Art & Photographic Exhibitions
Oceanside, California exhibition of painter Arun Prem
By Vince Ostroweicz, 2 May 2013
The Oceanside, California public library recently presented an exhibition of the works of Indian-born painter Arun Prem.
The feverish pulse of the early 20th century: George Bellows, American modernist
By Tim Tower, 22 March 2013
The exhibition of Bellows’ work offers a vivid picture of the burgeoning American powerhouse during the first decades of the twentieth century.
The impact of drawing: Two exhibitions of master drawings in New York
By Clare Hurley, 12 January 2013
The two extraordinary shows are reminders that drawings offer a pleasure quite distinct from that represented by the grander mediums of painting and sculpture.
Exhibition of photographer Agustí Centelles in Barcelona: Many unanswered questions about the Spanish Civil War
By Paul Mitchell, 22 October 2012
A comment on an exhibition of photographs of the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) at the Fundació Vila Casas in Barcelona.
Expo Chicago: Money and art mingle, with little benefit to art
By Jeff Lusanne, 27 September 2012
After a six-year hiatus, Chicago was once again host in 2012 to an international art fair, Expo Chicago. The event was held September 20-23 in the massive Festival Hall at Navy Pier.
London’s Tate Modern shows photomontages of John Heartfield
By Paul Bond, 7 August 2012
London’s Tate Modern art gallery is hosting a temporary exhibition of John Heartfield’s political photomontages from the 1930s, drawn mainly from the collection of British photojournalist David King.
“The 1968 Exhibit” in Oakland: What was that year really about?
By Marge Holland, 20 July 2012
A visitor hoping to get a new perspective on the political and social significance of the year 1968 from the current exhibit at the Oakland Museum of California will find that hope unfulfilled.
Exhibition of Russian-Soviet artist Vladimir Tatlin in Basel—Part 6
An interview with Anna Szech, art historian at the Museum Tinguely
By Sybille Fuchs and Marianne Arens, 30 June 2012
This is the sixth and final article in a series devoted to an exhibition at the Museum Tinguely in Basel, Switzerland of works by Vladimir Tatlin (1885-1953), one of the most important artists of the Russian and Soviet avant-garde.
Exhibition of Russian-Soviet artist Vladimir Tatlin in Basel—Part 5
An interview with Gian Casper Bott, curator of the Tatlin exhibition
By Sybille Fuchs and Marianne Arens, 28 June 2012
This is the fifth of six articles devoted to an exhibition at the Museum Tinguely in Basel, Switzerland of works by Vladimir Tatlin (1885-1953), one of the most important artists of the Russian and Soviet avant-garde.
Exhibition of Russian-Soviet artist Vladimir Tatlin in Basel—Part 4
Interview with Dmitrii Dimakov, expert on Tatlin’s work
By Sybille Fuchs and Marianne Arens, 25 June 2012
This is the fourth of six articles devoted to an exhibition at the Museum Tinguely in Basel, Switzerland of works by Vladimir Tatlin (1885-1953), one of the most important artists of the Russian and Soviet avant-garde.
Exhibition of Russian-Soviet artist Vladimir Tatlin in Basel—Part 3
WSWS arts editor David Walsh on Vladimir Tatlin and the October Revolution
By Sybille Fuchs and Marianne Arens, 21 June 2012
This is the third of six articles devoted to an exhibition at the Museum Tinguely in Basel, Switzerland of works by Vladimir Tatlin (1885-1953), one of the most important artists of the Russian and Soviet avant-garde.
Exhibition of Russian-Soviet artist Vladimir Tatlin in Basel—Part 2
An interview with Roland Wetzel, director of the Museum Tinguely
By Sybille Fuchs and Marianne Arens, 20 June 2012
This is the second of six articles devoted to an exhibition at the Museum Tinguely in Basel, Switzerland, of works by Vladimir Tatlin (1885-1953), one of the most important artists of the Russian and Soviet avant-garde. .
Exhibition of Russian-Soviet artist Vladimir Tatlin in Basel—Part 1
Tatlin’s “new art for a new world”
By Sybille Fuchs and Marianne Arens, 19 June 2012
The Museum Tinguely in Basel, Switzerland is currently holding an exhibition dedicated to the works of Vladimir Tatlin (1885-1953), one of the most important artists of the Russian and Soviet avant-garde. This is the first of six articles.
Pablo Picasso at the Art Gallery of Ontario: An artist apart
By Lee Parsons, 6 June 2012
The current exhibition at the Art Gallery of Ontario is the largest of painter Pablo Picasso’s work to be held in Canada in almost 50 years.
Stormbelt exhibition in Toronto—a dark journey through America’s Sun Belt
An interview with photographer Robert Leslie
By Lee Parsons, 29 May 2012
Raised in Canada, now living and working in Europe, Robert Leslie is an artist of genuinely humane sensibilities, as his recent photographic work illustrates.
Survey of contemporary art
The 2012 Whitney Biennial in New York City
By Clare Hurley, 24 May 2012
The Whitney Biennial in New York City continues to be one of the most prestigious survey exhibits of contemporary art.
Opening of the “Building the Revolution” exhibition in Berlin
By Wolfgang Weber, 12 April 2012
The exhibition “Building the Revolution: Soviet Art and Architecture from 1915 to 1935” opened at the Martin-Gropius-Bau in Berlin on April 5 with a well-attended opening ceremony.
An exhibition of photographer Zoe Strauss in Philadelphia
By Clare Hurley, 10 April 2012
American photographer Zoe Strauss is an unusual figure in today’s art world. Her “I-95” project has been a 10-year endeavor to tell an “epic narrative about the beauty and struggle of everyday life.”
Joan Miró: An artist “in the service of mankind”
By Paul Mitchell, 27 March 2012
The works of painter Joan Miró were recently the subject of a major retrospective exhibition, “The Ladder of Escape”, at the Fundació Joan Miró in Barcelona. The show opens in Washington, D.C. in May.
Building the Revolution: Soviet Art and Architecture 1915-1935
By Paul Mitchell, 12 January 2012
Royal Academy of Arts, London, until January 22, and Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin—April 5 to July 9, 2012.
Diego Rivera at the Museum of Modern Art: Then and now—revolutionary art for revolutionary times
By Clare Hurley, 21 December 2011
In 1931 the Museum of Modern Art in New York organized a one-man show of Mexican painter Diego Rivera, for which he painted a number of “freestanding murals.” A current exhibition brings together a number of these murals.
“Chagall and the Russian Avant-Garde” at the Art Gallery of Ontario
By Joe Silvaggio, 8 November 2011
The Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) in Toronto is currently hosting a fascinating exhibition entitled “Chagall and the Russian Avant-Garde,” 118 works from the Centre Pompidou in Paris.
“Ostalgia”: Art from the Stalinist and post-Stalinist bloc, 1960s to the present
By Clare Hurley, 3 November 2011
An exhibition entitled “Ostalgia” at the New Museum in New York City this past summer brought together the work of over 50 artists from the former Soviet Union and Eastern bloc countries.
An exhibition of Russian and Soviet modernism makes its way across Europe
By Tim Tower, 17 September 2011
Photographs, paintings, models and drawings, reflecting the work of artists, architects, engineers and photographers who were inspired by the Russian revolution of 1917, are on view at La Caixa Forum in Madrid, Spain until September 18.
Britain: Bristol’s street art project sidelines social comment
By Mel Simpson, 9 September 2011
Over seventy leading graffiti and street artists have been brought together in a project to paint ten of Bristol’s central multi-storey buildings in Nelson Street.
Exhibitions at the Art Gallery of Ontario
Robert Motherwell and the Abstract Expressionists
By Lee Parsons, 8 August 2011
Two exhibitions at the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto once again raise complex questions about the evolution of postwar art.
Lucian Freud: “A life of uncertainty and loneliness” … and enduring insights
By Paul Mitchell, 2 August 2011
British figurative painter Lucian Freud, a significant figure in modern art, died July 20 at his home in London at the age of 88.
“In Search of a Job—Any Job”
Powerful depiction of the fate of Burmese migrant workers
By Paul Mitchell, 21 February 2011
“In Search of a Job—Any Job: The Life of Burmese Migrant Workers” is an exhibition of photos by John Hulme at Oxford University’s International Migration Institute showing from February 17.
Munich exhibition documents German army atrocity in Afghanistan
By Wolfgang Weber, 8 February 2011
Germany’s greatest post-World War II war crime has been comprehensively documented and exhibited by the two journalists who won the trust of the victims’ bereaved relatives.
Detroit Disassembled by Andrew Moore: The devastation of a major American city
By Tim Tower, 5 January 2011
Detroit was once synonymous with automobile manufacturing and the dominance of American industry. Today’s cityscape is rife with images of decay. Andrew Moore’s photographs in his Detroit Disassembled give expression to the city’s historical tragedy.
Julian Schnabel retrospective in Toronto: Art, celebrity, and the market
By Lee Parsons, 20 December 2010
The current exhibition of the controversial artist Julian Schnabel at the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) in Toronto attempts to look at the relationship between his paintings and his films.
Germany: Missing “degenerate art” works rediscovered
By Bernd Reinhardt and Sybille Fuchs, 25 November 2010
Recent archaeological excavations in Berlin have unearthed masterpieces of early Modernist art, which were denounced and confiscated by the Nazi regime.
An interview with Richard Pare, photographer and expert on Soviet Modernist architecture
By Tim Tower, 13 November 2010
A version of the following interview with Richard Pare, conducted by Tim Tower of the WSWS, was originally posted in March 2008, Tower and Pare spoke again recently to update the piece to accompany a new exhibition, “Building the Revolution.”
The “Modern” experience of art:
Abramovic and Kentridge at MoMA
By Clare Hurley, 15 September 2010
The Museum of Modern Art in New York City is one of the most powerful institutions in the international art establishment, mounting “blockbuster” exhibits each year that draw some of the largest crowds of museum-goers in the world, including recent retrospectives of multi-media artists Marina Abramovic and William Kentridge.
Frida Kahlo retrospective in Berlin
By Jesse Olsen and Bernd Reinhard, 14 September 2010
The largest Frida Kahlo retrospective ever presented in Germany was recently on display in Berlin.
Frida Kahlo retrospective in Berlin—Part 2: Frida Kahlo and communism
By Jesse Olsen and Bernd Reinhardt, 11 September 2010
The largest Frida Kahlo retrospective ever presented in Germany was recently on display in Berlin.
Frida Kahlo retrospective in Berlin—Part 1: The “Kahlo myth” and the reality
By Jesse Olsen and Bernd Reinhardt, 10 September 2010
The largest Frida Kahlo retrospective ever presented in Germany was recently on display in Berlin. This is the first of a two-part article.
Donald McCullin: An artist “shaped by war”
By Danny Richardson, 14 June 2010
The renowned British photographer Donald McCullin’s exhibition Shaped by War, in collaboration with Imperial War Museum (IWM), was recently on display at the IWM North in Manchester.
“8 Mile”: images from a Papua New Guinea shanty town
By Susan Allan, 5 April 2010
The 8 Mile settlement is just outside Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea’s capital, and home to about 15,000 of the city’s 250,000 residents.
Bolshevism and the avant-garde artists (1993)
By David Walsh, 17 February 2010
The Great Utopia: The Russian and Soviet Avant-Garde, 1915–1932 at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City, in 1992-1993, was a major event. David Walsh wrote a series of articles in the Bulletin, a predecessor of the WSWS, which we began republishing February 13 in three parts. Here is the entire piece.
Bolshevism and the avant-garde artists (1993)—Part 3
By David Walsh, 16 February 2010
The Great Utopia: The Russian and Soviet Avant-Garde, 1915–1932 at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City, in 1992-1993, was a major event. David Walsh wrote a series of articles in the Bulletin, a predecessor of the WSWS, which we began republishing February 13.
Bolshevism and the avant-garde artists (1993)—Part 2
By David Walsh, 15 February 2010
The Great Utopia: The Russian and Soviet Avant-Garde, 1915–1932 at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City, in 1992-1993, was a major event. David Walsh wrote a series of articles in the Bulletin, a predecessor of the WSWS, which we began republishing February 13.
Bolshevism and the avant-garde artists (1993)—Part 1
By David Walsh, 13 February 2010
The Great Utopia: The Russian and Soviet Avant-Garde, 1915–1932 at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City, in 1992-1993, was a major event. David Walsh wrote a series of articles in the Bulletin, a predecessor of the WSWS, which we begin republishing today.
Letter to the editor: Photography notes
By Virginia Smith, 12 February 2010
Exhibitions of American documentary photography are proliferating, a reader notes, suggesting this is one portion of the visual arts where a genuine engagement with society is taking place.
An interesting collection, but a distorted view of Stalinism
Mexican prints: revolution on paper
By Paul Mitchell, 29 January 2010
Mexican prints 1910-1960 will be shown at the British Museum in London through April 5, 2010.
Les Automatistes: Revolt and modern art in post-war Montreal
By Lee Parsons, 9 January 2010
The Varley Art Gallery in Unionville, Ontario, is hosting what has been called “the show of the year” in Canada, bringing together the work of 15 artists known as the “Automatistes,” which deserves attention for a variety of reasons.
Photographer Roy DeCarava, chronicler of African-American life (1919-2009)
By C. W. Rogers, 7 January 2010
Roy DeCarava, one of the world’s most renowned photographers, died in October six weeks shy of his 90th birthday. DeCarava is perhaps best known for his portraits of jazz musicians and everyday life in Harlem.
Grayson Perry’s “The Walthamstow Tapestry”: A sensitive depiction of the journey through life
By Paul Mitchell, 29 December 2009
The huge 3-by-15-metre “The Walthamstow Tapestry,” created by ceramic artist Grayson Perry, was the highlight of a brief exhibition at the Victoria Miro Gallery in London last month, which also saw the display of Perry’s hallmark ceramics.
Britain: The strengths and limitations of Banksy’s “guerrilla” art
By Paul Mitchell, 10 September 2009
Over 300,000 people saw the exhibition of works by “guerilla” graffiti artist Banksy at Bristol museum and art gallery this summer.
Darwin’s “endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful”
By Paul Mitchell, 22 July 2009
The current Fitzwilliam Museum exhibition is a fascinating exploration of the impact of Charles Darwin’s revolutionary theories on art in the late 19th century.
Game Over, or, Where shall we look?
By Virginia Smith, 5 June 2009
A question provoking observers of contemporary visual art is this: What will come after Post Modernism?
“The Aftermath of the December Greek Riots”
By John Vassilipoulis and Paul Mitchell, 20 April 2009
Photographers George Kasolas and Spiros Christofi spoke to the World Socialist Web Site about the cancellation of their London exhibition “The aftermath of the December riots in Greece.”
Sculptor Louise Bourgeois: A year of events celebrating her life and work
By Paul Stuart, 14 January 2009
On 25 December the artist Louise Bourgeois celebrated her 97th birthday. Bourgeois has produced a significant body of work in a personal visual language, which, nonetheless, has been shaped by the tumultuous events of the 20th century.
American painter Robert Rauschenberg 1925-2008: Avant-garde to Pop
By Lee Parsons, 29 December 2008
Noted American artist Robert Rauschenberg died May 12 this year of heart failure at his home in Captiva, Florida at the age of 82. The passing of this influential artist obliges us to consider his work and the era during which he came to prominence.
Uncovering the truth about Trotsky and the Russian Revolution “continues to run my life”
A conversation with the remarkable David King
By David Walsh, 4 December 2008
David King--artist, designer, editor, photohistorian and archivist--is about to publish a new book, Red Star Over Russia, a visual history of the Soviet Union. WSWS arts editor David Walsh recently spoke to King in London.
Brighton Biennial exhibition focuses on war photography
By Paul Mitchell, 28 November 2008
This year’s Brighton Photo Biennial brought together a number of antiwar artists and photographers in an ambitious exhibition entitled Memory of Fire: the War of Images and Images of War.
UK photographic exhibition: Images of War
28 November 2008
The WSWS spoke to staff members at the nine galleries and museums presenting the exhibition Memory of Fire: the War of Images and Images of War. The exhibition raised many issues concerning the nature of war and its representation, the decline of photojournalism and the role of the embedded photographer.
UK photographic exhibition: Images of War
28 November 2008
The WSWS spoke to staff members at the nine galleries and museums presenting the exhibition Memory of Fire: the War of Images and Images of War. The exhibition raised many issues concerning the nature of war and its representation, the decline of photojournalism and the role of the embedded photographer.
The art of Gustave Courbet in his epoch and in ours
By Clare Hurley, 10 October 2008
While artists go in and out of fashion for various reasons, the renewed interest of late in French painter Gustave Courbet (1819–1877) corresponds to a turn in the contemporary art scene toward a model of the political artist and a rediscovered conception of realism that is encouraging.
Rodchenko: The impact of revolution and counterrevolution
By Paul Mitchell, 10 April 2008
“Alexander Rodchenko: Revolution in Photography” at the Hayward Gallery, London, until April 27
American painter Edward Hopper in Chicago
By J. Cooper, 22 March 2008
Edward Hopper, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, May 6 through August 19, 2007; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., September 16, 2007 through January 21, 2008; Art Institute of Chicago, February 16 through May 11, 2008
Art Treasures in Manchester: 150 years on—Part two
By Robert Stevens, 24 January 2008
Showing through January 27, 2008, at Manchester Art Gallery, Manchester, England.
Art Treasures in Manchester: 150 years on—Part one
By Robert Stevens, 23 January 2008
Showing through January 27, 2008, at Manchester Art Gallery, Manchester, England.
The artist Henry Moore: Power and humanity
Moore at Kew, London exhibition until March 30, 2008
By Paul Mitchell, 3 December 2007
If you are in London in the next few months and have a few pounds in your pocket, spend a day at Kew Botanical Gardens. Amongst the white painted greenhouses you will find 28 large sculptures surrounded by cone-laden pines or autumnal trees shedding their last red, gold and brown leaves. If you’re lucky you will see them wrapped in an early morning mist, their bronze surfaces glinting in a clear blue midday sky or absorbing a blood red evening sun.
Landmark study records visionary architecture from the early years of the Soviet Union
By Tim Tower, 20 October 2007
Lost Vanguard: Soviet Modernist Architecture, 1922-1932—Photographs by Richard Pare, July 18-October 29, 2007, at the Museum of Modern Art, New York City
Enigma and perhaps evasion (or “hide and seek”): the realism of German painter Neo Rauch
By Clare Hurley, 8 October 2007
Neo Rauch at the Met: para—an exhibition of paintings at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, May 22-October 14, 2007, and at the Max Ernst Museum, Brühl, October 28, 2007-March 30, 2008
Damien Hirst’s main obsession is wealth, not mortality
By Paul Bond, 26 June 2007
Damien Hirst remains one of the highest-profile of those artists who came to prominence through the vacuous “Brit-Art” movement. Cynical and showy, his work tends to receive column inches in inverse proportion to its artistic merit. His latest show, “Beyond Belief,” has received major press coverage. One item in particular has attracted the journalists more than any other.
Emily Carr: Painter, writer ... symbol
By Lee Parsons, 14 May 2007
Emily Carr: New Perspectives on a Canadian Icon, at the Art Gallery of Ontario (until 20 May 2007), the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (21 June-23 September 2007), the Glenbow Museum in Calgary, Alberta (25 October 2007-26 January 2008)
Edouard Manet and France’s ill-fated puppet
By Clare Hurley, 4 January 2007
Manet and the Execution of Maximilian, an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, New York City, November 5, 2006-January 29, 2007
No nonsense about Dada
By Clare Hurley, 18 September 2006
Dada, an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York City, June 18—September 11, 2006. MoMA is the exhibition’s final of three venues. Centre Pompidou in Paris (October 5, 2005—January 9, 2006) and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. (February 19—May 14, 2006) were the first two.
Hitler’s favourite sculptor: New exhibition displays the work of Arno Breker
By Stefan Steinberg, 6 September 2006
A new exhibition in the north German city of Schwerin, Up for discussion: The sculptor Arno Breker, is the first extensive public display of the works of Hitler’s favourite sculptor, Arno Breker (1900-91), to be held since the Second World War.
Interview with Zoe Strauss, photographer in the Whitney Biennial 2006: Day for Night
By Clare Hurley, 2 June 2006
Photographer Zoe Strauss was one of over a hundred artists selected to be in the Whitney Biennial 2006: Day for Night, the major exhibition of American art work. Her straightforward photographs of the largely poor, working class area of South Philadelphia where she lives and works, were striking in the context.
A barometer of the American cultural zeitgeist: the Whitney Biennial 2006
By Clare Hurley, 11 May 2006
Whitney Biennial 2006: Day for Night, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City, March 2 through May 28
“A mixture of technical know-how, moral anger, and all-American barbaric yawp”
Kienholz, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney
By Gabriela Zabala-Notaras and Ismet Redzovic, 19 April 2006
The recent Kienholz exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) spans more than forty years of artistic work by Ed Kienholz (1927-1994). On display are some of his earlier installations and sculpture from the 1960s, but from 1972 onwards all the work is in collaboration with his fifth wife, photographer Nancy Reddin Kienholz. She continued to work after her husband’s death and some of her pieces are also on show.
Winslow Homer (1836-1910): Poet of the Sea
By Paul Mitchell, 3 April 2006
Dulwich Picture Gallery, London: until May 21, 2006 Musée d’Art Américain Giverny, France: June 18 to September 24, 2006
Pioneering modernist exhibition: a cultural turning point for 1930s Australia
Degenerates and Perverts: The 1939 Herald Exhibition of French and British Contemporary Art, by Eileen Chanin and Steven Miller, Miegunyah Press
By John Christian and Richard Phillips, 16 March 2006
Degenerates and Perverts, a richly illustrated 306-page book by Eileen Chanin and Steven Miller, examines the 1939 Herald Exhibition of French and British Contemporary Art and its impact on Australian artistic and social life. Accurate information about the impact of this landmark event in local cultural history is long overdue.
Harlem art exhibition commemorates police shooting victim Amadou Diallo
By Clare Hurley, 10 March 2006
Casa Frela Gallery in Harlem has organized an exhibition to mark the seventh anniversary of the shooting of Amadou Diallo, the West African immigrant whose slaying in 1999 by four policemen in a hail of gunfire sparked explosive protests over police brutality and racial profiling in New York City’s poor, working class neighborhoods.
Back on “the main stage”: Russian art at the Guggenheim Museum—part 2
By Clare Hurley, 16 January 2006
Russia! An exhibition at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York City, and the Guggenheim Heritage Museum, Las Vegas, until January 11, 2006, presenting selections from the State Hermitage Museum, the State Russian Museum and the State Tretyakov Gallery
Back on “the main stage”: Russian art at the Guggenheim Museum—part 1
By Clare Hurley, 13 January 2006
Russia! An exhibition at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York City, and the Guggenheim Heritage Museum, Las Vegas, until January 11, 2006, presenting selections from the State Hermitage Museum, the State Russian Museum and the State Tretyakov Gallery
Soviet era posters at London’s Tate Modern
From Bolshevik internationalism to Stalinist nationalism
By Paul Mitchell, 14 November 2005
Soviet era posters on display at London’s Tate Modern museum are a powerful record of how the bureaucratic degeneration represented by the rise of Stalinism destroyed the young workers’ state founded on the basis of Bolshevik internationalism.
“I am in the world to change the world”: The art and life of Käthe Kollwitz
By Joanne Laurier, 26 July 2005
A lithography exhibition currently on display at the Worcester [Massachusetts] Art Museum features works by European masters (Goya, Delacroix and others) and nineteenth century lithographers (Daumier and Whistler)—as well as more modern artists. A piece in this last category is a 1909 print by German artist Käthe Kollwitz (1867-1945), entitled Woman in a Blue Shawl.
Demythologising requires a political appraisal
By Paul Bond, 20 July 2005
Frida Kahlo at the Tate Modern, London, through 9 October 2005
Artists Fernando Botero and Steve Mumford depict the Iraq war: Part 2
New York art world’s apology for the Iraq war
By Clare Hurley, 13 June 2005
This is the second of a two-part article. The first part on Fernando Botero was posted on June 4, 2005.
Artists Fernando Botero and Steve Mumford depict the Iraq war
Pulling one’s head out of the sand
By Clare Hurley, 4 June 2005
This is the first of a two-part series.
A dark and complex beauty
Caravaggio: The Final Years at the National Gallery
By Paul Bond, 30 May 2005
Caravaggio: The Final Years at the National Gallery, London, February 23-May 22, 2005
An “uplifting” diversion in New York’s Central Park
Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s “The Gates”
By Peter Daniels, 22 February 2005
“The Gates,” the temporary installation of saffron-colored nylon fabric panels suspended between more than 7,500 sets of vinyl poles stretched along 23 miles of footpaths in New York’s Central Park, has been treated as a major national event and generally hailed in the media and official circles. The ballyhoo is out of place. The significance of this project is more political and sociological than it is artistic.
Modigliani—an artist between worlds
By Lee Parsons, 18 January 2005
Modigliani: Beyond the Myth, at the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, October 23, 2004 to January 23, 2005
Pennsylvania steel works mural restored: rescuing history from the dustbin
By David Walsh, 18 December 2004
A remarkable mural of the US Steel Duquesne Works (circa 1920) by Harry M. Pettit, newly restored, is now on display at a gallery in Washington, Pennsylvania, near Pittsburgh. The Duquesne Works, once one of the largest and most advanced steelmaking operations in the world, closed in 1984, during the general collapse of the steel industry in western Pennsylvania’s Mon Valley. The vast majority of the facility’s buildings have been demolished.
The social mosaic attempted: the photographs of August Sander
By Clare Hurley, 8 December 2004
“People of the Twentieth Century”: August Sander’s Photographic Portrait of Germany, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, May 25—September 19, 2004
Influence and the rise of modern art
Turner Whistler Monet: Impressionist Visions, at the Art Gallery of Ontario, June 12 to September 12
By Lee Parsons, 31 August 2004
This Toronto exhibit at the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) brings together the work of three of the foremost artists of the nineteenth century, J.M.W. Turner (1775-1851), James Abbott McNeill Whistler (1834-1903) and Claude Monet (1840-1926). It presents 100 paintings, watercolors, pastels and prints—an expansive project involving the cooperation of some 34 museums and collectors across North America and Europe.
Resistance is not always the whole picture: Hong Sung Dam’s Dawn woodcuts and the Gwangju uprising
By Clare Hurley, 3 February 2004
East Wind, an exhibit co-organized by the Gwangju Art Museum (South Korea) and the Queens Museum of Art (New York), October 5-November 30, 2003
More of the big lie that “socialist realism” emerged from Soviet revolutionary art
Dream factory communism: the visual culture of the Stalin era—an exhibition at the Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt
By Marianne Arens and Sybille Fuchs, 17 January 2004
The art form officially sanctioned by the state under Stalin has long been ridiculed in the West; but now, 50 years after the death of the dictator, and in the absence of any serious attempt to tackle the development of the Soviet Union in the twentieth century, “socialist realism” has suddenly acquired a new respectability in a number of German museums in Berlin, Bonn and Frankfurt.
The sculpture of Edgar Degas
Degas Sculptures, at the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, October 11, 2003, to January 4, 2004
By Lee Parsons, 19 December 2003
The current exhibition of bronze sculpture at the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) in Toronto cast from the works of French artist Edgar Degas (1834-1917) is a welcome opportunity to study the often overlooked sculptural achievement of that great artist. Regarded as one of the most influential painters of the modern period, his sculpture, though less known, is an equally vital contribution to the impressionist movement of the late 19th century and in its bold expression forms a pivotal development in modern sculpture.
The texture of life in a few instances
The American Effect: Global Perspectives on the United States 1990-2003, Whitney Museum of American Art
By Clare Hurley, 14 October 2003
The American Effect: Global Perspectives on the United States 1990-2003, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City, July 3-October 12, 2003
Tom Thomson: painter and “Canadian legend”
By Lee Parsons, 16 September 2003
Tom Thomson: A Canadian Legend, an exhibition at the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa, the Vancouver Art Gallery, Musée du Québec, the Art Gallery of Ontario and the Winnipeg Art Gallery
The art of ancient Sumer
The Art of the First Cities at the Metropolitan Museum in New York City
By Sandy English, 30 July 2003
Art of the First Cities: The Third Millennium B. C. from the Mediterranean to the Indus; through August 17, 2003 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City.
German artist Käthe Kollwitz at the Art Gallery of Ontario
By David Adelaide, 19 July 2003
“I am an American who strongly disagrees with my country’s policy of War. As I write this, some of Kollwitz’s drawings are coming to life in Iraq. I am sickened by this. May the drums of war sound no more.”
Interview with photographer Jason Murphy, participant in Art Against War
By Clare Hurley, 5 July 2003
In preparing the review of the exhibit Art Against War, this reviewer interviewed (via email) photographer Jason Murphy, who lives and works in South Korea. The poster he contributed to the show was “Time to think outside the Box,” created online in collaboration with Daniel Scheffer. He also was responsible for one of the web versions of the show: http://retiform.ath.cx/modules.php?set_albumName=album21 &op=modload&name=gallery&file=index&include=view_album.php
The art of making protest art
By Clare Hurley, 5 July 2003
Art Against War: An exhibition of posters and multimedia, June 13-27, 2003. Macy Gallery, Columbia University/Teachers College, New York City, and NY Arts Space
Andy Goldsworthy and the limits of working with nature
Rivers and Tides: Andy Goldsworthy Working with Time, written and directed by Thomas Riedelsheimer
By Clare Hurley, 30 May 2003
Rivers and Tides: Andy Goldsworthy Working with Time, written and directed by Thomas Riedelsheimer
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