ART REVIEWS

A Female Landscape and the Abstract Gesture

With these four abstractionists, we think simultaneously about what we see and how it was made. Read the review at Arts Fuse.  

 


Photo: Mildred Thompson, A Female Landscape, 1977, detail. Artist book. Photo by Mike Jensen. Courtesy of the Audre Lorde Papers, Spelman College Archives.

Burning Down the House

At Brickbottom Gallery, five artists shine as soloists and their message is amplified in a chorus of multipart harmony. Read the review at Arts Fuse

 


Photo: Kathryn Geismar, Motherlove, graphic and grommets on Duralar and paper, 33” x 24.” Photo: courtesy of Kim Triedman

Strong Renaissance Women at the MFA 

An uneven show at the MFA highlights women’s roles in Renaissance Italy. Read the review at Arts Fuse.

 

 


Photo: Sofonisba Anguissola, Self-Portrait, about 1556 (oil (?) on parchment). Courtesy of the MFA.

High Noon, Susan Ricker Knox
Visual Arts Review: Remember the Ladies

Women artists on display at the Ogunquit Museum of American Art.

Read the review at Arts Fuse.

 


Photo: Susan Ricker Knox, High Noon, c. 1936. Courtesy of the Ogunquit Museum of American Art.

Visual Arts Review: JMW Turner watercolors at Mystic Seaport

Thanks to a generous loan from Tate, London, we were able to see innovative watercolors of the master.

Read the review at Delicious Line.

 


Photo: J.M.W. Turner, Coatstal Terrain, c. 1830-45, watercolor on paper, 221 x 271 millimeters, Tate: Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856, © Tate 2019

Doubt by Titus Kaphor
Visual Arts Review: The Legacy Museum, Montgomery, Alabama

The museum’s narrative draws on a visceral mix of architecture, graphics, text, art, music, video and spoken word.

Read the review at Arts Fuse.

 


Photo: “Doubt” by Titus Kaphar. Photo: Equal Justice Initiative/Human Images.

Chamonix, Joan Mitchell
Visual Arts Review: Women Take the Floor at the MFA

If the parameters were tighter, the show would be better. Still, it’s very good.

Read the review at Arts Fuse.

 


Photo: “Chamonix,” Joan Mitchell, about 1962. Oil on canvas. Photo: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Visual Arts Review: Artists’ Books on Display

A new exhibit at Tufts University pushes the boundaries of “book,” and asks the viewer to think anew.

Read the review at Arts Fuse.

 


Photo: Julie Chen, Chrysalis, 2014. Letterpress printed on handmade paper using photopolymer plates. Photo: Courtesy of Tufts University Art Galleries.

Visual Arts Review: MFA puts its provisional collection on view

In the 40s and 50s, the MFA collected little known works on a “provisional” basis. Still in the museum’s collection, they’re on view now.

Read the review at Arts Fuse.

 


Photo: “Nocturne,” Fannie Louise Hillsmith. Photo: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

El Anatsui
Visual Arts Review: Hood Museum of Art Reopens

After years of rebuilding, the Hood Museum reopened to show a newly installed permanent collection and diverse rotating exhibits. 

Read the review at Arts Fuse.

 


Photo: El Anatsui, “Hovor,” 2003, aluminum bottle tops and copper wire. Photo: courtesy of Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth.

Visual Arts Review: “Among Women” — Different Kinds of Strength

Phebe Upham, just nineteen years old when this portrait was painted, already shows the determination that would carry her through life. The picture was part of an exhibition of women’s portraiture at the Bowdoin College museum.

Read the review at Arts Fuse.

 


Photo: “Portrait of Mrs. Thomas C. Upham (née Phebe Lord)” by Gilbert Stuart, c. 1823. Gift of Edward D. Jameson. Photo courtesy of Bowdoin College Museum of Art.

Visual Arts Review: The Art of Celia Paul — The Power of Quiet

This painting was part of a small exhibition of Celia Paul’s work at the Yale Center for British Art. Paul works quietly, often using family members or artifacts from a beloved homestead as her subjects. The sea is reminiscent of her childhood years near the shore

Read the review at Arts Fuse.

 


Photo: “Clouds and Foam” by Celia Paul, 2017.Photo courtesy of Yale Center for British Art

standing-woman-gaston-lachaise-kathleen-c-stone-art-reviews
Visual Arts Review: A Joyous Look at New American Sculpture, 1914 – 1945

The Portland Museum of Art’s exhibition of twentieth century sculpture featured bodies dancing, leaping, stretching, caressing, and floating through space. Here, the female body is at once hefty and buoyant, ready to lift into the air.

Read the review at Arts Fuse.

 


Photo: “Standing Woman” by Gaston Lachaise, 1912-27. Philadelphia Museum of Art. Gift of R. Sturgis and Marion B.F. Ingersoll. Photo courtesy of Portland Museum of Art.

Visual Arts Review: An Indelible Sense of Vermont — The Photographs of Nathan Benn

In the early 1970s, National Geographic dispatched photographer Nathan Benn to document life in Vermont, a state then rich with generations-old farms, recently arrived hippies and traditional town meetings. Forty years later, Benn’s photographs, exhibited at the Shelburne Museum, were a reminder of what was.

Read the review at Arts Fuse.

 


Photo: “St. Albans” by Nathan Benn, 1973. Photo courtesy of the Shelburne Museum.

miss-america-lyle-ashton-harris-kathleen-c-stone-art-reviews
Visual Arts Review: “National Pride (and Prejudice)” at MFA Boston — Thinking Critically about National Icons

When Lyle Ashton Harris took this photo, no black woman had won the Miss America pageant. The question he poses – who is truly American? – continues to reverberate.

Read the review at Arts Fuse.

 


Photo: “Miss America” by Lyle Ashton Harris, 1987–88. Photo Courtesy Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.