, Michaël Borremans. I went to the exhibition hoping to see some of his works and, sure enough, a couple of his smaller-size paintings were on show. This is one of them, but if you’d like to see more of Borremans’ amazing  work, please hop over to my Brussels blog, for highlights from an exhibition held in Brussels, in 2014.

Michaël Borremans

Chris Ofili

Marlene Dumas

Isa Genzken

Aline Kominsky-Crumb and Robert Crumb

Philip-Lorca diCorcia

Suzan Frecon

Jeff Koons

Sherrie Levine

Christopher Williams

Felix Gonzales-Torres

Donald Judd / Dan Flavin

Ruth Asawa

Yayoi Kusama

February 10th, 2018

Edvard Munch Art

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As intrigued as I was in discovering Munch the Photographer, I couldn’t wait to renew my acquaintance with some of the inspiring, melancholic and – at times – tormented, works of Munch the Painter; and be reminded that there’s more loneliness in Munch the Man and a deeper agony than what he let us see/hear with ”The Scream”.

Self-Portrait, 1886
Oil on canvas

Self-Portrait with Cigarette, 1895
Oil on canvas

Self-Portrait with the Spanish Flu, 1919
Oil on canvas

Self-Portrait with a Bottle of Wine, 1906
Oil on canvas

Self-Portrait by the Window, ca. 1940
Oil on canvas

Inheritance, 1897-99
Oil on canvas

The Sick Child, 1896
Oil on canvas

Sick Mood at Sunset: Despair, 1892
Oil on canvas

Despair, 1894
Oil on canvas

Death in the Sick Room, 1893
Oil on canvas

Madonna, ca. 1895-97
Oil on canvas

Puberty, 1894
Oil on unprimed canvas

Ashes, 1925
Oil on canvas

Jealousy, ca. 1907
Oil on canvas

Model by the Wicker Chair, 11919-21
Oil on canvas

Edvard Munch: Between the Clock and the Bed @ Met Breuer, November 2107 – February 2018.

December, 28th 2017

ah ah

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|1|-|6| Nothing is Enough, single-channel digital video projection, 2012 – by Frances Stark

Nothing is Enough consists of documented text fragments from Frances Stark’s online chat with a young Italian man, ranging from contemplative, self-reflective discussions to cybersex.

|7|- Fuck You: From the Liz Taylor Series (after Bert Stern), 1984, acrylic and composition leaf on canvas – by Kathe Burkhart

Kathe Burkhart is an artist and writer who uses images and text to, in her words, ”articulate a radical female subject.” She considers this confrontational, sensual work to be the first fully realized canvas in her Liz Taylor Series, ongoing since 1982.

|8|-|9| Pat Hearn, 1985, acrylic and silkscreen ink on linen – by Andy Warhol

The Art Institute of Chicago

November 4th, 2017

Taking a line for a walk @ The Art Institute of Chicago

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The monumental

1965, oil on canvas – by Georgia O’Keeffe (1887–1986)

|2|- ”Bar on Skis” Liquor Cabinet, about 1930 – by Émile Jacques Ruhlmann

|3|- Painting of Madame X, 1927/30, oil on canvas – by Francis Picabia (1879-1953)

|4|- Forest and Sun, 1927, oil on canvas – by Max Ernst (1891-1976)

|5|- The Banquet, 1958, oil on canvas – by René Magritte (1898-1967)

|6|- In the Magic Mirror, 1934, oil on canvas, on board – by Paul Klee (1879-1940)

The Art Institute of Chicago

November 4th, 2017

The Art Institute of Chicago

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After two full days absorbing as much as possible of the city’s stunning art deco architecture, it was now high time for some art. Enter the Art Institute of Chicago, one of the largest museums in the United States, one that is home to some of my favourite paintings and the one museum you should never leave Chicago without visiting.

And once inside, the danger is, you will never want to leave.

Gustave Caillebotte (1848-1894)
Paris Street; Rainy Day, 1877, oil on canvas

Georges Seurat (1859-1891)
A Sunday on La Grande Jatte – 1884 (1884-86), oil on canvas

Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890)
Self-Portrait, 1887, oil on artist’s board, mounted on cradled panel

Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890)
The Bedroom, 1889, oil on canvas

Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890)
The Poet’s Garden, 1888, oil on canvas

Louis Anquetin (1861-1932)
An Elegant Woman at the Élysée Montmartre, 1888, oil on canvas

Harald Sohlberg (1869-1935)
Fisherman’s Cottage, 1906, oil on canvas

Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919)
Lucie Berard (Child in White), 1883, oil on canvas

Emil Nolde (1867-1956)
Red-Haired Girl, 1919, oil on canvas

The Art Institute of Chicago

November 4th, 2017

The Idiosyncratic Eyes of Mme Bourgeois

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Staring into your soul.

House 1994
Marble

the puritan 1990-97 (text: 1947)
Folio set no. 3: engravings with selective wiping, gouache and watercolour additions

Lullaby 2006
Series of twenty-five screenprints on fabric: title sheet and twenty-four compositions

Bourgeois created shapes by turning and tracing common household objects – scissors, a knife and a candy dish, among them. She published this set herself, under the imprint Lison Editions. Lison, Lise, Lisette, Louison and Louisette were among her childhood nicknames.

Ode à l’Oubli 2004
Fabric illustrated book with thirty fabric collages and four lithographs

The pages of this book are composed of linen hand towels saved from her trousseau. Many contain the embroidered monogram LBG (Louise Bourgeois Goldwater). Bourgeois later issued and editioned version of this book in twenty-five examples. In that version, the pages are tied together through buttonholes instead of bound so all of the pages can be displayed simultaneously, as seen on this wall.

Untitled 1998
Fabric and stainless steel

Stamp of Memories I 1993
Drypoint with metal stamp additions

Sainte Sébastienne 1992
Drypoint

Triptych for the Red Room 1994
Aquatint, drypoint and engraving

“The subject of pain is the business I am in.“ – LB

Self Portrait 2007
Gouache on paper

Self Portrait 1990
Drypoint, etching and aquatint

I Redo (interior element) from the installation
I Do, I Undo, I Redo 1999-2000
Steel, glass wood and tapestry

Untitled 1940
Oil and pencil on board

Lacs de Montagne (Mountain Lakes), 1996 & 1997
Engraving and aquatint with watercolour, gouache and ink additions

Arch of Hysteria 1993
Bronze, polished patina

Spider 1997

Note from Louise Bourgeois: An Unfolding Portrait, an exhibition that ran at the MoMA, until end January 2018: ”[…] explores the prints, books, and creative process of the celebrated sculptor Louise Bourgeois (1911–2010). Bourgeois’s printed oeuvre, a little-known aspect of her work, is vast in scope and comprises some 1,200 printed compositions, created primarily in the last two decades of her life but also at the beginning of her career, in the 1940s. The Museum of Modern Art has a prized archive of this material, and the exhibition will highlight works from the collection along with rarely seen loans […].”

September 25th, 2017

From Lens to Eye to Hand || Parrish Art Museum

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The closer you look, the harder it is to believe that these photos are actually paintings.Richard McLean (1934-2014)
Western Tableau with Rhodesian Ridgeback (Trails West), 1993
Oil on linen

Richard McLean (1934-2014)
(Detail) Western Tableau with Rhodesian Ridgeback (Trails West), 1993
Oil on linen

Charles Bell (1935-1995)
Troupe, 1983
Oil on canvas

Ralph Goings (1928-2016)
Miss Albany Diner, 1993
Oil on canvas

Robert Cottingham (b. 1935)
Radios, 1977
Oil on linen

Robert Bechtle (b. 1932)
’73 Malibu, 1974
Oil on canvas

John Kacere (1920-1999)
Untitled, 1974
Watercolour on paper

John Kacere (1920-1999)
Reina ’79, 1979
Oil on linen

Randy Dudley (b. 1950)
Gowanus Canal from 2nd Street, 1986
Oil on canvas

Davis Cone (b. 1950)
State-Autumn Evening, 2002
Acrylic on canvas

Don Jacot (b. 1949)
Herald Square, 1936 (After Berenice Abbott), 2013
Oil on linen

Don Jacot (b. 1949)
(Detail) Herald Square, 1936 (After Berenice Abbott), 2013
Oil on linen

From Lens to Eye to Hand, Photorealism 1969 to Today, was an exhibition that took a fresh look at this contemporary art movement that found its roots in the mid-1960s in New York and California, evolving from the then dominant movements, Abstract Expressionism, Pop art and Minimalism. And, while Photorealism reached its height in the ’70s, there are some magnificent works proving that the movement continues today.

Parrish Art Museum
Water Mill, Long Island

September 3rd, 2017

Art of War

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There is a sad beauty in these artworks drawing the tragedy of war.

Harry R. Hopps (1869-1937)
Destroy This Mad Brute-Enlist, 1917
Colour lithograph

French, early 20th century
The Great Nave: Wounded Soldiers Performing Arms Drill at the End of Their Medical Treatment, 1916
Gelatin silver print

During WWI, Paris’ magnificent Grand Palais, a Beaux-Arts structure that opened in 1900 as an exhibition hall, was repurposed as a temporary military hospital that served injured French soldiers. It held one thousand beds and had two operating rooms, as well as an extensive physical rehabilitation centre where soldiers could recover from their injuries, exercise and practice military drills before returning to the front. 

John Copley (1875-1950)
Recruits, 1915
Lithograph

Léon Spilliaert (1881-1946)
Rockets, 1917
Watercolour, gouache, graphite

Spilliaert served briefly in the Belgian civil guard after the German invasion. A pacifist by nature, he was greatly affected by the violence of war. Here, he depicts a deep blue sky illuminated by the flare of rockets, an image witnessed by both soldiers and civilians in occupied territories. The artist concentrated not on the rockets’ violent potential but on the graceful forms they generate and their resemblance to stars and comets. 

French, 20th century
After the Victory (Au Lendemain de la Victoire), 1918
Printed by Imprimerie Kapp
Published by Librairie Hachette & Co.
Colour lithograph

Many children lost loved ones to the war and were traumatized by the sounds and sights of combat. Ostensibly, celebrating victory, this book, like much wartime propaganda for children, reflects these dark events. Its interior presents images of rebuilding: each page shows a scene of destruction, but when a flap is raised, it shows the same site restored. 

Käthe Kollwitz (1867-1945)
The Parents (Die Eltern), from War (Krieg), 1921-22
Printed by Fritz Voigt, Berlin
Woodcut

”Pain,” Kollwitz noted, ”is totally dark.” This raw images portrays the profound grief of parents who, like the artist, lost a child to war. Kollwitz began working in this medium after seeing an exhibition of woodcuts by Ernst Barlach and being inspired by their graphic power; the War series is considered her most important in the technique. Kollwitz spent fifteen years working on a sculpture based on this print. The Grieving Parents, located in the cemetery for German soldiers in western Belgium where her son Peter is buried, is composed of two separate sculptures, showing the parents isolated in their despair.

George Grosz (1893-1959)
Background (Hintergrund), 1928
3 out of 17 photolithographs with printed portfolio

Käthe Kollwitz (1867-1945)
Mothers (Muetter), from War (Krieg), 1919
Lithograph

In Mothers, women and children huddle together, their linked bodies forming a solid structure that fills the composition. Kollwitz drew herself in the centre, eyes closed and arms wrapped protectively around her two sons: Hans, the elder, and Peter, who was killed in combat at eighteen.

Images from ”World War I and the Visual Arts”, an exhibition exploring ”the myriad and often contradictory ways in which artists responded to the first modern war”.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

August 6th, 2017