Spots, Smudges and Glitter Spots, Smudges and Glitter
A tour of the New York art galleries reveals a number of talented artists exploring the possibilities of "bad" representational painting.
Apr 9, 2008 / Books & the Arts / Barry Schwabsky
Daring Intransigence Daring Intransigence
Gustave Courbet's blunt pictorial style and taciturn sensibility prefigured the ambivalence and photographic exactitude of modern painting.
Mar 6, 2008 / Books & the Arts / Barry Schwabsky
The Where of It The Where of It
The best location for Lawrence Weiner's conceptual art is in the viewer's own imagination.
Feb 5, 2008 / Books & the Arts / Barry Schwabsky
An Unmonumental Grimace An Unmonumental Grimace
Taking stock of the new New Museum.
Jan 29, 2008 / Books & the Arts / Barry Schwabsky
Love by a Thousand Cuts Love by a Thousand Cuts
Museums can't get enough of Kara Walker, whose silhouettes of the history of slavery seem to be a nightmare she's trying to enjoy.
Nov 21, 2007 / Books & the Arts / Barry Schwabsky
The Imperfectionist The Imperfectionist
Reconsidering the life and legacy of avant-garde artist and poet Francis Picabia.
Oct 18, 2007 / Books & the Arts / Barry Schwabsky
Breaking and Entering Breaking and Entering
Gordon Matta-Clark's art displays how empty spaces illuminate the structures they are housed in.
May 31, 2007 / Books & the Arts / Barry Schwabsky
A Painter of Our Time A Painter of Our Time
Diego Velázquez was a restless innovator, a painter who slyly revealed the ordinariness of his exalted subjects--one is almost tempted to call him modern.
Dec 14, 2006 / Books & the Arts / Barry Schwabsky
Modern Love Modern Love
Two new biographies of Clement Greenberg take the measure of an ambitious art critic who had a knack for predicting success.
Sep 28, 2006 / Books & the Arts / Barry Schwabsky
Octoberfest Octoberfest
Four editors of October magazine trace the history of contemporary art. Though Art Since 1900 seeks to be comprehensive, its writers leave out entire movements and impose moralisti...
Dec 8, 2005 / Books & the Arts / Barry Schwabsky