Off the Walls

OFF THEWALLS

ARTISTS & GALLERIES

Alyssa Monks (b. 1978), Watch the Only Way Out Disappear, 2021, oil on linen, 54 x 54 in.

New York City

forumgallery.com through January 8

On view at Forum Gallery are 16 figurative paintings made during the pandemic by the Brooklyn-based artist Alyssa Monks. They sustain her renowned interest in expressively painted, psychologically charged portrayals of women posed behind transparent surfaces such as glass and plastic, but now Monks has turned from models to herself as the central subject. The works range widely in size, from 12 x 18 inches to 62 x 90 inches, most conveying a mood of anxiety that belies the exhibition’s ironic title, It’s All Under Control.

Monks writes, “At times, the recent global and national devastation, division, and so many disappointments felt like a surreal projection of my own mental states in the isolation of the last 18 months. I began to explore the human reliance on control and predictability, and how our deepest suffering comes from our attachment to security, virtue, identity, and the logic of cause and effect. The glass barrier in these paintings between subject and viewer is clouded with vapor that obscures and abstracts the subject. This barrier underlines the personal and community-wide preoccupation with virus-laden respiratory droplets and the isolation it creates. Some works are more ambiguous than others, amplifying the state of disorientation in the face of terrifying unfamiliarity.”

As expected, remarkable works are now emerging from artists’ studios after almost two years of relative confinement. Monks’s are surely among the most compelling.

San Diego

sparksgallery.com through January 9

Sparks Gallery is presenting Oasis, an exhibition of recent works by the Southern California artist Perry Vásquez (b. 1959). At its heart is a powerful series of paintings of palm trees, which are ubiquitous in his region and normally symbolize nourishment, shelter, and bounty. Instead, the artist has framed their regal forms in peculiar or dire scenarios, swaying violently, often ablaze, or perhaps morphed into cell towers that only look like trees.

Vásquez explains, “I recall being shaken the first time I saw a burning palm tree. My response was to investigate the meaning of this phenomenon through painting and to work through my feelings of awe and dread…. Our species can choose to protect and nurture life on our planet or we can waste it. The choice is ours.”

Perry Vásquez (b. 1959), Landscape 3/3, 2021, oil on canvas, 96 1/2 x 28 1/2 in.

Brandon Soloff (b. 1973), Cassandra, 2016, oil on canvas, 31 x 25 in. Samuel L. Margolies (1897–1974), Man’s Canyons, 1936, etching and aquatint on paper, 11 7/8 x 8 13/16 in., The Wolfsonian–Florida International University, Mitchell Wolfson, Jr. Collection, 83.4.32

New York City

salmagundi.org January 10–28

The Salmagundi Club is opening 2022 with The New York Figurative Show, highlighting the human form in all its permutations. Presenting an array of works in various media, including drawings, paintings, photographs, and sculpture, this display explores the range of figurative practices thriving in artists’ studios today.

The competition was open to both Salmagundi members and non-members working worldwide, be they established or emerging. The selections were made by members of the club’s art committee in collaboration with guest adviser Patricia Watwood. The awards jurors will be artists Max Ginsburg and Colleen Barry, who will present a $4,000 first prize, a $1,500 second prize, a $750 third prize, and a $500 award from Vanessa Rothe Fine Art (Laguna Beach). A ticketed panel discussion involving Colleen Barry, Vanessa Rothe, Patricia Watwood, and others will occur on January 14. Miami Beach

wolfsonian.org through April 24

On view at the Wolfsonian, part of Florida International University, is the intriguing exhibition Aerial Vision. It features more than 100 paintings, prints, drawings, design objects, magazine covers, and other items — drawn primarily from the museum’s rich collection — that reveal how airplanes, skyscrapers, elevators, and other early 20th-century inventions allowed mankind to gaze up, look down, and move with speed to new heights. These technological advances forever changed the way we humans see the world around us.

The resulting imagery ranges from the mundane (e.g., window washing scenes) to the reverent (“the cult of the airplane pilot”), and from the breathtaking (bird’s-eye views of cities) to the fantastical (skyscraper airports). These themes interested people all over the world, from the Italian Futurists to the designers of Japanese aviationthemed board games. Their reactions varied, too, from a sense of awe, power, or privilege to anxiety and fear — perhaps of aerial bombardment, or maybe of the long shadows cast on city streets by skyscrapers towering above them.

Today we take many of these ideas for granted, but a century ago, it was all new and being worked out in art and design. Miami is an ideal city to consider these themes, given its history as an aviation center connecting the U.S. and Latin America.

Worcester, Massachusetts

worcesterart.org through March 13

The Worcester Art Museum is the first museum to present a new exhibition of masterworks, Love Stories from the National Portrait Gallery, London, which will then visit other U.S. cities. Home to the world’s most extensive

George Frederic Watts (1817–1904), Ellen Terry (Choosing), 1864, oil on strawboard, 18 5/8 x 13 7/8 in., accepted in lieu of tax by H.M. Government and allocated to the NPG, 1975, 5048 Dean Mitchell (b. 1957), Quincy Plant Worker, 2011, watercolor on paper, 19 3/4 x 14 1/2 in., Huntsville Museum of Art, museum purchase in honor of Anne Pollard, funds provided by the Dr. John Rison Jones, Jr. Acquisition Fund and the Susy and Robert Thurber Acquisition Fund

Hans Holbein the Younger (1497/98–1543), A Member of the Wedigh Family, 1533, oil on panel, 16 9/16 x 12 13/16 in., Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Gemäldegalerie, photo: Bildagentur / Jörg P. Anders / Art Resource, NY Ex.2021.1.43 Maria Schalcken (1645/50–before 1700), Self-Portrait of the Artist in Her Studio, c. 1680, oil on panel, 17 3/8 x 13 1/2 in., MFA Boston, gift of Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo, 2019.2094

portraiture collection, the NPG is currently closed for redevelopment, and so it is sharing many treasures with colleague institutions worldwide.

On view are approximately 100 paintings, drawings, photographs, and sculptures that reflect a range of love stories, from romance, obsession, and infatuation to tragedy and loss. Among the lovers depicted are such historical figures as Emma Hamilton and Lord Nelson, Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Robert Browning, and Oscar Wilde and Lord Alfred Douglas, but also more modern ones such as John Lennon and Yoko Ono and David and Victoria Beckham. The artists who depicted them include such starry names as Anthony van Dyck, Joshua Reynolds, Lee Miller, and David Hockney.

Many of these works rarely leave London, and several have never been seen in the U.S. The project is accompanied by a handsome catalogue published by the NPG.

Huntsville, Alabama

hsvmuseum.org through March 20

The Huntsville Museum of Art is presenting the exhibition Encounters: Dean Mitchell, devoted to the master watercolorist who grew up in, and has spent much of his life depicting, the area around the town of Quincy in Florida’s Panhandle. On view are his portraits, figures, landscapes, and still lifes, all reflecting the artist’s superb sense of design and capacity to convey emotional depth while avoiding sentimentality. Not all of the works are in watercolors; some are in egg temperas, oils, and pastels.

Most of Mitchell’s sitters are African American. He explains, “Artists are observers of life, and it is natural that I would first gravitate to the space which I occupy. The neighborhoods I was raised in were segregated. Most of my teachers were Black. Churches I attended were Black, so it is natural for me as an artist to create works that reflect my own personal experience.”

The exhibition is accompanied by a 24-page catalogue, and everyone is invited to pre-register for a free Zoom visit with Mitchell in his studio, scheduled for February 11. Then, on March 10, attend his in-person talk at the museum, which will be followed by a reception.

Los Angeles

getty.edu through January 9

The J. Paul Getty Museum has mounted the exhibition Holbein: Capturing Character, which features the stillastonishing portraits painted and drawn by the German artist that illuminate fascinating figures from Europe’s merchant class, intellectual elite, and — most famously — the court of King Henry VIII.

Hans Holbein the Younger (1497/98-1543) developed his signature style in Basel and London amid a rich culture of erudition, luxury, and wit. He portrayed his contemporaries with technical skill and attention to detail while offering profound insights into their unique personalities, often via revealing props such as animals, jewels, letters, and books. Now Holbein’s oil paintings and chalk drawings are presented alongside his designs for personal emblems and metalwork, as well as jeweled hat badges and portrait medals.

The first major Holbein exhibition ever mounted in the U.S., this project features more than 50 objects from nearly 30 lenders worldwide. It is accompanied by Getty Publications’ 192-page catalogue, edited by lead curator Anne T. Woollett. The show will soon move to its second and final venue, New York City’s Morgan Library & Museum (February 11–May 15).

Boston

mfa.org Ongoing

In the 17th century, global commerce fueled the economy of the Netherlands; prosperous citizens commissioned and collected art in great volume and the period’s artistic high points remain deeply admired today. Now the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston has renovated a suite of seven galleries as the focus of its new Center for Netherlandish Art (CNA). The achievements of artists in the Dutch Republic and Flanders are revealed through nearly 100 paintings by Rembrandt, Rubens, Hals, Van Dyck, and others, along with works on paper and decorative artworks.

Organized thematically, this installation explores such subjects as women artists and patrons; the growth of a modern art market; and the connections between still life paintings, the sugar trade, and slavery. The CNA is the first resource of its kind in the U.S., established with initial endowment funds from the collectors Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo and Susan and Matthew Weatherbie, who also gave many of the paintings on display.

David Hockney (b. 1937), View from the Mayflower Hotel, New York City (Evening), 2002, watercolor and white crayon on paper, 23 1/4 x 18 in. © David Hockney Thomas Hart Benton (1889–1975), Shallow Creek, 1938–39, oil and egg tempera on canvas mounted on board, 36 x 25 in., bequest of James R. and Barbara R. New York City Palmer, 2019.31 © 2021 T.H. and R.P. Benton Trusts / nyhistory.org licensed by Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York through February 27 Paula Rego (b. 1935), Angel, 1998, pastel on paper mounted on aluminum, 70 7/8 x 51 1/8 in., private collection Pablo Picasso (1881–1973), The Blue Room, 1901, oil on canvas, 19 7/8 x 24 1/4 in., Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C., acquired 1927 © Pablo Picasso Estate / SOCAN (2021)

The New-York Historical Society is presenting the exhibition Scenes of New York City, which features the 130 paintings, works on paper, and sculpture that Elie and Sarah Hirschfeld have promised to it from their extraordinary collection of New York City scenes. Ranging in date from the mid-19th through the 21st centuries, the show is a visual love letter to Gotham, replete with its heartstopping skyscrapers, humming bridges, and pell-mell of global humanity.

The Hirschfelds’ gift includes works by 82 artists not previously represented in the Society’s collections, among them Charles Burchfield, Marc Chagall, Keith Haring, Edward Hopper, Jacob Lawrence, Louise Nevelson, Georgia O’Keeffe, Mark Rothko, and Andy Warhol. Accompanying the project is a handsome catalogue published by D Giles Limited (London) and edited by Roberta J.M. Olson, the Society’s curator of drawings emerita.

University Park, Pennsylvania

palmermuseum.psu.edu January 29–April 24

At Pennsylvania State University, the Palmer Museum of Art is rapidly approaching its 50th anniversary. Its leaders are busy constructing an impressive new building, but that won’t prevent them from using the current one to host a year-long series of celebratory projects. They will kick it off with the exhibition An American Place, which presents highlights from the superb collection of American art bequeathed by the museum’s lead philanthropist, Barbara Palmer (1926–2019). Assembled over three decades with her husband, James, this trove contains paintings, works on paper, and sculpture dating from the 1870s through the 1970s.

Among the artists represented are Milton Avery, Romare Bearden, Thomas Hart Benton, Charles Burchfield, Paul Cadmus, Mary Cassatt, Frederic Edwin Church, Arthur Dove, Marsden Hartley, Winslow Homer, Jacob Lawrence, Georgia O’Keeffe, and George Tooker.

The Hague

kunstmuseum.nl through March 20

The Kunstmuseum Den Haag has opened the largest retrospective ever devoted to the artist Paula Rego (b. 1935). She grew up in Portugal and studied at London’s Slade School of Fine Art, then shuttled between the two countries before settling in the UK, where she is extremely well known. Her name is less familiar abroad, and so the Kunstmuseum has collaborated with Tate Britain to assemble more than 70 paintings, etchings, drawings, and collages dating from the 1960s through today.

Rego’s large, deftly drawn figurative paintings underscore power relations, sexuality, and mythology, often alluding to the artist’s own struggles, including years of depression, as well as societal problems like discrimination against women.

Toronto

ago.ca through January 16

The Art Gallery of Ontario has organized the exhibition Picasso: Painting the Blue Period. It focuses on the paintings, works on paper, and sculpture the young Spaniard made between 1901 and 1904, when he fashioned a distinctive style by adapting the artistic lessons he had learned in Paris to the social and political climate of economically struggling Barcelona, where he lived.

The project has grown from a series of technical studies performed on several key paintings, offering new insights on their hidden compositions, motifs, and alterations, plus hitherto unknown information on Picasso’s materials and process. The accompanying catalogue (Delmonico Books) brings art history and conservation science together in a fascinating, and still too rare, way.

The show will move on to the Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., where it will be on view from February 26 through June 12.

Toledo, Ohio

toledomuseum.org Ongoing

The Toledo Museum of Art recently reinstalled its Cloister Gallery, which contains one of North America’s finest collections of medieval art. Originally dedicated in 1933, this space is distinguished by three French arcades and a Venetian wellhead, all carefully cleaned over the past year. Objects off public view for decades have been conserved and redisplayed, along with new casework, lighting, and security.

Together these enhancements offer a more accurate and inclusive narrative of art made during the Middle Ages,

Anonymous (French), Polyptych: The Virgin and Christ Child, c. 1280–90, ivory with traces of polychrome and gilding, 11 1/2 in. x 10 1/2 in., Toledo Museum of Art, purchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, gift of Edward Drummond Libbey, 1950.304

Margaret Foster Richardson (1881–1945), A Motion Picture, 1912, oil on canvas, 40 3/4 x 23 1/8 in., gift of the Henry D. Gilpin Fund, 1913.13 Morton Kaish (b. 1927), Trophy, 1957, lithograph on paper, 25 x 19 in. Childe Hassam (1859–1935), Wainscott Links, 1907, oil on canvas, 23 1/2 x 29 in., Norton Museum of Art, gift of Doris and Shouky Shaheen

Aurelio Amendola (b. 1938), Detail of Bernini’s Apollo and Daphne, 2021, photographic print on baryta paper with silver salts mounted on aluminum, 27 1/2 x 39 1/2 in.

which spanned the years 500 to 1500. The approximately 100 works on view address themes such as religious plurality and devotion, the legacies of Rome, the role of women in the arts, and cultural interaction and exchange. The accompanying publication will be available for purchase this spring.

Philadelphia

pafa.org through July 24

The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) has proudly organized the exhibition Women in Motion: 150 Years of Women’s Artistic Networks at PAFA. Unusually for an American institution, PAFA has been promoting women artists since its first annual exhibition in 1811, and this project explores the many female talents who showed, studied, and taught there right up until 1945. On view are more than 80 works by approximately 50 artists, most drawn from PAFA’s rich collection, including many recent acquisitions.

Illustrated here is a superb, if unfamiliar, self-portrait by Margaret Foster Richardson. She presents herself with paintbrushes in hand, striding forward into the light, gazing at us self-confidently. Remarkable in her era would have been the decision to paint herself wearing eyeglasses, a no-nonsense hairstyle, a painter’s smock, and a rather masculine collar and tie. Clearly this woman has big things to paint and no time for fussiness.

New York City

museum.syr.edu through February 5

The Louise and Bernard Palitz Gallery at Syracuse University’s Lubin House is hosting the exhibition Morton Kaish: A Print Retrospective. Organized by director and chief curator Vanja Malloy alongside Kaish himself (who graduated from Syracuse in 1949), it surveys this artist’s longstanding love of printmaking over seven decades. On view are 31 prints in various media, starting with a drawing made in 1945, through his experimental years in Italy, and culminating in the dramatic color of his current Butterflies series.

West Palm Beach

norton.org through May 1

The Norton Museum of Art is exhibiting a dozen works donated in 2020 by a seasonal resident of Palm Beach, Shouky Shaheen, and his late wife, Doris. Mostly landscapes, these oils and watercolors have enhanced the museum’s already deep holdings of American impressionism from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The artists represented are William Glackens, Childe Hassam, Jane Peterson, Edward Henry Potthast, John Henry Twachtman, Guy Wiggins, Andrew Wyeth, and Jamie Wyeth.

This show is hanging alongside another fascinating exhibition Jane Peterson: Impressions of Light and Water (on view through June 12). It celebrates the Norton’s eight oils and watercolors by this leading figure in Palm Beach’s art community, who worked there on and off from the 1910s through the 1950s. Peterson’s masterful rendering of South Florida sunshine contrasts with her evocation of Europe, especially the silvery atmosphere of her favorite place, Venice.

Palm Beach

fourarts.org through January 30

The Society of the Four Arts is exhibiting 30 striking black-and-white photographs by the Italian artist Aurelio Amendola featuring details of iconic sculptures by two historic masters. Among Michelangelo’s works are David, Pietà, Moses, Victory, and tomb figures from the Medici Chapel. Gian Lorenzo Bernini is represented by Damned Soul, David, Apollo and Daphne, Rape of Proserpina, and Aeneas, Anchises, and Ascanius.

Learn from the Experienced

Camille PRZEWODEK

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CAMILLE PRZEWODEK: A COLORIST’S GUIDE TO PAINTING™, KYLE BUCKLAND: COURAGEOUS COLOR™, LANDSCAPE MASTERS SERIES™, STREAMLINE PREMIUM ART INSTRUCTION™, ©/™ STREAMLINE PUBLISHING, INC. 2022. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. HOME USE LICENSE ONLY: DO NOT COPY, DISTRIBUTE, RENT, OR PERFORM. FOR LICENSING INFORMATION, CONTACT 877-867-0324 OR LICENSING@STREAMLINEPUBLISHING.COM.

Learn from the Experienced

Kyle BUCKLAND Mary GARRISH

Have more fun painting when you learn the 6 elements of design! In this video workshop, artist Mary Garrish shows how to save time and frustration when you start with a strong foundation. Through her examples and step-by-step demonstration you’ll learn to use line, shape, value, color, edges, and texture to create great paintings every time!

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Dive headfirst into color as award-winning artist Kyle Buckland shows you how to confidently mix expressive color using an easy-to-understand palette. Kyle will equip you to overcome any hesitation you might experience when choosing bold color combinations. Further, he’ll demonstrate how to control color so you can evoke the desired emotional response to your paintings.

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Gavin GLAKAS

Gavin Glakas has an approach to pushing and experimenting with vibrant, exciting color that is logical and understandable. And most importantly, it’s easy to actually use in your paintings. He even shows how you can exaggerate some elements, minimize others, and distort object shapes, all while enhancing the realism you create and the story you are telling.

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Alan Fetterman Fine Arts ........110

American Tonalist Society ......22 Anikis, Nik................................104 Arenas, Heather ......................107 Armendariz, Tony ....................108 Artful Deposit, The..................109 Autry Museum of the American West.........................................2

Barber, Chantel Lynn...............105 Basham, Jill..............................10 Bennett Prize, The ...................8 Bonham, Liz.............................14 Bretzke, Carl............................102 Briscoe Western Art Museum .28

Brookgreen Gardens...............29 Brown, Adra A. ........................107 C.M. Russell Museum ..............30

California Museum of Fine Art 31

Celebration of Fine Art............116 Desert Caballeros Western Museum 32

Evans, Beverly Ford.................19 Farthing, Kathleen Gray ..........14 Ferguson, Diana ......................17 Florence Griswold Museum ....36

Garrity, Aida ............................108 Giguiento, Orville....................15 Hassard, Ray............................106 Hillis, Catherine.......................15 Hitt, Karen Ann........................6 Hockaday Museum of Art .......33 Jill E. Banks Art, LTD ................109 Kiser, Leah...............................17 Kling, Chris..............................15 Lighthouse ArtCenter .............13 Lorusso, Joseph ......................11 M.S. Rau Antiques, LLC...........115 Matteson, Susan Hediger .......104 North Star Art Gallery .............105 Olmsted Gallery ......................21 Paula Holtzclaw Fine Art .........103

Peabody Essex Museum .........34 Pollak, Laura............................7

Schneider, William A. ..............106

SEWE/Southeastern Wildlife

Exposition ...............................18 Sneary, Richard .......................14 Starwalt, Jen............................19

Steamboat Art Museum..........35

Stewart, Jenny.........................17 Stratton, Thalia........................9

Swift, Peter..............................102

Tankersley, Nancy ...................110 Teare, Brad ..............................4

VanDerHoek, Kim ....................103

Wagner, Jill Stefani..................14 Zhang, Yu (Miraclism) .............5