Looking for something suitably spooky, The Welcoming Committee (1986) by Chicano artist Alfredo de Batuc makes quite an impression. Against a blazing red sky, two menacing black cats bare their fangs from atop dark, rocky outcroppings. Between them, a tall, glowing silhouette of Los Angeles City Hall rises in the distance, creating an eerie focal point in the otherwise ominous landscape. The cats’ exaggerated features and sharply pointed ears give them an almost supernatural presence, while the intense red-and-black palette heightens the drama. Continue reading Modern Art Monday Presents: The Welcoming Committee By Alfredo de Batuc→
For Bob’s Your Uncle (1991), Joan Wallace juxtaposes art historical references to critique what she views as the authoritarian aesthetics inherent to Minimalist art. When all of the panels are closed, the painted image comes together in the silhouette of Wallace‘s profile. The black-and-white pattern recalls Frank Stella’sPinstripe Paintings – works often associated with the origins of Minimalism. When opened, the panels reveal a 1974 Artforum advertisement, which features the Minimalist artist, Robert Morris in military and S&M gear. This controversial advertisement was taken by many observers as proof– intentional or not – of the violent masculinity latent in Minimalism’s interest in rigorous abstraction and refusal to engage with the referential or metaphorical.
Covering the western-facing side of City-As-School in Manhattan’s West Village, Eduardo Kobra’s enormous Ellis mural is a riot of color, featuring five giant faces surrounded by the Brazilian artist’s signature geometric patterns in pink, purple, blue, yellow and green.
Created in 2018, the mural is Kobra’s tribute to the immigrant experience in New York and the millions of people who left their homelands in search of a new life. The five faces represent people of different ethnic backgrounds, reflecting the diversity of those who have made New York their home. Kobra says the work was inspired by New York’s long history as a destination for immigrants. Continue reading NYC Street Art: Eduardo Kobra’s Ellis Mural→
Tom Wolfe was famous for his writing, his distinctive New York persona — and, of course, his signature white suits. American artist Everett Raymond Kinstler captured all three in this striking 1987 portrait of the author.
Painted in oil on canvas, the 50-by-27-inch portrait shows Wolfe dressed entirely in white, leaning casually on a walking stick with one leg crossed over the other. The long, narrow composition gives him an almost theatrical presence, while the loose brushwork keeps the painting from feeling overly formal. Continue reading Modern Art Monday Presents: Portrait of Tom Wolfe By Everett Raymond Kinstler→
Rich purples lend lushness to this overstuffed interior, whose piles of clothing and jumble of furnishings suggest the morning after a raucous night of mayhem. The painting’s title, Hangover Square(2005), is a pun on London’s upscale green Hanover Square, one that artist Cecily Brown gladly borrowed from a 1941 novel. With its unabashed clutter, the disarrayed room foreshadows Brown’s return to painting crowded interiors 15 years later, at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Photographed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.
