On Art
Commentary on visual art
From Meg Hitchcock’s Illuminations
(clockwise from left) Emerge from Invisibility and Become Visible; Of His Vast Almighty Head; The Hundreds and Thousands of My Forms; The Ferryman; The Nine Eyes Widely Opened
Antonio McAfee’s Afternoon of the Deluge (Ocean) and Evening of the Deluge (Standing on Water)
Antonio McAfee’s art addresses the complexity of representation, especially of African Americans, through restless formal experimentation....
Jeff Meadows’s The Peaceable Kingdom
The Peaceable Kingdom of Edward Hicks is an icon of American folk art, much admired and copied since the Pennsylvania Quaker painter finished his first version around 1820....
Danylo Movchan’s Mariupol (2022); Prayer (2022); Pain (2022)
The invasion of Ukraine has been catastrophic. Heart-wrenching stories emerge as ordinary citizens become victims of brutal acts of terror....
Jesus Said to Her: “Give Me to Drink,” by Rania Kuhn
The serene saints of Egyptian Coptic Orthodox art are markedly different in face and form from the austere holy men and women of more familiar Byzantine images....
Toward Hydra (top) and Matisse Chapel, Vence (bottom), by Eleanor Ray
Brooklyn-based and Southwest-informed, Eleanor Ray’s paintings are small works of attention—often around six by eight inches, oil on panel....
Adam 1 (detail), Adam Organs (detail), Adam 2 (detail), by Gillian Genser
“It is not without irony,” says sculptor Gillian Genser, “that the creation of this piece was to be my demise.” When she set out to depict the story of the first man, Adam, Genser sought to reimagi...