Year: 2016

Norman Lewis at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts

Originally published in Art in America’s July 2016 issue. â—Šâ—Š Norman Lewis (1909–1979) was an energetic participant in the Harlem Renaissance and one of the only African-American painters who associated himself with the Abstract Expressionists. While he founded the Spiral Group (active from 1963 to 1965) with Romare Bearden, Charles […]

William Emlen Cresson’s Caricatures

I contributed an essay on William Emlen Cresson’s exhibition caricatures for the catalogue of Expanding the Audience for Art in the 19th Century at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. The show was co-curated with colleagues and friends under the guidance of Michael Leja, and mounted at the Arthur Ross Gallery […]

Jennifer Bartlett at Locks Gallery, Philadelphia

Originally published in Art in America’s December 2015 issue. â—Šâ—Š It is challenging to choose terms to describe the works in Jennifer Bartlett’s recent show at Locks, titled “Hospital.” We are told in press material that the show’s 10 oil paintings, all 54 inches square and made in 2012, are […]