The weekend of September 15/16 sees the official opening of the restored former residence of Milton Resnick as the home of the Milton Resnick and Pat Passlof Foundation. This historic synagogue on Manhattan’s Lower East Side has in fact been open, in preview mode, since July with an inaugural show of Resnick’s painting from 1937 to 1987. The building restoration, overseen by Ryall Sheridan Architects, was made possible by the sale of Passlof’s nearby studio-home, coincidentally another former synagogue. Passlof will be the subject of the Foundation’s second exhibition, in 2019. To welcome the Foundation to New York’s cultural life, artcritical offers this selection from our archives of coverage of Resnick and Passlof over the years.

July 11th, 2014
Man Out of Time: Milton Resnick at Mana Contemporary
by Jonathan Goodman

October 10th, 2011
Maelstrom Gathering Energy: Milton Resnick in the Seventies and Eighties
by Eric Sutphin

June 15th, 2008
Milton Resnick at Cheim & Read
by David Cohen

March 1st, 2005
Milton Resnick (1917-2004)
by Geoffrey Dorfman

May 1st, 2004
Out of the Picture – Milton Resnick and the New York School
by Joseph Walentini

November 15th, 2011
Pat Passlof, 1928-2011
by David Cohen

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This weekend marks the conclusion of the magnificent David Hockney retrospective at the Metropolitan Museum, and also the journey of that show, both geographically and conceptually, through markedly distinct iterations in its originating venue, Tate Britain, and the Pompidou Center. But while its various outings placed greater or lesser emphasis on photography, drawing, multimedia works, stage works, portraiture, Etc., the overall characterization of Hockney as a tireless explorer was consistent. Less space was made available to the show in New York than in London or Paris, but that made no dent in the power of this presentation: it was, indeed, a small price to pay (for him and for us) for the honor of his sharing a roof with Rodin and Michelangelo, and by extension, Munch. In fact, the pleasure of seeing his stunning double portraits hang almost cheek by jowl in an almost domestic-feeling gallery accentuated appreciation of a series that occupied the intellectual heart of the Met exhibition. These and the legendary swimming pools and the sumptuous late explorations of Hollywood and Yorkshire landscapes were stepping stones on a journey through a multifaceted oeuvre that flowed more effortlessly, it might be argued, than Hockney’s peripatetic career itself. And yet it is telling to the notion of journey that the most memorable and (in my experience) remarked upon moments in this show were at its outset and conclusion: The charismatic exuberance of his “primitive,” graffiti-like student works (so much larger than one had ever imagined from reproductions) and the mesmerizing animated iPad paintings that ensured a crowded and lingering exit. Equally daring, in their varyingly experimental, critical, personal ways, these works revel in curiosity about living in the world and seeing it.

David Hockney, Metropolitan Museum of Art, November 27, 2018 to February 25, 2018

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A book published on the occasion of this exhibition includes essays by Eleanor Heartney, Stephen Westfall, Raphael Rubinstein and David Cohen, from the latter of whom the following paragraph is extracted:

His strategy entails means of generating isolated pockets of chance within a meticulously balanced, evolving order. Norton is able to draw on years of experience as a commercial house painter, as well of course as a fine artist. He starts a painting with a layer of transparent medium applied allover. The first intimation of a compositional structure is the chance pattern of brushstroke visible in the primed ground. Her refers to what commercial painters call “holidays,” the lesions or overlaps that prevent a brushless smooth surface. (In view of the noisy brood that a Norton composition will spawn it is worth recalling the words of Toru Takemitsu, that silence is the mother – or perhaps grandmother – of music.) As a non-volitional means of generating marks, canvases are often then laid on the floor where they accept studio droppings and stray flings of paint from other works in process. When he finds himself responding consciously to the emerging composition the canvas graduates to the wall. It is presumably at this stage that he becomes more acutely aware, and protective, of remaining clear ground. This ontology is significant as it reverses, or at least complicates, a causal notion of raw ground supporting cultivated or tolerated accumulations. The complexity brings to mind random pockets on an ethnographic or linguistic map where it looks like a stray group has settled whereas they are the remnant of the group that was already there.

Pictured: Sampling Time, 2016-17

C. Michael Norton: Infinity’s Sprawl at UNIX Gallery, 532 West 24th Street, New York City, October 26 to December 09; reception: Thursday, October 26, 6-8PM

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A few years ago, a prominent artist got herself invited to the audience of Comedy Central’s The Daily Show. When its then host Jon Stewart started to warm up the crowd, our painter friend called out “The art world loves you, Jon” to which Mr. Stewart replied, “Oh, art has its own world, does it?”

This incident came to mind as I pondered how to respond to the J20 group’s call for “An Act of Noncompliance on Inauguration Day”. One thing no one wants on this dark day in history is any kind of divisiveness in how cultured, civilized people should oppose the coming mayhem, ineptitude and violation of rights and norms that promise to constitute US government over the next four years. Many artists and organizations I follow have responded positively to J20s defiant call for “No work, no school, no business”—kudos to them for their noble sentiment. Museums that have waived entrance fees as a gesture against “business as usual” deserve especial praise. The Whitney Museum is hosting an “Occupy Museums” event in solidarity with J20. But while there is absolutely nothing to disagree with in J20’s characterization of Trumpism—“a toxic mix of white supremacy, misogyny, xenophobia, militarism, and oligarchic rule” – the thought does occur: On this of all days, did the art world have to do its own special thing?

Today is a day for mourning, tomorrow for action. I will be joining friends in New York Saturday to show solidarity with the Women’s March on DC. Although the president-elect has already indicated his intention to abolish the NEA and to eviscerate public broadcasting, a focus on women makes special sense in view of the vindictive and callous assaults on women’s rights and dignity that characterized the Trump campaign. To deflect in any way from that seems like letting off a few bazookas ahead of a pyrotechnic display.

In my view, protesters should be gathering their strength Friday, resting their voices and feet, and focusing with millions of Americans across all industrial sectors on tomorrow’s properly organized, media-savvy activity. The world will be counting the number of live bodies on the National Mall and sister sites across the country. Someone arrested in a spontaneous demonstration today won’t be there tomorrow. Hopefully, TV cameras will pick out some great placards, some of which have been made by artists like Andrea Champlin, pictured here, and James Esber, our cover artist this weekend. January 21 is a day when the efficacy of focused and inclusive protest can be measured: in the years ahead, we need all the focus and inclusivity that can be mustered.

A call for an art strike on a day when other sectors are not planning industrial action also puts out a strange message about art. It somehow implies that the victims of this strike will all be Ivanka Trumps who won’t be able to go out today and buy a Richard Prince. There is a whiff of the sentiment that art is frivolous: fiddling while Rome burns. In fact, a more likely victim of the strike is a protester revving up for tomorrow’s activities. In that spirit, artcritical salutes the sentiments of Galerie St. Etienne in their response to a survey at Hyperallergic magazine:

Galerie St. Etienne will remain open on January 20. Our current exhibition on American Artists and the Communist Party, installed just down the block from Trump Tower, is especially relevant in the wake of the election. As the administration takes a big step to the right, we stand committed to socially-conscious art. The works on display make it all too obvious that Depression-era inequities are no less rampant or socially destructive today.

The post The Art of Protest appeared first on artcritical.

These are the brave words that Josephine Halvorson, the painter, posted to Facebook in the early hours this fateful morning. Those of us with art to make or magazines to edit must be thankful for work, as a distraction but also a locus of resistance.

I now bless the good luck that led me and my guests to choose for discussion at The Review Panel next week the retrospective exhibitions of Marilyn Minter and Kerry James Marshall. This will focus attention on issues of gender and race, of representation, exploitation, beauty, humor, and critique. It forces us to examine long careers that have seen political and social changes in both directions that hopefully will offer lessons for these ominous times. And if not lessons, at least, perhaps, some fun.  DAVID COHEN

Reserve seats now

CORRECTION: Josephine Halvorson was a fellow of the French Academy in Rome in 2014-15. An earlier posting of this article stated inaccurately that she is presently a fellow of the American Academy in Rome.

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The Surrealists had a fantasy of a secret passage that led through myriad rooms in different buildings across Paris, without the wanderer having to return to the street. That wild notion comes to mind when contemplating New York’s commercial art galleries and alternative spaces, for in a way these constitute the world’s biggest, best, and curatorially most heterodox museum of contemporary art, one that happens, also, to be free.

The objection could be raised that a real museum has a café, a gift shop and a lecture hall. Well, if you visit Hauser & Wirth on a Friday or Saturday, they’ll make you an espresso, and The Hole and Gagosian both have stores (and this is not to mention, by the way, that all galleries are, in fact, stores: you can buy things there!). As for the lecture hall, there are artist talks, walk-thrus and panels galore in many of these venues. But the better answer viz educational programing is that, complementing the free museum of contemporary art that it is, New York is also a virtual university of the arts if you add to these gallery offerings the lectures and events at art schools, libraries (let’s blow a trumpet here for the Brooklyn Public Library, host of The Review Panel) and, yes, the “real” museums and universities, all of which expose the idea-hungry New York mind to an ever-evolving encyclopedia of living art.

Just take a given Wednesday in New York City, this Wednesday, October 5, 2016. According to THE LIST, there are half a dozen stellar podium performances to choose from. The young, Iranian-born painter Ali Banisadr, who shows at Sperone Westwater, will present at the New York Academy down in Tribeca; Cliff Owens speaks on his work at Hunter College; Archie Rand talks about his series of cartoon-paintings inspired by Torah, the 613, at the New York Studio School; at Adam Shopkorn and Carolyn Angel’s Fort Gansevoort you have no less that two dialogues on this single evening, Alexis Rockman with Carl Mehling at 7pm and Roy Fowler (showing his wave prints at the gallery) in conversation with Mary Heilmann at 8.30 (but no BBQ at Fort Gansevoort Wednesdays alas, so bring a sandwich!), and at Katie Michel and Brad Ewing’s project space, Planthouse, an interview with Katherine Bradford.

A tantalizing, some would say painful, decision, but Netflix and chill ain’t an option, New York.

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Last year, Andrew announced to his bereft mailing list of thousands that he’d be suspending the service. By then, however, artcritical has assembled a crew of listings editors covering the whole city, Philadelphia and Hudson. It took little persuading to invite Andrew to assume the mantle of our listings czar, to whip us into better shape and, with our developer François Huyghe, devise the technical means to arrange the list in Andrew’s beloved geographical orientation. THE LIST can be enjoyed multiple ways: WEEK AT A GLANCE affords daily summaries of openings and closings; CURRENT arranges everything by neighborhood; and there are columns for LECTURES/EVENTS and FUTURE SHOWS. Plus you can mail yourself a PDF and play with it to suit your needs. For a daily TIP from the editors, find us on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter.

The success of this venture depends, however, on our community of users. To misquote NYPD, if you DON’T see something, say something. listings@artcritical.com copies straight to Andrew Ginzel’s inbox.

The post A Grand Alliance appeared first on artcritical.

Victor Burgin: UK76 at Bridget Donahue Gallery
99 Bowery 2nd floor, New York, NY (646) 896-1368 – September 08 to November 06

Lorna Simpson at Salon 94 Bowery
243 Bowery, New York, NY (212) 979-0001 – September 08 to October 22

Rashid Johnson: Fly Away at Hauser & Wirth (Chelsea)
511 West 18th Street, New York, NY (212) 790-3900 – September 08 to October 22

Eve Aschheim: Drawings and Photograms at Lori Bookstein Fine Art
138 10th Avenue, New York, NY (212) 750-0949 – September 08 to October 15

(These last two shows, Johnson and Aschheim, will be discussed at The Review Panel on September 20 when my guests at the Brooklyn Public Library will be Ken Johnson, Karen E. Jones and Sarah Nicole Prickett; the other shows are of A.L.Steiner and a mural by Lauren Clay at BAM)

Leonardo Drew at Sikkema Jenkins & Co.
530 West 22nd Street, New York, NY (212) 929-2262 – September 08 to October 08

(Check out the stellar interview with Drew by Oona Zlamany from earlier this year)

Sharon Louden: Windows and Cotter Lupi at Morgan Lehman
534 West 24th Street Ground Floor, New York, NY (212) 268-6699 – September 08 to October 08

Kyle Staver at Kent Fine Art
210 11th Avenue Second Floor, New York, NY (212) 365-9500 – September 09 to October 22- Reception: September 08

Marilyn Lerner: Harmonies at Cue Art Foundation
137 West 25th Street, New York, NY (212) 206-3583 – September 08 to October 15

Hearne Pardee: Peripheral Vision at Bowery Gallery
530 West 25th Street 4th Floor, New York, NY (646) 230-6655 – September 06 to October 01- Reception: September 08

(Pardee is a longstanding contributor to these pages; his latest piece for us is a report from Paris, of the Beats exhibition at the Pompidou.)

Lynda Benglis: New Work at Cheim & Read
547 West 25th Street, New York, NY 212 242 7727 – September 08 to October 22

Joan Semmel at Alexander Gray Associates
510 West 26th Street, New York, NY (212) 399-2636 – September 08 to October 15

Ed Moses: Painting as Process at Albertz Benda
515 West 26th Street, New York, NY (212) 244-2579 – September 08 to October 15

Victor Vasarely: Analog at Maxwell Davidson Gallery
521 West 26th Street, New York, NY (212) 759-7555 – September 08 to October 29

Ian Davenport: Doubletake at Paul Kasmin (293 Tenth Avenue)
293 Tenth Avenue, New York, NY (212) 563-4474 – September 08 to October 22

Robert Polidori: Ecophilia / Chronostasis at Paul Kasmin (515 West 27th Street)
515 West 27th Street, New York, NY (212) 563-4474 – September 08 to October 15

George Grosz: Politics and His Influence at David Nolan Gallery
527 West 29th Street, New York, NY (212) 925-6190 – September 08 to October 22

Douglas Crimp: Before Pictures New York City 1967-1977 at Galerie Buchholz
17 East 82nd Street, New York, NY (646) 964-4276 – September 08 to October 22

Anne Sherwood Pundyk: Unconditional Paint at Salena Gallery (Long Island University/ Brooklyn Campus)
1 University Plaza, Brooklyn, NY (718) 488-1198 – September 06 to October 28- Reception: September 08

Richard Hennessy: Free Hand Free Spirit, Paintings 1989-2016 at Godwin-Ternbach Museum, Queens College
405 Klapper Hall 65-30 Kissena Boulevard, Queens, NY 718-997-4747 – September 08 to October 01

The post TIPS: A not-so-short shortlist of shows opening Thursday, September 8 appeared first on artcritical.

Nicole Kaack on Nicole Eisenman at the New Museum, June 2016

Dennis Kardon on Nicole Eisenman, June 2016

David Cohen on Nicole Eisenman at Leo Koenig, March 2004

David Cohen on Eisenman’s work in the Arts and Letters Invitational, March 2001

The post Nicole Eisenman Double-Bill: Reviews of Her Exhibitions at the New Museum and Anton Kern appeared first on artcritical.

artcritical backs the call, initiated by artist Marina Adams, to make OY/YO, the public sculpture by Deborah Kass, a permanent feature of the DUMBO riverbank. The work, commissioned by Two Trees Management Company, is scheduled to remain on view at Brooklyn Bridge Park through August 2016.

We support making it permanent for the excellent reasons given by Ms. Adams in her petition to Mayor Bill di Blasio, which we invite our readers to sign:

OY/YO, by Deborah Kass has instantly become a beloved icon, a Statue of Liberty, an I Love NY for the 21st century. It speaks directly to the many communities that make NYC the greatest city in the world. OY/YO has been acclaimed by the New York Times and gone viral on Instagram. New York Magazine calls it perfect public art. It is both a tourist attraction and an integral part of the Dumbo neighborhood and waterfront. (On top of that it is one of the only public sculptures made by a woman!) NYC loves OY/YO and we want to keep it permanent and public so we can continue to enjoy it.

There may be more public sculptures around by women than Ms. Adams implies (there are at least four in New York City by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney alone, to name one artist) but we won’t quibble on that front, especially as there are for sure nowhere near enough. This week, Philadelphians saw the temporary removal of Robert Indiana’s LOVE from the park that bears its name. Indiana’s iconic sculpture, a forebear (see below) of Kass’s street-smart monument, will take up temporary digs in Dilworth Park as Love Park undergoes renovations. It is rare when a work of public art touches the public’s hearts this way, and should be cherished.

But we acknowledge strong arguments against routinely making temporary public art interventions permanent simply because they resonate and are popular. One is that doing so might inhibit future temporary interventions; another is that it might aggrandize gestures that would be sweeter if they were simpler from artists invited to make temporary works but secretly hopeful of winning the bonus prize of permanence. There is always, however, an exception to prove a rule. The Eiffel Tower, initially reviled, was designed to be temporary. What would Paris be without it?

For the record, in November of last year, shortly after it was unveiled, OY/YO was an ARTCRITICAL PICK. Here is what David Cohen said of it:

OY/YO can be read two ways in more ways than meet the eye. Of course, the bright yellow typographically-symmetrical eight-foot-high aluminum letters, sited in DUMBO’s Brooklyn Bridge Park, read in different languages from Manhattan or Brooklyn, in Yeoman Yankee slang  as well as  Spanish if you face east and Yiddish if you have  your back to Kings County. It’s a gentle joke about multiculturalism and borough rivalry perhaps, although kvetching is pretty much universal and non-denominational throughout greater New York. Deborah Kass offers both a recall and a riposte to Brooklyn’s lost Domino sign and the Queens waterfront’s repositioned “Pepsi” through the democratizing while lost in translation reverse legibility of OY/YO. But the real genius of this at once layered and brazen concrete poem is the way it works for different crowds without anyone getting patronized: Kass speaks the language of art historical appropriation to critically savvy insiders – recalling her classic Jewish feminist deconstructions of Warhol, this time she riffs off of Robert Indiana’s LOVE and Ed Ruscha’s OOF – but she equally presents an upbeat, innocent originality to Joe Public, lounging in the park or stuck in bridge traffic. A knowingly classy graphic for a gentrified sometime slum, OY/YO is a two-way mirror of an only-in-New York variety.

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