Three MUST See Shows

Heat Waves in a Swamp: The Paintings of Charles Burchfield
June 24–October 17, 2010
@ The Whitney Museum of American Art

Charles Burchfield was nothing to me a year ago, but after seeing this exhibition I am an apostle. Imagine Hopper on acid. Creepy and fantastic landscapes all or mostly all in watercolor. This guy was doing large scale water color in the 1940-50;s. Imagine that? Abstract Expressionism is all over the place, Pollock is changing the way we consider painting and Burchfield is focusing entirely on a medium considered fragile, secondary and for Sunday Painters. Burchfield proves otehrwise with work so strong, powerful and psychologically moving that it really stands toe to toe with the best of the New York School of that era.

This show closes on the 17th so there is plenty of time to get to the Whitney and see it. Highlights are the room of wallpaper and the gallery of doodles.

http://whitney.org/Exhibitions/CharlesBurchfield


Matisse: Radical Invention, 1913–1917

July 18–October 11, 2010
MEMBER PREVIEWS ON NOW
@ MOMA sixth floor

Not much I can say about Matisse that wouldn't just be balls out praise. He is easily my favorite painter of all time because he was always a painter's painter. it was always really just about the painting in a pure sense. This shows is almost overwhelming in its breadth, but it really tries to take apart his working method which I found very revealing. Get there in the next week before it goes down. Big shows of masters like this don't come around all that often.

http://moma.org/visit/calendar/exhibitions/969

Coming Soon:

Abstract Expressionist New York

October 3, 2010–April 25, 2011

There will be plenty of time to queue up and see this show between now and April, and queue up you will. ABEX:NY promises to be a block buster exhibition and I already have my tickets for Monday. The review in the NYTIMES was not over the moon, but I am not really expecting huge jumps on ABEX theory from the curators at MoMA. What I am looking forward to is seeing all this work installed in those beautiful galleries all at one time. It really needs to be see that way so you can take in the scale and the art historical movement for what it was as Roberta Smith wrote, "art movements are really messy, edgeless things that should only become more so with age..." People think they know ABEX and that it is all figured out. i am looking forward to this exhibition because i always find new inspiration and new ways of looking at these paintings. This work is so fresh still and has so much room to become even messier and expansive as more people are exposed to it.

http://moma.org/visit/calendar/exhibitions/1098