Ripe for Rediscovery: Francis Picabia

Ripe for Rediscovery: Francis Picabia

Francis Picabia was a man way ahead of his times. Long before artists of our day became dedicated multitaskers—moving easily from performance to sculpture to video to whatever—Picabia (1879-1953) vigorously avoided any singular style or medium, forging a career that...
Under the Radar: Bonny Leibowitz

Under the Radar: Bonny Leibowitz

The unfolding of an artist’s life and work is a strange and mysterious process. If you’ve been following the posts in “Under the Radar,” you see that there’s no one-size-fits-all. Ted Larsen took several years off to rethink his direction. Phillis Ideal moved from one...
A Few Words About Words

A Few Words About Words

Occasionally a reader of Vasari21 has written or said to me, “I really enjoy your blog!” And I have been known to snap back, “It’s not a blog. It’s more like a magazine. I don’t know what to call it. Maybe I should call it a webazine.” I don’t mean to be so prickly...
Melissa Stern

Melissa Stern

If you happen to get to Charleston, SC, before August 6, be sure to visit the Redux Contemporary Art Center and Melissa Stern’s multimedia exhibition “The Talking Cure,” a collection of sculptures that are only too eager to tell you about the complicated workings of...
Vasari21 Goes to the Movies: Part Two

Vasari21 Goes to the Movies: Part Two

Vasari21 Goes to the Movies Part 2 Why watch a documentary about an artist? We have biographies and museum and gallery shows and catalogues and other ways of entering the lives and minds of the more memorable figures in the visual arts. Yet a documentary can offer an...