An award-winning NYC blogazine, primarily about painting
Thursday, July 10, 2025
Contributed by John Goodrich / Georges Rouault’s star has fallen considerably since 1945, the year the curator and collector James Thrall Soby dubbed him “one of few major figures in 20th century painting.” The artist’s religiosity and stained-glass-window style are not so captivating today. …The 21 paintings now on view at Shin Gallery invite a reassessment. Organized in conjunction with Skarstedt Gallery, the exhibition offers a particularly strong selection of the Rouault’s work.
Contributed by John Goodrich / Hindsight, of course, is 20/20. Looking back at the early decades of modernism, we may sense something inevitable about the ascent of Picasso and Matisse. Weren’t both driven, gifted artists poised to take advantage of their cultural moment? And wasn’t the time ripe for Matisse’s upending of expectations of color, and Picasso’s overturning of pictorial structures? Of course, life is not so tidy and linear for the artists operating in the moment. As the luminous exhibition “Make Way for Berthe Weill: Art Dealer of the Parisian Avant-Garde” at NYU’s Grey Art Museum demonstrates, none of the early modernists had a monopoly on talent or a singularly dominant vision of what painting had to be.
Hello 2024! Last year the art-fair spaceship landed in NYC during September, stealing thunder from the local galleries. Is January now the best month for solo exhibitions? Lots of our favorite local artists are having openings: Joan Snyder at Canada, Jane Swavely at Magenta Plains, Sharon Horvath at Lori Bookstein, Greg Drassler at Betty Cuningham, Bill Carroll at Elizabeth Harris, and Tamara Gonzales at Klaus von Nichtssagend. Former Bushwickers Julie Torres and Ellen Letcher are returning…
Email: staff@twocoatsofpaint Two Coats of Paint is a NYC-based art project, that includes an award-winning art blogazine, artists residency, conversations, catalogue essays for painters, and […]
“Biala: I belong where my easel is…” Tibor de Nagy Gallery, New York, NY. Through Jan. 5. Janice Biala (1903�2000), Jack Tworkov‘s kid sister, lived […]
With a surgeon’s attention to detail, William Beckman depicts the people and places closest to him: his family, his first home, and studio, all down […]
“Rosemarie Beck: Paintings, Abstraction into Figuration, 1952-1966,” Lori Bookstein, New York, NY. Through Dec. 1. In the NY Sun, John Goodrich reports: “Rosemarie Beck (1923�2003) […]
“I Am As You Will Be:�The Skeleton in Art,”curated in part by James Ensor scholar Xavier Tricot. Cheim & Read, New York, NY. Through November […]
“Mail Order Monsters,” curated by Kathy Grayson. Deitch Projects, New York, NY. Through Sept. 29. Originally installed at Peres Projects, Berlin. See the installation video […]
Contributed by Jonathan Stevenson / For better or worse, directly or inferentially, movies reflect the zeitgeist. This year, they predominantly resonated dread or resignation, and even those focused on personal endeavor had a political tinge. With humanity’s and especially America’s scabrous underbelly fully exposed, both idealism and irony seem to be taking a break, leaving something in between that doesn’t quite amount to earnestness. It’s not the nineties or even the seventies, though the occasional and fleeting nostalgic nod to better days lightened things up. Here’s one (alphabetical) list of the year’s notable movies, with the usual acknowledgement of idiosyncrasy and incompleteness.
