Whitney Museum of American Art

George McNeil emerged as one of the First Generation Abstract Expressionist and New York School painters during the late thirties. He was shown in the New York Worlds Fair in 1939, and in 1935 he was a member of the W.P.A. and served on the Federal Art project with artists such as Willem de Kooning and James Brooks.

After giving away more than 50,000 artworks by Andy Warhol and making approximately a quarter of a billion dollars in cash grants, the Warhol Foundation is now approaching its 30th anniversary with a renewed focus on grant-making programs, as seen in the grassroots activity it is seeding through Common Field and the exhibitions resulting from its last round of gifts.

In the November issue of Art in America there was a story "Richard Bellamy. Interview by Billy Kluver and Julie Martin, introduction by Judith E. Stein." It was a sidebar of Stein's research on the Bellamy an eccentric, brilliant and complex art dealer. We spoke about that research as well as work with the little understood or appreciated movement of Figurative Expressionism.

Alexander Calder's brilliant abstract works revolutionized modern sculpture and made him one of the most celebrated artists of the 20th century. This wonderful exhibition brings together 40 of the artist's mobiles (kinetic) and stabiles ( stationary) to explore how Alexander Calder introduced the visual vocabulary into American cultural vernacular. At this once in a generation show, the power of his poetic mastery of elegant form, balance and motion is underscored by his infectious personality of delight and whimsy.

The Modern Spirit: The Arts of George Morrison is a five venue traveling exhibition which is on view at the Heard Museum in Phoenix, Arizona through January 12. Morrison (1919-2000) left the Chippewa people of Lake Superior to study at the Arts Student League in 1943. He enjoyed success in New York with numerous gallery and national museum exhibitions. In 1970 he returned to teach in Minnesota where he primarily lived and worked for the remainder of his life. As an abstract artist Morrison defies narrow definitions of American Indian Art. His life and work did much to expand that.

Twelve days after breaking news the New York Times has reported on $25.4 million in Commonwealth funding for the $50 million renovation of the final phase of build out for Mass MoCA. While damning the museum with faint praise the Times drags up an eight year old controversy of a botched installation by Christoph Buchel. The reporter probed far and wide for on and off the record smears of the museum and its critical reputation.

Judith Bookbinder's 2005 publication Boston Modern: Figurative Expressionism as Alternative Modernism is the definitive study of this important but neglected movement. Her study is meticulously researched and documented. This is the catalogue for the exhibition that the Museum of Fine Arts has failed to deliver. Significantly most of the Boston Expressionists were Jews struggling with Biblical constraints against the graven image.

When Pop Art dominated the art world and mass-media a group of New York expressionists said no thanks. The primal, raucous, and confrontational approach to painting exhibited by the group’s members kept the emotional impact of Figurative Expressionism alive. However, aesthetic tradition was less important than the moral obligation of depicting the reality that the artists perceived. This put the Rhino Horn artists at odds with many of the mainstream artists that had turned away from expressionism and humanist art.

Paul C. Ha, Director of the MIT List Visual Arts Center announces the appointment of Henriette Huldisch as the List Center’s Curator. Ms. Huldisch, currently curator at the Hamburger Bahnhof, Museum for Contemporary Art in Berlin, will relocate to Cambridge with her husband, artist Andy Graydon, and their 6 year old son in June 2014.

Robert Indiana created the "Love" logo that became an icon of American design. But its commerical success made him a pariah in the New York art world. After several years of being snubbed he fled to Vinalhaven, Maine in 1978 where he continues to live. The current Whitney Museum retrospective, his first in New York, is a critical success for the one trick pony of Pop art.

Yet again controversy surrounds who's in and who's out with the release of the list of artists selected for the 2014 Whitney Biennial. To stir the pot this time three outside curators will be given one floor each of the museum. With no compromises that will ensure the individual taste of the designated curators. The museum's curators will advise on the installations.

Lowery Siums was the first African American curator of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Later she was the director of the Studio Museum in Harlem. We met for lunch in Chelsea followed by a visit to the exhibition of our mutual friend Jaune Quick To See Smith at Flomenhaft Gallery. This article was posted to Maverick Arts Magazine in 2005.

The illustrative realist painter has explored the old master techniques of Caravaggio as well as smarmy soft and hard core porn. At the eyebrow raising age of 41 he was given a retrospective by the Whitney Museum of American Art. This review is resposted from a 2003 article in Maverick Arts Magazie.

During a 2002 tour of the Rhine we visited Wiesbaden to view the special exhibition of work by the American artist Eva Hesse. This review is reposted from Maverick Arts Magazine.

It started as an e mail dialogue. During a drive through the South West we arrived at the studio of the renowned Native American artist and activist, Jaune Quick To See Smith. That led to an exhibition of all new works on paper that I curated for the gallery of the New England School of Art and Design at Suffolk University. On that occasion Janune gave a special lecture to a general assembly of Suffolk students.This report is reposted from a 2005 article in Maverick Arts Magazine.

When we spoke with former Fogg Art Museum curator, Linda Norden, she was in the process of developing a project for the American Pavilion of the Venice Biennale with the California based artist Ed Ruscha. This dialogue is reposted from a 2005 article in Maverick Arts Magazine.

Following World War II the matrix of global contemporary art shifted from Paris to New York with the development of abstract expressionism as the leading movement of contemporary art of that era. During the 1950s there was much speculation about a Return to the Figure. Young artists who flocked to Provincetown to study with Hans Hofmann and Henry Hensche explored a synthesis through Figurative Expressionism. A number of these artists showed with Sun Gallery in Provincetown and Hansa Gallery in New York. The exhibition "Pioneers from Provincetown: The Roots of Figurative Expressionism" curated by Adam Zucker, Co-curator, Stephanie DeTroy focuses on this important movement.

When I got to Berlin in April, I looked up the artist Bonnie Woods who was staying here. I’ve known Bonnie for about 30 years—ever since we were both actively involved in the Boston Chapter of the Women’s Caucus for Art. In recent years she has spent considerable time in Germany, where her family lives.

The American Chapter of the International Society of Art Critics (AICA) announces its annual awards. There are a number of categories from site specific works to gallery and museum exhibitions.

Jaune Quick to See Smith is one of the foremost Native American artists of her generation. She will exhibit work on the theme of Water and War at the Accola Griefen Gallery in New York City from February 28 through April 6.

With the Whitney Museum of American Art winding down its time on Madison Avenue and preparing for a move downtown near the popular High Line the curators appear to have concoted a yard sale of ho hum exhibitions. There is a deadly combination of the recycled- Richard Artschwager! and Sinister Pop- and a signifier of the alleged bright future Wade Guyton: Os which I just don’t buy into.

Sarah Bapst, Katarina Burin, Mark Cooper, and Luther Price were named finalists for the 2013 James and Audrey Foster Prize, the ICA's biennial award and exhibition program for Boston-area artists, the museum announced today. Bapst, Burin, Cooper, and Price will participate in an exhibition organized by Helen Molesworth, Barbara Lee Chief Curator, on view at the ICA from May 1 through July 21, 2013.

ArtsEmerson: The World On Stage announces a second round of curated programming for the Paramount LED Windows on the façade of 559 Washington Street. The old Arcade Building LED Wall, first programmed last fall, now features a new show of work by three contemporary artists.

Back in 1932 the first Whitney Annual was unique. Since 1973 it has been the Whitney Biennial. Now there are lots of global Biennials. In that context the Whitney tries it keep up and stay relevant. The current version curated by Elisabeth Sussman and Jay Sanders has fewer works displayed with more space. As a signifier of recent trends one floor is devoted to performances not necessarily by artists. The downsized project is easier to digest but also quicker to forget.

Two new exhibitions open Aug. 1 at the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston. The ICA is presenting the first solo U.S. museum exhibition of Brazilian street artists Os Gêmeos and work by Dianna Molzan who is creating an all new body of work for ICA exhibition