Martin Puryear’s work muses on spirit, personhood, and history as a sort of antidote to the nation’s present identity crisis. His retrospective exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, traveling until 2009 to the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern
New Vocabularies: A Conversation with Zhang Huan
“I’m trying to find a new vocabulary to express certain things artistically,” Zhang Huan says. This comment applies to everything from his earliest performances in a poor part of Beijing, which he named the East Village, to his recent two-ton self-portrait as Buddha.
Ada Bobonis: Anthropomorphic Amalgams
Over the past several decades, Puerto Rican artists have been making their mark on the global art stage. The late Félix González-Torres, Cuban-born but a graduate of the University of Puerto Rico, represented the United States at the 2007 Venice Biennale.
Hic Terminus Haeret: Daniel Spoerri’s Garden
I first encountered Daniel Spoerri’s work through one of his “snare-paintings.” This object (actually, a set of objects) consisted of a wall-mounted tabletop onto which the remains of a meal had been fixed: drinking glasses, cigarette butts, an ashtray, cutlery, dishes, and some residual food all clung to the wooden surface, sealed within transparent glue.
PhD Studio Programs
Artists create their own credentials. Art schools and universities offer an array of degrees and certificates, and various artist societies allow members to tag on some initials after their names, but artists are esteemed based on the quality of their work, its influence on other artists, and where it has been shown and collected.
Why I Love Damien’s Skull
Perhaps I’ve confused some readers with this introduction. So, let me start out by stating: I love Damien Hirst’s skull, otherwise titled For the love of God (2007). Why, you might be asking? Because this work designed by Hirst and his team brilliantly fuses the media/communications potential of an artwork with its artistic expression.
Olafur Eliasson: Impresario of the Senses
“Take Your Time: Olafur Eliasson” opened on an auspicious morning at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the sun rising as a huge red ball in a hazy sky. The fierce glow, which resulted from wildfires around the Bay Area, bore an uncanny resemblance to Eliasson’s 2003 breakout work at the Tate Modern, The Weather
The Age of Abstraction: A Conversation with Frank Stella
Frank Stella has championed abstraction for about 50 years. From his two solo exhibitions at MoMA early in his career, in 1970 and 1987, through his recent solo shows—two at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, at the Paul Kasmin Gallery in New York City, Galerie Ficher Rohr in Basel, Galerie Haas & Fuchs in Berlin,
Situations in Space: A Conversation with Karina Peisajovich
Karina Peisajovich was born in Buenos Aires in 1966. Her approach to art theory and practice began at the National School of Fine Arts Prilidiano Pueyrredón in 1984. Three trips have been crucial in her career.
Peter Blizzard: Venerating the Earth Through Sculpture
For a young artist, a meteoritic rise to fame can sometimes be followed by a painful decline—or at best, a long stationary period on a plateau. Conversely, an arduous uphill climb may be frustratingly slow, but the subsequent rewards tend to be lasting.
