Award-winning NYC blogazine, primarily about painting
Sunday, August 1, 2021
Contributed by Adam Simon / It has been argued that there is no such thing as an abstract painting anymore, only pictures of abstract paintings. What sounds like a slur on abstract painters is simply an acknowledgement that digital technology, social media and the proliferation of images has affected how […]
Contributed by Jonathan Stevenson / The art that accompanies magazine articles usually seems decorative and functional, there merely to cheer up black-and-white text and interrupt regimented columns. Rarely does it well-nigh embody the article itself. William Powhida’s portrait of Joe Biden, centered below the title of Fintan O’Toole’s “To Hell […]
Contributed by Sharon Butler / In the 1960s, Jack Tworkov began to feel as if he had taken Ab-Ex gestural abstraction as far as it could go without repeating himself. Reluctant to keep making paintings in which the once wild and expressive brushstroke would appear a predictable go-to move determined […]
Contributed by Craig Taylor / The late David Byrd’s affecting show, on view at Anton Kern Gallery, revolves around what he called his magnum opus: an artist book, Montrose VA 1958–1988, chronicling his job as an orderly at the New York State Veterans’ Home psychiatric ward. Like many artists of […]
Contributed by Emma Stolarski / Plant life is one of nature’s masterpieces. Botanical beauty, medicine, and ecological systems are integrated in every part of our lives, whether we think about it or not. Despite being here well before us and defining us as humans, plants are having an especially unique […]
Contributed by Ben Pritchard / Andrew Zarou’s compelling exhibition at The Painting Center is resonant of the comprehensive order that one might covet in a time of unusual disarray, isolation, and uncertainty, when basic aims like survival and sharing have become politicized. Order, in this sense, is not strict thinking […]
Contributed by Sharon Butler / Martin Kline’s meticulous and thoughtful abstractions, on view at Heather Gaudio Fine Art, are deceptively simple. At first glance, they might appear merely technically accomplished and visually striking. Drill down a little, though, and they recall the action of Jackson Pollock’s drip paintings and the […]
Contributed by Jonathan Stevenson / In the 1940s, Philip Guston noted that the problem with figurative art was that it “vanishes into recognition.” By 1960, he was griping about the conceit that abstract art was “autonomous, pure and for itself.” The tension implied by these two conflicting but evidently valid […]
This month Two Coats of Paint is unveiling a site redesign (big thanks to Heather Bause Rubinstein for the encouragement and technical support), which includes a fantastic new feature, the Two Coats of Paint NEWSroll. The ‘roll combines the newsiness of Twitter, the utility of the old RSS readers like […]
Contributed by Rachel Youens / Stanley Rosen came of age as a sculptor during the 1960s and 1970s, when ceramicists and sculptors were challenging the hegemonic hold that painting had in the art world as the medium of heroic significance. His sculptures are made at a modest scale that, somewhat […]
Conversation with Louise Fishman
Louise Fishman, Zero at the Bone, 2010. Oil on linen. 70 x 60”. Courtesy Cheim & Read, New York.
Contributed by Sharon Butler / In September 2012, I sat down with ...
Studio visit with Daniel Wiener
During my first visit to Daniel Wiener's studio, we talked about his Apoxie-Sculpt head series that fuse a 1960s psychedelic sensibility with collective angst, his idiosyncratic process, and an exploration ...
Art and TV: Professor T, an extraordinary burst of mind
Koen de Bouw as Professor Jasper Teerlinck on Professor T
Contributed by Laurie Fendrich / Boy did the otherwise on-the-mark Guardian television critic Lucy Mangan get it wrong. In her 2017 ...
Alyssa Klauer’s queer phantasmagoria
Contributed by Patrick Neal / Is the detectable hand of the artist evidence of a unique creator, or is gesture mainly indicative of earlier painters’ touches, the ghosts of art ...
Hannah Wohl’s compelling dissection of the New York art world
To understand how all the moving parts or art careers fit together, sociologist Hannah Wohl spent countless hours trailing collectors at art fairs, talking to dealers, making studio visits with ...
Two Coats Selected Gallery Guide: July 2021
This month we're recommending all the excellent group shows, especially the ones where old favorites hang next to younger artists who weren't on our radar.
Andrew Cranston’s dazzling seduction
Contributed by Jacob Patrick Brooks / I try not to go to galleries alone. If I don’t have someone to moderate me and make sure that I spend an appropriate ...
The inside creates the outside, and vice versa
A conversation between artists Robin Hill and Elisa D’Arrigo, whose solo show at Elizabeth Harris is on view through July 31.
Art and TV: L’Art du Crime
L’Art du Crime: Éléonore Bernheim stars as the plucky art historian and Nicolas Gob is the cranky detective
Contributed by Jonathan Stevenson / France produces some superb television, but you could ...
History: Artist-run galleries in NYC in the 1950s and 1960s
At artist-run galleries, the conversation centers on art rather than commerce. Alternative spaces provide a place for unknown and under-recognized artists to mount exhibitions, for curators to organize their first thematic shows, and for established artists ...
