Selected Writings
March 2010: The Art Section
That's Ms. Neel
In the mid 70s when I was studying art history at NYU and in the Whitney Museum of American Art’s Independent Study Program, I had long hair, a moustache, and was deeply earnest. I worked various jobs to earn money: as a bookstore clerk at Barnes and Noble—long before it became a chain... Read more
May 2009: The Art Section
Mel Bochner: Two Recent Books and Other Thoughts
OK I admit it: I love Mel Bochner. Well, I love Mel and his work, though I haven’t seen him in years. I probably first became aware of his work in the early 70s, when visits to galleries and Soho were ritualistic, and his shows at Sonnabend always received attention. Or so it seemed to me then... Read more
April 2009: The Art Section
Sol LeWitt: A Wall Drawing Restrospective at MASS MoCA
Long after the last hands were outlined on the walls of Lascaux and the frescoes had dried into the walls of the various palaces of renaissance Florence, Sol LeWitt began a contemporary enterprise in words and ideas that would shape a lifetime of art in the 20th century. To manifest his ideas... Read more
January 2009: The Art Section
Grace Hartigan (1922 - 2008): An Appreciation
Grace Hartigan was a painter who refused to be trapped by labels or styles. She was born in Newark, New Jersey, lived and worked in New York during the halcyon days of Abstract Expressionism, and then moved—because of love--to Baltimore, Maryland, where she lived, worked, taught and painted every day. Although... Read more
2008: Catalog Essay. Gallery PYO, Beijing, China
Jonathan Borofsky, On a Grand Scale
Those familiar with the work of Jonathan Borofsky might be surprised to know that he has only had two solo exhibitions since 1992. They might be equally surprised to learn that during me last two decades or so his efforts have almost exclusively been devoted to large-scale outdoor public sculpture commissions... Download PDF
2005: Catalog Essay. Arthur Roger Gallery, New Orleans, LA
David Bates now and after the floods...
He is tall, gentle and witty. His paintings reflect his Texas charm and manners. Like artists before him. David Bates has long been interested, I should say absorbed, in the simple things of life: friends, pets and his domestic surroundings. He is renowned as a landscape painter and a portrait painter. For many... Download PDF
2002: Art & Fact
The Growth and Development of a Corporate Collection : Microsoft Corporation
What I would like to address is what the Microsoft collection has been, what it is now and what it might look like during the next five years. Over the past few years I have met with and spoken to other corporate curators both locally and international. From our discussions I can tell you that while our job titles may be... Download PDF
September 2001: The Art Book
Interview with Robert Mangold
After reading the Phaidon title on Robert Mangold, our US reviewer Michael Klein wished to interview him. He reached Mangold at his studio in Washingtonville, New York, some 50 miles north of New York City, where he and his family have lived since the 1975. The interview was conducted over the telephone... Download PDF
April 2001: ARCO Magazine
The Microsoft Art Collection
Founded in 1987, the Microsoft Art Collection came into existence in response to employees' requests to fill empty wall space. The purpose of the collection was then, as it is now, to create a positive working environment for employees and an appealing business setting for customers and Microsoft guests... Download PDF
November 2000: Catalog Essay. Dorsky Gallery, New York
Symbols of Survival: Images of Animals in Recent Sculpture
Through our our lives we often come to understand the natural world in stories, legends, and experiences related through the eyes of animals. We learn the alphabet by associating letters with animals: A for alligator, E for elephant, Z for zebra. The animal kingdom is indelibly imprinted on our childhood memories... Download PDF
2000: Catalog Essay. Meadows Museum of Art, Shreveport, LA
Stacked, Forced, Pinched: Lynda Benglis at Work
For the past thirty years, since the early days of what once was Soho, Lynda Benglis has sustained a reputation for sassiness and invention in her art. More than many other artists of her generation, she endeavors to expand on the definition and course of contemporary sculpture and ideas. Her earliest exploits began in... Download PDF
1999: Catalog Essay. Crits ’99: Discourse on the Visual Arts, Western Carolina University, Cullowhee, NC
Dona Nelson: Truth in Pictures
In the late '70s, I was as hungry to look at new paintings as I am today. In particular, I was in search of painters for a gallery I was thinking of opening. Two friends, the sculptor Mary Miss and the writer Richard Whelan, insisted that I go and take a look at "the singular work" of Dona Nelson. Miss had just been interviewed... Download PDF
1999: Catalog Essay. Locks Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
Louise Nevelson, An Appreciation
It has been some ten years since the death of Louise Nevelson, one of America's most vital and distinguished sculptors. In the decade following her death, a decade that has been witness to a vast array of sculptors working in her mode of installation, it is at once telling and surprising that Nevelson has not been given... Download PDF
1998: Catalog Essay. Asheville Art Museum, Asheville, NC
Off the Wall: Eight Contemporary Sculptors
The home and studio of H.C. Westermann, in a recently gentrified region of Connecticut surrounded by tract homes and old farms, is a wonderful oasis away from a mad and imposing world—a great place to work, live, and hide out. The house itself (built by the artist, on a street aptly called Obtuse Road) is a life-size... Download PDF
May-June 1998: Sculpture Magazine
Ingenious Simplicity: The Sculpture of H.C. Westermann
In an interview at the beginning of the century, Pablo Picasso referred to sculpture as "the art of intelligence," The eight artists selected for this exhibition, Richard Artschwager, Lynda Benglis, Donna Dennis, David Ireland, Robert Lobe, Matthew McCaslin, Judy Pfaff and Joel Shapiro, wholeheartedly share this belief... Download PDF
March 1998: Catalog Essay. Asheville Art Museum, Asheville, NC
Beyond the Mountains: The Contemporary American Landscape
Twentieth century painters have never lost their infatuation with nature and the landscape. Whether we look at the provocative abstractions of Paul Klee's invented worlds early in the century, the enigmatic vistas of Balthus or the very contemporary photographically derived and impressionistically detailed paintings of Gerhard... Download PDF
1998: Catalog Essay. Arts Club of Chicago
Timely and Timeless: A Memoir
Paul Thek's studio was a small, tidy apartment in Manhattan's East Village and in spite of it being a crowded tenement he considered it his Shangri-La. That was Paul—he turned the most commonplace thing into something special that would delight him and t hose around him. He was a bit of a showman looking always... Download PDF
December 1997: Artnet
nicholas de staël: paintings 1950-1955
New York in the 1950s saw the golden years of Abstract Expressionism. De Kooning, Kline and Rothko were the rising stars of a triumphant and distinctly American art. But Paris too was enjoying the post-war boom, witnessing the pictorial elan of its own new generation of painters and sculptors... Read more
December 1997: Artnet
Franz Kline: Architecture & Atmosphere
The New York art dealer Allan Stone is a legend in the art world, having been associated with such artists as de Kooning, Cornell, Warhol and Eva Hesse, who he presented very early in her career. Stone champions artists the old-fashioned way, with great personal enthusiasm and dignity, and has done so... Read more
December 1997: Artnet
Interior Light: Richard Pousette-Dart
Today the work of Richard Pousette-Dart (1916-1992) provides a unity of the spiritual and the pragmatic that is a model for younger artists concerned with sensation, wonder and visual mysticism. Presently on view at the Metropolitan Museum is the first survey of Richard Pousette-Dart's career since... Read more
March 1993: ARTNews
Travelling in Styles
"These are like my trophies," said Malcolm Morley, standing in the middle of his studio and pointing to the drawings, sketches and studies around him. Morley, sporting a fresh tan and a full white beard, had just returned from a month in Greece. Before doing anything else—unpacking his bags, making making phone calls... Download PDF