“Philip Guston: What Kind of Man Am I?” at The Metropolitan Museum of Art

“Have our cultural institutions recovered from their collective case of Guston Derangement Syndrome?”

The full article can be read at The New York Sun.

“Close to Vermeer”

“That Vermeer’s achievement was unheralded for almost 200 years after his death can be hard to square given his fame now. A new film details the preparations leading up to the current retrospective of his paintings.”

The full review can be found at “The New York Sun.”

“Rear View” at LGDR, New York

Félix Vallotton, Étude de fesses (circa 1884), oil on canvas, 14.9 x 18.1″; courtesy LGDR Gallery

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“Even at its most restrained or inelegant, ‘Rear View’ reiterates that ‘no nude, however abstract, should fail to arouse in the spectator some vestige of erotic feeling.'”

The full review can be found at “The New York Sun.”

“Juan de Pareja, Afro-Hispanic Painter” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Juan de Pareja, The Calling of Saint Matthew (1661), oil on canvas, 88 9⁄16 × 130″; courtesy Museo Nacional del Prado Photo:©Photographic Archive Museo Nacional del Prado

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“Given the level of painterly skill de Pareja achieved, it doesn’t seem a stretch to suggest that he trained a keen eye on what Velazquez was up to. That, and de Pareja’s travels with Velazquez, especially throughout Italy, allowed him direct and relatively rare contact with great paintings.”

The full review can be found at The New York Sun.

“The Feminine in Abstract Painting” at the Milton Resnick and Pat Passlof Foundation, New York, New York

Lisa Beck, Coming Together (2023), oil paint and mylar on two panels, diptych, 16 x 12″ each; courtesy Nathalie Karg Gallery, New York/photo by Charles Benton

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“Who on earth is crazy enough to mount a show with a title like that?”

The full review can be found at The New York Sun.

“Death Is Not The End” at The Rubin Museum of Art, New York

Anonymous, Yama Dharmaraja (ca. 19th Century); Courtesy The Rubin Museum of Art/Photo by David De Armas

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“In a culture as fractured and fractious as our own, an avowal of understanding is rare and to be commended.”

The full review can be found at “The New York Sun.”

“John McGarity and Daniel Brown: Idol Hours” at Gallery 1448, Baltimore, Maryland

Daniel Brown, Coil (2023), acrylic on board, 8 x 10″; courtesy 1448 Gallery and the artist

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“‘Idol Hours’ serves as confirmation that some of the most accomplished, puzzling, and rewarding contemporary art flies under the radar and flourishes outside of Manhattan.”

The full article can be found at “The New York Sun.”

“Claude Gillot: Satire in the Age of Reason” at The Morgan Library & Museum, New York City

Claude Gillot, Scene of the Two Carriages (1710-12), oil on canvas; courtesy
Musée du Louvre, Paris/photo: Stéphane Maréchalle
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“Known mainly as Antoine Watteau’s teacher, Claude Gillot handled chalk with the dexterity of a miniaturist. It is something to marvel at.”

The full review can be found at The New York Sun.

(c) 2023 Mario Naves

“Trevor Winkfield: The Solitary Radish” at Tibor de Nagy Gallery, New York

Trevor Winkfield, Guardian of the Broom Closet (2018), acrylic on linen, 36 x 43″; courtesy Tibor de Nagy Gallery, New York/photo by Alan Wiener

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“Titles are only as good as the paintings to which they are appended, and Trevor Winkfield’s paintings are very good indeed.”

The full review can be found at “The New York Sun.”

“John Mendelsohn: Dark Color Wheel Paintings” at David Richard Gallery, New York

John Mendelsohn, Dark Color Wheel 12 (2022), acrylic on canvas, 40 x 27″; Courtesy of David Richard Gallery

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“A gentle strain of irony filters through the pictures. A dab hand at color, John Mendelsohn proves peculiarly adept at black and white–tones that aren’t found on the color wheel.”

The full review can be found at White Hot Magazine of Contemporary Art.