A complex figure, and divisive during his lifetime, Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775-1851) has long been considered Britain’s greatest painter. The new biography of the artist, Young Mr. Turner: The First Forty Years, 1775-1815, gives a comprehensive and engaging account of Turner’s early life, drawing together recent scholarship, correcting errors
Last year, the Clark Art Institute presented a stellar exhibition called Van Gogh and Nature, which Holland Cotter called “one of the summer’s choice art attractions” in the pages of The New York Times. To celebrate Vincent van Gogh’s 163rd birthday today (born March 30th, 1853), we’re sharing an interview that the curator
In Elisabeth de Bièvre’s book Dutch Art and Urban Culture, 1200-1700, the author explains how distinct geographical circumstances and histories shaped unique urban developments in different locations in the Netherlands and, in turn, fundamentally informed the art and visual culture of individual cities. In seven chapters, each devoted to a single city, the
Nyoirin Kannon; Kamakura period, early 14th century; Japanese cypress (hinoki) with pigment, gold powder, and cut gold leaf (kirikane); H. 19 1/2 x W. 15 x D. 12 in.; Asia Society, New York: Mr. and Mrs. John D Rockefeller 3rd Collection, 1979.205; Photo credit: Photography by Synthescape, courtesy of Asia
Linda Gertner Zatlin– Artistic Collaboration The association of Aubrey Beardsley (1872-1898) and Oscar Wilde (1864-1900) on the English edition and drawings for Wilde’s play Salome was arguably the most significant art and literary collaboration of the last third of the nineteenth century. Written in French Salome had originally been published
David Ebony— In the mid 1930s, the years leading up to World War II, America’s great socialist moment was underway. New Deal programs like the Works Progress Administration employed thousands in arts, architecture, theater, literature and the media, who transformed the country’s cultural landscape forever. This dynamic spirit carried over
Read J. Hoberman’s NYRB review of the exhibition and the “excellent, richly illustrated catalogue.” Joshua Glick– One of the major aims of the recent traveling museum exhibition and accompanying book catalog, Coney Island: Visions of an American Dreamland, 1861-2008, is to explore filmmakers’ long-lasting fascination with Coney Island. Since the emergence
Ivy Sanders Schneider– In a 1964 photograph of Alexander Calder’s retrospective at the Guggenheim, children are touching the sculptures. They are blowing on them, pressing against them, kneeling on them. A 1959 photograph of an exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam shows men and women reaching up to push
The “landmark,” “deeply researched,” “curatorial triumph” of an exhibition Leap Before You Look: Black Mountain College, 1933-1957 opens today, February 21st, at UCLA’s Hammer Museum, having finished its successful run at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston. It “is a show not only every art-school student in this region
David Ebony— Renowned for his incandescent abstract paintings of ethereal space and light, Mark Rothko is certainly one of the giants of twentieth century art. Along with fellow Abstract Expressionists Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning, Rothko made a monumental contribution to American post-war painting. Now occupying a rather mythic