Contributed by Joe Fyfe / Fergus Feehily, who is from Ireland but has lived in Berlin for years, is an unusual contemporary visual artist by virtue of his very careful degree of quiet obliquity. One almost hesitates to approach writing about him and, in this case, writing about his writing. It might be best to get the disclaimers over with: we share gallery representation in Köln, from Galerie Christian Lethert. He recommended me to the gallery, though at the time, long ago, I had never heard of him nor his work. I have since met him a few times. Once we had breakfast at Balthazar in New York and I remember how thoroughly he buttered and spread preserves on two sizable croissants. Feehily is somehow obscure but in plain sight, admired among an informed coterie of artists and collectors and an avid sharer. He does a lot of communicating. He posts on Instagram often, mostly very different kinds of artworks, though he appears to have something of a penchant for religious art. On his website are long year-end lists, an annī of enthusiasms for what he has read and listened to and looked at, whom he has met and spoken with.
Books
The formidable women who shaped MoMA: Untold stories
Contributed by Laurie Fendrich / I didn’t expect to particularly like MoMA’s Inventing the Modern: Untold Stories of the Women Who Shaped the Museum of Modern Art, but merely to learn from it. Turns out I loved all fourteen essays – each by a contemporary female writer, and each about a woman who worked at or for MoMA during the first decades after its founding in 1929. Many are beautifully written. While all are about formidable, pathbreaking women, none are hagiographic.
Hannah Wohls: Colorful 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 artists at all professional stages, and analyzing hundreds of art reviews.
Art and Books: Kate Russo, Balzac, and the uncertainties of art
All three tales in Super Host are witty, moving, and beautifully written, but its Emma Eastons that raises the most provocative questions about the often torturous relationship between an artist and her work
Ray Carofano: Faces of Pedro
Contributed by Peter Plagens / San Pedro is a tough town. Actually it�s technically part of Los Angeles; L.A. saw to that by making the […]
Art and Books: Joanne Mattera remembers
Contributed by Sharon Butler / How artists apprehend the world is framed largely by their early experiences. Yet, unless artists achieve blue-chip success, we rarely […]
Book report: Mary Gabriel’s Ninth Street Women
Contributed by Brece Honeycutt and Anne Lindberg / Mary Gabriel’s Ninth Street Women: Lee Krasner, Elaine de Kooning, Grace Hartigan, Joan Mitchell and Helen Frankenthaler […]
Laura Blacklow on painterly photo processes
Contributed by Sharon Butler / On the occasion of the Association of International Photography Dealers (AIPAD) sponsored Photography Show that is taking place on Pier 94 in NYC this […]
Retro book review: NYC art scene in the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s
At the thriftshop recently, I picked up a hardcover edition of Anthony Haden-Guest’s True Colors, The Real Life of the Art World for two bucks. […]
Must read: James Elkins deciphers the Art Critique
Contributed by Sharon Butler / After participating in final critiques at Brooklyn College and MICA last semester, I posted some notes for grad students about […]
Painter Mira Schor edits a collection of Jack Tworkov’s writing
I wrote another guest post for Art21 last week about Jack Tworkov’s new collection of writing. I’m just getting around to posting it on Two […]
Thinking Beyond The Unthinkable
Contributed by Sharon Butler / Taking a little break from painting, I’d like to recommend Jonathan Stevenson’s new book, Thinking Beyond the Unthinkable, which was […]