I am always intrigued by those artists of the past who, through drawing from observation, invented a unique place for themselves in their own time. For example, I have written about Beatrix Potter, who actually created the category of books … read more
As a young artist studying in Florence, Italy in 1958, I happened one day into a gallery that was showing some small modest paintings of bottles and other little table objects by an artist from Bologna. As I contemplated each … read more
Regular readers of Andy’s Window may have noted that my essays have recently focused upon some of my Tucson artist-friends. At my age of 84, I realize that our flow of work and ideas has been constantly interweaving with each … read more
In my own art career I have explored many media, including ‘bas-relief’, which is a branch of sculpture. But I am by no means a sculptor in the sense of someone whose medium is an encounter with three-dimensional space. Meaning … read more
In my last Andy’s Window essay about the sculptures of Imo Baird, I mentioned his art teacher Charles Littler who in the 80s introduced Imo to ‘mixing media’ as a new way of making art. The small sculpture (Figure 1) … read more
One of the most unexpected benefits of the modern internet is the encyclopedic release of digital reproductions of art-works, to any and everyone with a computer. Suddenly the visual languages of the world—new and old, historic and informal—along with its … read more
As I was writing my recent essay on the paintings of Joan Mitchell, I realized that the number of women in the United States besides Georgia O’Keeffe that I knew about for their contribution to contemporary art before 1945 had … read more
The Abstract-expressionist painter Joan Mitchell is an American artist whose large canvases of the fifties still touch me even now. ‘Touch’ is the right word because her paintings are very physical in their presence, and her mark-making core-deep, both physically … read more
Ingres’ manner of drawing was as new as the century. It was immediately recognized as expert and admirable. If his paintings were sternly criticized as “Gothic,” no comparable criticism was leveled at his drawings. —Agnes Mongan The role of portraiture … read more
