“Cézanne, he’s the greatest of us all.”—Claude Monet to Georges Clemenceau in conversation, cited in translation in The Paintings of Paul Cézanne: A Catalogue Raisonné (trans. John Rewald, Abrams, 1996). […]
Category: Art Review
Posted inArts & Culture
Down the stairs and into “Dreams & Delusions”
“Not touching but joined in astonishment as two cuts lie parallel in the same flesh,” writes Anne Carson in the 1998 novel, Autobiography of Red. Breathing new life, ripping parts […]
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No Robert Mitchum, but stay for the squirrels
Heather McAdams needs no introduction for longtime Reader readers, but I’ll try anyway. McAdams contributed cartoons and illustrations to the Reader for over 20 years, self-published and distributed an annual […]
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The body in focus
While living alone in the woods of northern California at the start of 2020, Lilli Carré started learning chess. Like many folks deep into the pandemic, she took up a […]
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A shooting star of a talent, gone too soon
The 1960 oil painting Garden of Music—the magisterial centerpiece of a knockout survey of the art of Bob Thompson— shows Ornette Coleman, John Coltrane, and a half dozen other jazz […]
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A genderqueer Bugs and a very sexy duck
Bugs Bunny has a luscious ass. We’ve all seen it—the way he goes from a stretch of fur to curvaceous provocateur with just a few outfit and attitude swaps. It’s […]
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Open canvas
Painter Ayanah Moor is careful not to reveal spoilers about her work. The Chicago artist incorporates highly focused intentions into her paintings in the “I Wish I Could Be You […]
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Communicating from beyond
Have you ever felt like a thing was made especially for you at just the right time? This was my overwhelming impression as soon as I walked into the Art […]
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Thinking of us
Barbara Kruger, collagist, conceptual artist, and Futura Bold Oblique font savant, will turn 77 two days after her exhibition “THINKING OF YOU. I MEAN ME. I MEAN YOU.” closes at […]
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Are neon signs really enough?
There’s a young person smiling, posing—hand on their hip—in front of a lit-up sign that reads: “EMPOWER WOMEN.” It intermittently flashes to include ED, making it “EMPOWERED.” The photo is […]
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Between the flesh and the machine
Skin and stone, organic and sterile, hard and soft: juxtapositions aren’t new in art. This push-and-pull tactic has been done, and done again, but it’s not always executed well. New […]
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Our earth bodies, ourselves
“Humankind has always been very curious and driven to find out about life forms in outer space, but not so curious about life forms on the planet,” Giovanni Aloi remarked […]
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God: now at the mall
An immersive art exhibition in DuPage County brings the Sistine Chapel to the former site of the Sears store at Oakbrook Center.
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When a statue is more than a statue
Artist Kelly Kristin Jones examines contested monuments and white supremacy with her art
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Like a moth to a flame
A solo show by artist Hyun Jung Jun at Goldfinch Gallery in East Garfield Park.