News Art Blog

“When I think of art, I think of beauty. Beauty is the mystery of life,” minimalist artist Agnes Martin once explained. “It is not in the eye; it is in my mind. In our minds there is awareness of perfection.” In the first comprehensive survey of her art at the Tate Modern, in London, England, the exhibition Agnes Martin strives to guide viewers to that “awareness of perfection” Martin strove to embody in her minimalist, geometrically founded art. Rather than the cold, person-less brand of modernist minimalism, Martin’s work personifies the warm humanity of Buddhist editing down to essentials. At the same time, surveying Martin’s art and thinking allows us to revisit the feminist critiques of minimalism and shows how Martin’s stepping back from the bustle of the New York art scene freed her to find “a beautiful mind” — not just for women, but for everyone. Please come over to Picture This at Big Think to read more of "A Beautiful Mind: Agnes Martin, Minimalism, and the Feminist Voice."

More than 20 years ago, the sitcom Seinfeld went “meta” and joked that it was “a show about nothing.” But 20 years before George Costanza’s epiphany, artist Richard Tuttle was staging shows about nothing featuring works such as Wire Piece (detail shown above) — a piece of florist wire nailed at either end to a wall marked with a penciled line. But, as Jerry concludes, there’s “something” in that “nothing.” A new retrospective of Tuttle’s art at the Fabric Workshop and Museum in Philadelphia, Both/And: Richard Tuttle Print and Cloth, dives into the depths, and widths, of this difficultly philosophical, yet compellingly simple artist who takes the everyday nothings of line, paper, and cloth to create extraordinary statements about the need to be mindful of the artful world all around us. Please come over to Picture This at Big Think to read more of "A Show About Nothing: Richard Tuttle’s Mindfulness Masterpieces."

You can always count on the MoMA for two things: high-concept theme shows and high-concept theme shows that go in directions you didn’t expect. On Line: Drawing Through the Twentieth Century, which runs through February 7, 2011, begins as you’d expect with the big boys of modernism. Just as the testosterone threatens to thicken, however, the narrative line turns toward the feminine. The phallic gives way to the “matrixal”—a connective and even curative matrilineal web of associations woven by modern women artists that redefines drawing practice to include all forms of human gesture, even the dance. This dance turns political as artists tango through the minefield of modern life to bring the world a little closer. At times this “matrixal” theme seems almost as esoteric and abstract as The Matrix movies, but ultimately the show brings you back to firm ground and the stars align once more. Please come over to Picture This at Big Think to read more of "The Matrix."

[Image: Anna Maria Maiolino (Brazilian, born Italy 1942). Desde A até M (From A to M) From the series "Mapas Mentais" (Mental Maps). 1972-1999. Thread, synthetic polymer paint, ink, transfer type, and pencil on paper. 19 5/8 x 19 1/2" (49.8 x 49.5 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Purchase. © 2010 Anna Maria Maiolino.]

[Many thanks to the MoMA for providing me with the image above, press materials to, and a copy of the catalogue to On Line: Drawing Through the Twentieth Century, which runs through February 7, 2011.]