This early AbEx painter suffered three tragedies that resulted in a depression that made him become agoraphobic. Even the entreaties of Leo Castelli failed to draw out the prolific recluse. He wrote that his paintings opened a “back door” to aesthetic secrets held in the universe.
Rare is the artist who could claim to have dived as deep into the unconscious and survived the journey — bringing back images of intense imagination and technical brilliance. As proof, this recluse kept his life’s works buried in a dilapidated shack in the hills of Eugene, Oregon. The...
Starting in 1963, Kokoschka inspired this protegé, Wayne Ensrud, to dig deeper than other young contemporary artists, most of whom had been misled into thinking that a focus of massive energy and emotion was enough to become a great painter. Instead, his epiphany was that painting is a metaphysical...
Although O’Keefe’s abstractions are at first glance similar with those of his contemporary, Gerhard Richter, they are in reality quite different. Richter's abstractions are produced by “pulling the paint in emotionless paths over the canvas,” with the purpose of being...
If Degas had developed his dance sculpture beyond his many small maquettes he may have matched Kelsey. But as this was never his intention the highest standard for dance sculpture must be conferred upon her.
Anyone who has roamed the New York galleries has seen Falk's exquisite prints from other master’s negatives and not known he was actually their printer. While recognized as one of the country's greatest master printers in black & white, his personal work has only gradually been...
That Feldsott's supercharged paintings bring something new, brash, vital and exciting into the generally self-conscious, sometimes even precious realm of contemporary American art should not surprise us. They ask us, urgently, to reconsider the role of the metaphysical in our lives and art in...
After this master glassblower emerged with a new transgendered self the result was a series of powerfully compelling sculptures and installations. Here are expressions of transformation where sex has nothing — and everything — to do with it.
Geoffrey Moss has led double lives ever since he earned his MFA in the 1950s at Yale under Josef Albers. Twice he was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for his political drawings — yet, he has also remained a prolific abstract painter.
