Articles
Lily Prince
When she was 17 and forced to attend a strict Yeshiva high school in suburban NJ, Lily Prince woke up two weeks before the start of senior year with the conviction that she had to go to art school. “I have to get out of here, go back to public school and build a...
The Critical Edge
Some tips for getting art writers to notice your work. Hint: a cow’s tongue probably will not do the trick. It’s the dream of every artist to be noticed by a prestige critic, like Roberta Smith or Jerry Saltz or any other of the noteworthy art scribes in urban areas....
First Encounters
The art that made artists want to be artists In almost every artist’s life there are inevitably one or more works that ignite a spark or at least plant a seed, provoking the notion that art could be a dedicated calling, or at least a subject of serious study....
Mimi Chen Ting
Born in Shanghai and raised mostly in Hong Kong, Mimi Chen Ting grew up at a time when traditions were still so strong that her grandmother hobbled around on tiny bound feet and her mother was the concubine of a prosperous banker (her parents married when she was in...
Whazzup with All the Gallery Closings?
And what exactly does a "private dealer" do? When I heard early in the summer that the venerable Cheim & Read gallery in Chelsea was closing its doors to transition to “private practice,” my heart sank a little. The low-key establishment on West 25th Street was...
In the Beginning (Nonbiblical Version)
By Ed Haddaway In many ways my lifetime has been spent in what was our backyard. Far from being chained like our first collie, Lassie (in the1950s there was no other possible dog anyone, anywhere, could have), I have roamed freely for these past 68 years. In fact,...
Fantasy Curating: Thinking Outside the Box
By Ruth Hiller It’s probably difficult to pinpoint the very first artist to make a shaped construction, an artwork that hovers somewhere between painting and sculpture. The possibilities for non-rectangular paintings begin as early as the 1920s with fanciful...
Susan Schwalb
It’s a rare artist who finds her medium and her methods early and then sticks with them, with little deviation, for more than four decades. But so it was for Susan Schwalb, who discovered the art of drawing with silverpoint in 1973 and never looked back. She was...
The Last of Marty (a Christmas Memory)
It’s a question people habitually ask in a place like Taos: How did you wind up (or, alternatively, end up) here? The connotations of that inquiry always feel to me somewhat negative, as though you’ve hit rock bottom and are staying at the YWCA in downtown Newark. But...
The Motherhood Report
No one claims it's easy, but it is possible to combine two of the world's oldest callings: artist and mother Way back in the 1980s, in the era of linebacker shoulder pads and dressing for success, I worked on a short-lived publication that billed itself as the first...
Margery Amdur Makes an Installation
When Margery Amdur was invited this fall to build an installation in a gallery at Augsburg University in Minneapolis, MN, the Philadelphia-based artist envisioned an immersive environment that would draw on the many interests she’s pursued over the years. Probably...
Plein-Air Painting Today
Thirteen Who Head for the Open Air...in Spite of the Challenges Artists in significant numbers first took to the great outdoors to work in natural surroundings and more accurately transcribe the effects of light nearly 200 years ago, following the example of landscape...
Social Media: Defining Your Target Market
By Barbra Drizin There are many bells and whistles on Facebook that most users know nothing about. A few tweaks, following the steps below, allow you to focus your social media efforts, so that your posts reach carefully tailored audiences—your "target market.” These...
Gudrun Mertes-Frady
Gudrun Mertes-Frady credits her childhood as the daughter of two architects, one of whom taught at a school modeled after the Bauhaus, with the look of her mature paintings: restraint and control always n balance with an impulse toward lyricism, with an elegant...
Assess the Excess
Suggestions for storing, selling, tossing, or giving away unwanted old work One of the saddest days of my life was the day I carted all my youthful paintings from my parents’ summer house to the dump in Montauk, NY, after selling the property in 2003. These included a...
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