Criticism, Essays Patrick Zapien Criticism, Essays Patrick Zapien

Crisis of Criticism

Why is it that so much writing on art today — ostensibly criticism — only skates on the surface of artworks, providing description, identifying a handful subjects and themes, maybe some precedents, and then a conclusion — or rather, an ending. The writing stops.

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Criticism, Essays Patrick Zapien Criticism, Essays Patrick Zapien

Sense and Non-Sense

The main problem that the artist encounters at work — the source of all their woes and triumphs — is that materials must be transformed: made to give what they cannot. Appearance is the mask of the true face beneath.

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Criticism, Reflections, Reviews Patrick Zapien Criticism, Reflections, Reviews Patrick Zapien

“With eyes like ripening fruit”: Manoucher Yektai at Karma

It’s not true that the world is ending — if anything, it already has. And yet life continues, alive in its death. These thoughts — speculations — give a perfunctory account of the work of the late painter and poet Manoucher Yektai, a member of the New York School whose first solo show in the city since 1984 opened at Karma two weeks ago.

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