WRITINGS
Critical Writings by Jennifer Reeves
Pain plays the paperweight on Philip Guston’s desk. Keeps
things tidy. Only problem is the papers continue to pile up.
There isn’t quite enough excruciation to hold them down.
Just when the end seems imminent, when all desire to keep going
collapses,
a veiny arm from heaven comes from above to draw a line. Ideas
for paintings, like papers, like arms from the laborious on high,
fill the office to brimming. —NY Arts Magazine, September
2004
It is too easy to be dismissive in our love or hatred for
the work of John Currin. To either banish the artist as sexist
or automatically
welcome him as the critic of American capitalism obscures
what may be gleaned from the phenomena of his renown. The stars
in our eyes, pro or con, make it difficult to determine the
authenticity
of our response. —NY Arts Magazine, March
2004
Does the means justify the ends in the making of art? Does a sound
theory alone make the object demonstrative? Is the artist
a mute data provider and the viewer solely responsible for the revelation?
Holding that art is capable of far more than satisfying the
urge
for decorum and coerced poetics, then perhaps the answer
to the questions above are no.... —NYArts
Magazine Jan/Feb 2004
Review of Frank Stella at Paul Kasmin
"Dear Albert,
Pay no heed to my last letter. I had it wrong. I had it all wrong.
When I first saw the Stella sculptures I was enamored. I told
you they were too beautiful not to love and too cruel not to stay
away. They were like bleak Lucifers bearing no obfuscation. The
second time I saw them, I had reservations, but I didn’t
understand them and I didn’t understand why." —
NY Arts Magazine, September 2003 more>
Review of Robert Grosvenor at Paula Cooper
"Guesswork has nothing to do with understanding abstraction.
The personal associations we may glean from an abstract work of
art is ours to discover but only the appetizer to a greater more
singularly defined significance." — NY Arts Magazine,
May 2003 more>
Donald Moffett at Marianne Boesky Gallery
"What is the appropriate response? How do we go beyond the
dualistic Eden? And specifically, for artists, when does political
art become Art, transcending the informative detail and embracing
the responsively relevant? In other words, is it enough for art
to be communicative or is there more involved?" — NY
Arts Magazine, June 2003 more>
Jerry Saltz and Holland Cotter
"If we can’t say what we think art is and for what
purpose beyond entertainment, then what’s the point? Maybe
"agenda" should not be such a dirty word. The secularization
of aesthetic experience has sucked us dry of profound drive. Profoundly
not anything, today’s intellectuals hardly "discuss"
the fire in their hearts." — NY Arts Magazine,
March 2003 more>
Chuck Close at Pace Gallery
"Caressing each spot to a quiver, his brush goes from completion
to completion. Appreciatively, her finely woven linen conforms
to the press. He responds in kind and waits for her to speak.
She shows him where to make the next move. They gaze at one another
like old friends recognizing the composition of the grid between
them. Theirs is a knowing syntax." — NY Arts Magazine,
April 2003 more>
Panel Discussion on Painting
...a dose of corruption and mediocrity can be utilized as a springboard
for finer thoughts. I’m talking about the ole ricochet effect.
Something corrupt provides us with a clearer understanding of
something uncorrupt and vice versa. In light of this reasoning,
let’s gripe about the panel discussion sponsored by Phaidon
Press and The Fine Arts Department of Parsons School of Design
entitled, "Vitamin P: New Perspectives in Painting." more>
Michael Kimmelman and Inka Essenhigh
There is an egregious poverty in the psyche of our pampered society.
A callous disregard for the graces of spirit. We turn our backs
on the fragile flowers of what is left of them.... Yet, the opportunity
for grace is there, in us, waiting, still. — NY Arts
Magazine, February 2003 more>
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