Category: Abstract Painting

Norman Lewis

Since February is Black History Month, I thought it was worth digging in a little bit to find out what part of US History had perhaps been missing from my education- I know for a fact of course that there are black painters making work I love (Stanley and Elias, looking at you).

After reading this great article from Art News circa 2014, I settled on Norman. If you guessed from the print below that he was influenced by Ad Reinhardt, my theory is that went both ways. Read this bio from the Smithsonian and check out this Pinterest board I made as well.

#normanlewis

Robert Ryman

With the news this week that Ryman had passed away I took a little time to reflect on my reactions to his work over this years. This interview from 2007 is helpful.

I also made a Pinterest gallery of some of his work.

Here’s an early work from right around the time he really found his voice (’62). Thanks for helping me learn to see Mr Ryman!

#robertryman

Sarah Crowner

A friend sent me this interesting article from Vogue. I’ve been following Sarah’s brand of reinvigorated Modernism on Instagram so it was nice to have an excuse to learn a little more about her, especially that she does ceramic work using tile in addition to work with the American Ballet Theater. Glad to see talent having a deserved cultural moment.

#sarahcrowner

Heather Day

Juxtapoz has an article up about Pour, a new show by Kathryn McNaughton (who I’ve followed for a while on Instagram) and Heather Day, who is new to me. The paintings are a result of a short sabitcal to focus on work in semi-solitude, which sounds fantastic, and impactful, since the main focus of her work is her synesthesia.

#heatherday

James Siena

One of the blogs I have in my RSS feed is Two Coats of Paint. They used the image below as the headline for their January gallery review, and the show is at Pace, so I paid attention. I’ve heard of Siena before (he’s got twenty on me so he’s been at it for a minute) and decided to look deeper. (One of the) reasons to keep this blog is to remember to look what other folks are doing (and keep a record of things I like). I won’t lie- reviewing his catalogue gives me hope that some day mine might be worth some young abstract painter doing the same.

#jamessiena

Elias Simes

Glad I went to see the O’Keefe show at NCMA because I discovered they’ve also got a huge piece from Elias Sime’s show at James Cohan in 2015 (Tightrope 9)- it’s pretty spectacular if you haven’t seen it yet. The composition is clearly non-representational- abstract if you will- but his use of computer parts (and the social and cultural context for the acquisition of the materials) clearly carries a rich depth of content. Even more interesting to me was the conceptual bent he shared with O’Keefe and they both shared with their subject matter- the materials they make work about and from have a visceral attraction for both that comes through loud and clear. Check out his bio for more of this type of color on this amazing artist.

#eiliassimes

Fran O’Neill

I first encountered Fran’s work while Tumblr’ing, please check out her online gallery. I find these to be almost narrative- they impact me kind of like Lichtenstein’s brushstrokes which I always saw as comic book hero versions of brushstrokes being… well. Anyway, they all seem to tell a sort of story.

#franoneill

Matthew Kubler

Ran across this artist because I follow the tag #hardedgepainting on Instagram*, and was not surprised to find we like a lot of the same color field painters. I encourage you to visit his website and peep some of the videos that shows the work over time. *He also has an Instagram feed.

#matthewkubler