Writings
Cynthia Kukla’s primary writings are now on this site. She also occasionally contributes to ÆQAI (pronounced ‘I’ as in ‘bite ‘ and ‘qai ‘ as in ‘sKY’ ), a Cincinnati-based e-journal for critical thinking, review and reflective prose on contemporary visual art as well as Movers & Makers , a publication spotlighting catalysts and creatives shaping the future of Cincinnati arts & culture, community engagement, education, healthcare, medical research and social services. She also contributes to the quarterly for the Watercolor Honor Society.
Ramesh Malhotra: From mining the earth to a quest for meaning
First impression – walking into the headquarters of Coal Network Inc. in Mason, Ohio – is that whoever is in charge here loves art. Many corporate headquarters have the obligatory bland abstractions, sometimes large ones meant to telegraph the importance of the company and the vision of its board and CEO. Occasionally, a company will have rich and interesting original art, but this is rare.
In this corporate headquarters, owned by entrepreneur Ramesh Malhotra, all the hallways are filled with lovely paintings, most of them done in oil – gentle interiors, some with a contemplative figure, serene landscapes…
Our appetite for the artwork and personal, tragic story of nineteenth century artist Vincent Van Gogh seems limitless. Van Gogh in America is the most recent Midwest celebration of this beloved artist at the Detroit Institute of Art. With this exhibit, the Motor City is spotlighting its status as the first American museum to purchase a painting by Vincent Van Gogh and is commemorating the hundred-year anniversary of that historic acquisition with this exhibition.
This exhibition was created to chronicle the people and events that introduced Van Gogh to the United States. The story begins over twenty years after the artist’s death and culminates…
Beyond Bollywood: 2000 Years of Dance in Art. Cincinnati Art Museum from November 11, 2022–February 5, 2023.
January 6, 2023 | by Cynthia Kukla
Dancing into 2023!
How exciting is it that in the same period as the acclaimed artistic director of the Cincinnati Ballet, Victoria Morgan, has retired and Jodie Gates has taken the helm that we can simultaneously experience the transformative power of dance at the Cincinnati Art Museum’s extravagant Bollywood exhibit? Curator Ainslie Cameron spent four years in research and planning for this exhibit which explores the intersection of visual art and dance in India’s culture; exploring the representation of dance in the arts from South Asia, Southeast Asia and the Himalayan region from…
The new arts season is always highly anticipated by culture lovers. This is the year for Fotofocus, an extravaganza that is the largest photography and lens-based art biennial in America, founded in 2010 here in Cincinnati, Ohio. Its programs dominate many exhibition venues from here to our state capitol. About one-hundred thematic, thoughtful and sometimes provocative photo-based and lens based presentations are being showcased…
NICK CAVE’S FIRST RETROSPECTIVE, FOROTHERMORE, MCA CHICAGO, MAY 14 –OCT. 2, 2022.
So I thought I knew Nick Cave’s work and maybe you did too. We had a chance to see one of his captivating Soundsuits in a themed exhibit at the 21C Hotel Gallery, Cincinnati several years back. Doesn’t everyone know about Nick Cave’s imaginative Soundsuits? They are bright, wild, fabric, total-body coverings, or costumes if you will, with crazy add on’s like noisemakers, doilies, stuffed bunnies and cascades of beading or twigs that make noise when the performer moves. Yes! These are in the popular imagination…
Breaking Water: Exploring approaches to the subject of water, liquidity, and feminism
Icons of Nature and History, a legacy exhibition of David Driskell, Cincinnati Art Museum, Feb. 25–May 15, 2022.
Thinking of You. I Mean Me. I Mean You A major solo exhibition devoted to the work of renowned artist Barbara Kruger. Art Institute of Chicago, September 19, 2021 through January 24, 2022
The apparent art works of Barbara Kruger are instantly recognizable. She is most known for her collage style that consists of black-and-white photographs, overlaid with declarative captions, stated in white-on-red Futura Bold Oblique or Helvetica Ultra Condensed text. The work is overlaid with phrases that often include pronouns such as “you”, “your”, “I”, “we”, and “they”, addressing cultural constructions…
Paintings, Politics and the Monuments Men: The Berlin Masterpieces in America Cincinnati Art Museum July 9–October 3, 2021
The backstory is important here. The movie The Monuments Men brought to light the very intriguing and powerful story of mostly middle-aged men and women – primarily art experts – who volunteered for the Army to rescue and hide art masterpieces, books and rare documents from the Nazis during WWII. These efforts were led by…
Once Again, Painting’s Invincibility: American Painting: The Eighties Revisited Cincinnati Art Museum, March 12–July 11, 2021 Cynthia M. Kukla
March 27, 2021 | by Cynthia Kukla
“Every past era offers us a view of the cultural riches deemed significant in its time. Looking back on an era gives us a glimpse into the thinking of the era’s makers and those who evaluate the makers, and gives us a chance to brush off our knowledge and our recollections of the times. American…
An Exhibition of Two Textile Artists Carolyn Mazloomi :“A Piece if My Mind” and Heather Jones: “A Sense of Place” January 30 – February 27, 2021 Alice and Harris Weston Art Gallery, Cincinnati, Ohio
February 20, 2021 | by Cynthia Kukla
“Every human being in the world has a “cradle to grave” relationship with textiles.” These words by Carolyn Mazloomi contextualize her choice of quilts as her chosen art medium and it contextualizes our response to the show. We arrive to view this exhibit clothed; we are ready. Mazloomi came to quilting from a unique position…
Pop-Up Prints Just in Time – Clay Street Press, Sunday, September 13th, 2020
September 26, 2020 | by Cynthia Kukla
On Sunday, September 13th the Clay Street Press in OTR held a Pop-Up Exhibit from 12 – 5pm along with Volatile [redux], a Pop-Up Bookshop featuring artist monographs and art reference books and booklets at the Clay Street Press Gallery. It was a great idea to have this pop-up during a dreary there-is-no-art-to-see-time. Art in the…
It Is Otherworldly: Maya The Exhibition Cincinnati Museum Center Now through through January 3, 2021
August 23, 2020 | by Cynthia Kukla
Before the pyramid builders in Egypt began their staggering achievements, in our Americas, ancient people were erecting pyramids that rose splendidly and improbably above the formidable rainforests of Central America and Mexico. Like the Egyptians, the ancient Maya civilization had an elaborate pictographic language. Little known too, is the fact that it was the Maya…
Erase, Tear, Gouge, Replace: Mark Bradford Excavates the Present
June 27, 2020 | by Cynthia Kukla
What to write about Mark Bradford? His ascent into the art world seems to border on the magical. His story makes for a perfect Hollywood movie if Hollywood was inclined to turn its lens to artists more often, which it does not. Mark Bradford is African-American, born and raised in South Los Angeles, in the same…
Her Star Is Still with Us: Hildegarde of Bingen, Mystic, Artist, Composer, and Advisor to Kings
May 23, 2020 | by Cynthia Kukla
She is called the ‘Sibyl of the Rhine.’ Hildegard of Bingen was as Sir Roger Penrose is to the twentieth-twenty-first century, she the polymath of the twelfth century…
A Salome Like No Other: Reflecting on Gustave Moreau’s Salome (Salome Dancing Before Herod)
April 25, 2020 | by Cynthia Kukla
Damn. I should take drugs when I paint. Look at French painter Gustav Moreau. He must have taken something to make these mind-bending paintings in the 1800’s. I know contemporary painter Peter Doig takes drugs because he admitted so, figures; his paintings are breathtakingly hypnotic, mystical, irrationally emotional and compelling. But Moreau? He’s dead. We can’t ask…
“Something Over Something Else”: Romare Bearden’s Profile Cincinnati Art Museum February 28–May 24, 2020
March 28, 2020 | by Cynthia Kukla
It is a major coup that the Cincinnati Art Museum is showcasing the work of the renowned African-American artist Romare Bearden who launched his career during the height of the early twentieth-century’s Harlem Renaissance in New York…
Letter from Reykjavik: Erró: Mao‘s World Tour Reykjavik Art Museum Hafnarhus May 1, 2019-January 26, 2020
February 15, 2020 | by Cynthia Kukla
Located just below the Artic Circle, Iceland is the Land of Fire and Ice: a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic defined by its dramatic landscape with one-hundred thirty volcanic mountains, geysers, hot springs and lava fields…
“Women Breaking Boundaries” Cincinnati Art Museum from October 11–April 12, 2020
October 26, 2019 | by Cynthia Kukla
In this the one-hundredth anniversary of the Women’s Suffragette Movement, the Cincinnati Art Museum joins numerous museums across America to focus on and celebrate women’s equality. But the Cincinnati contribution is oh-so-different…
MUST-SEE: Visual Arts, Fall 2019
August 28, 2019 | by Cynthia Kukla
The exciting art offerings for this fall feature both historically famous artwork and the creative output of our own homegrown talent. Happy gallery hopping, all! Contemporary Arts Center Robert Colescott: ‘Art and Race Matters’ Robert Colescott will open the CAC…
‘Art and Race Matters’ at the Contemporary Arts Center
August 27, 2019 | by Cynthia Kukla
Robert Colescott’s colorful perspective turns history on its head The Contemporary Arts Center has a wow-factor season opener. Robert Colescott’s “Art and Race Matters” is here for the first of four U.S. museum stops. The exhibit opens Sept. 20, and…
No Spectators: The Art of Burning Man at Cincinnati Art Museum
June 1, 2019 | by Cynthia Kukla
Part One opened April 26; Part Two opens June 7 and continues through September 2. Tuesday–Sunday, 11 a.m.–5 p.m. Thursdays, 11 a.m.–8 p.m. “No Spectators: The Art of Burning Man” took over the Cincinnati Art Museum starting April 26 and it will continue until September 2, 2019. According to Marian Goodell the ultimate goal of […]
From the Mythic Nile to the Mighty Ohio
April 27, 2019 | by Cynthia Kukla
Step into a time when civilization grew along the Nile, pyramids dotted the skyline and people believed gods walked among us……
What Rich Mix Is This?
March 3, 2019 | by Cynthia Kukla
Judy Pfaff New Prints Isaac Abrams Paintings + Drawings Kirk Mangus Drawings + Ceramic Works This handsome show of a trio of artists opened in late January and continues through to April 6, 2019 at the Solway Gallery in the west end. Judy Pfaff is the giant in the room with exciting new prints in the largest gallery rooms at […]
Queen City Struts Her Stuff Panorama of Cincinnati Art – 33rd Anniversary Benefit for the Taft Museum December 1st through Friday January 18th, 2019
December 23, 2018| by Cynthia Kukla
Lookin’ For Some Hot Stuff Muse: Mickalene Thomas Photographs and tête-à-tête Dayton Art Institute, Oct. 20–Jan. 13, 2019
December 2, 2018| by Cynthia Kukla
Lookin’ for some hot stuff, baby this evenin’ I need some hot stuff, baby tonight I want some hot stuff, baby this evenin’ Gotta have some hot stuff Gotta have some love tonight Donna Summers sang it and Sandra Bush danced and romanced to it and Sandra’s daughter Michalene turned it into art. Mickalene Thomas, […]
Finding Your Way Through FotoFocus 2018
September 25, 2018 (Movers & Makers)| by Cynthia Kukla
FotoFocus Biennial arrived earlier this year with openings for a few fabulous photography-based and photography-inspired exhibitions. This month, things heat up with keynote lectures and special events for the FotoFocus Biennial Program, Oct. 4-7. The complete Biennial includes more than 90 exhibitions and programs in Cincinnati and throughout the region […]
Riffing on Picasso Caza Sikes Gallery, Cincinnati’s Invitational Exhibit Channeling Picasso
October 28, 2018| by Cynthia Kukla
Picasso’s genius as an artist hovers over the cultural landscape like a giant zeppelin. Not just in the 20th century but into our 21st century as well, as the exhibit Channeling Picasso at Caza Sikes Gallery reveals. Any quick search of the top artists in the world for all times has Picasso as one of […]
From Heart to Brush
October 8, 2018| by Cynthia Kukla
Collecting Calligraphy: Arts of the Islamic World Cincinnati Art Museum September 7, 2018–January 27, 2019 Long before the Middle East came into the political spotlight in recent decades, the Cincinnati Art Museum has been collecting Islamic calligraphy. It has done so since the 1940s. While Islamic calligraphy was originally developed to nourish and enlighten […]
The Pull of Exquisite Genius: Michelangelo at the Met
March 31, 2018| by Cynthia Kukla
“Five hundred years seem to melt away in looking at his art.”1 Over and over again, critics in the United States and elsewhere referred to this magnificent exhibition as a once-in-a-lifetime-opportunity and they were absolutely correct. The exhibition opened in November to great fanfare and concluded with continuous packed gallery attendance as the exhibit drew […]
First Nations Art Preserved and Celebrated at the Audain Museum Whistler, B.C., Canada
February 19, 2018| by Cynthia Kukla
The masks of the Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast are powerful objects that assist us in defining our place in the cosmos. In a world of endless change and complexity, masks offer a continuum for Native people to acknowledge our connection to the universe. -Chief Robert Joseph (Down from the Shimmering Sky, 1998) […]
Across Borders: Two Artists Respond to Nature Mystically Emily Carr at the Audain Museum, Whistler, B.C. and The Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, B.C. Charles Burchfield at The Burchfield Penney Art Center-SUNY at Buffalo State University, Buffalo, New York
February 19, 2018| by Cynthia Kukla
Emily Carr is one of those heroic early 20th century artists who should escape attention no more. It was her singular vision to document the magic of the British Columbian wilderness and to be the very first artist who recognized and painted the magnificence of First Nations’ peoples’ totems that existed throughout British Columbia and […]
Frank Herrmann, Slayer of Dragons Solo Exhibition, “New Works”, Alice F. and Harris K. Weston Art Gallery in the Aronoff Center for the Arts December 1, 2017 through January 28, 2018
December 23, 2017 | by Cynthia Kukla
Painter extraordinaire Frank Herrmann means what he says. In a 2016 interview, Herrmann stated: “Never wait for the great idea or wait for the perfect moment when the work has stalled. You have to work through those moments, that may be depressing but just keep working.”1 Herrmann takes his own advice; his vivid new exhibition […]
21c’s ‘The Future is Female’ Packs a Punch
December 11, 2017 (Movers & Makers) | by Cynthia Kukla
Who is prepared for an unexpected shift in our cultural climate such as the eruption of the Weinstein scandal that led to Time Magazine’s choice of the Silence Breakers as Person of the Year?
The 21c Museum Hotel in downtown Cincinnati was ready withs its prescient “The Future Is Female” exhibition, which opened in November and is on view through September 2018 […]
How a Czechoslovakian Artist Promoted the Modern Woman Alphonse Mucha: Master of Art Nouveau, Dayton Art Institute September 16 through December 31, 2017
November 26, 2017 | by Cynthia Kukla
Like Impressionism, with its wild brushstrokes and look of abandon in representing the world shocked the smug Parisian Salon art community, so too, Art Noveau originally was intended to be moderne, to usher in the new century, the twentieth century. But now, oh those erotic cascades of hair in Alphonse Mucha’s women smoking in Job […]
A Cincinnati Artist Finds Meaning in a 2,000 Year Old Poem Dynamic New Paintings by Kim Krause Marta Hewett Gallery, October 6 through December 2, 2017
November 26, 2017 | by Cynthia Kukla
“Nothing seems that certain”1 is a great operating procedure for an artist to generate new work. This is what Kim Krause believes and it is clearly manifested in his new solo exhibition at Marta Hewett Gallery titled The Nature of Things. Krause read the original long poem De rerum natura (On the Nature of Things)2 […]
Swoon, a survey, the Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati September 22, 2017 through February 25, 2018
October 29, 2017 | by Cynthia Kukla
Swoon makes magic. Swoon stirs souls. The world needs more Swoon. I get cynical about politically inspired art much of the time. Such art is often self-serving (great way for an artist to get a solo show in our hyper-correct gallery and museum environments.) Or simply, it is handy for an artist to use the […]
Takashi Murakami Takes His Octopus to the Bank
October 29, 2017 | by Cynthia Kukla
Incredibly, the Takashi Murakami exhibition officially broke the David Bowie attendance record of 193,000, making it the all-time highest attended exhibition in the Museum of Contemporary Art-Chicago’s 50-year history. Numerous prints Murakami had available for the MCA Museum Store were sold out, including an $11,000 print in an edition of 100. So the popular and commercial successes of TM […]
A Painter’s Family Tree, “Predecessors” at the Contemporary Arts Center
September 23, 2017 | by Cynthia Kukla
Everyone has a family tree. Painter Njideka Akunyili Crosby’s exhibition, Predecessors, outlines her family tree poignantly. She gives us the women in her family in portraits and with important personal photographs that are photo-transferred and are featured in still life tableaux. She further imbeds in her paintings photo-transfers of important Nigerian political and popular figures […]
Transcending Reality: The Woodcuts of Kōsaka Gajin through May 7, 2017
at the Cincinnati Art Museum
May 6th, 2017 | by Cynthia Kukla
Cincinnati continues to harness the landscape lion: the Taft Museum exhibition of 2016, Daubigny, Monet, Van Gogh: Impressions of Landscape and two more stunners, the Cincinnati Art Museum’s Picturing the West: Masterworks of 19th-Century Landscape Photography and Van Gogh: Into the Undergrowth. Anyone fortunate enough to have seen all three exhibitions last year must certainly […]
KayWalkingStick at the Dayton Art Institute
March 19th, 2017 | by Cynthia Kukla |
I can’t decide if I should leap for joy or feel cheated by the art world when I discover yet another marvelous woman artist who has not received appropriate mainstream recognition. Here’s Kay WalkingStick, now in her eighties and thriving in her studio practice, who has had a vibrant career with early New York accolades. […]
Visionary Artists at the Carnegie Arts Center
December 17th, 2016 | by Cynthia Kukla Published in *, December 2016
E is for Edie, An Edith McKee Harper Retrospective
Tony Dotson, An American Outsider Solo Exhibition Both exhibitions run from December 9, 2016 through February 11, 2017
When Photography Was New: Picturing the West: Masterworks of 19th-Century Landscape Photography Islands of the Blest Artist-Led Communities: Meatyard, Lyons, Siskind & Callahan
Nov 19, 2016 | by Cynthia Kukla|
The Fotofocus Biennial 2016 features a marvelous array of photography exhibitions – eight exhibits curated by Kevin Moore for Fotofocus and about sixty additional ancillary exhibits…
Letter from Chicago: ‘Kerry James Marshall: Mastry’ opens April 23 and runs through September 25, 2016 at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago
May 24th, 2016 | by Cynthia Kukla | published in May 2016
If you haven’t met him yet, let me introduce you to Alabama-born, Chicago-based artist Kerry James Marshall. If you go to Los Angeles, you can see one of his […]
Letter from Chicago: Making Their Mark: Illinois Women Artists, 1940-1960
Nov 24, 2015 | by Cynthia Kukla
Making Their Mark: Illinois Women Artists, 1940-1960 opened October 17 and is on view until January 17, 2016 at the International Features Gallery of the Peoria Riverfront Museum. With this exhibition, the museum is contributing to the necessary scholarship on women artists.
Letter from Chicago: “Charles Ray: Sculpture, 1997–2014″
Oct 21, 2015 | by Cynthia Kukla
Midwest-born, Los Angeles–based sculptor Charles Ray’s mid-career retrospective, “Charles Ray: Sculpture, 1997–2014,” is a significant and revelatory exhibition which opened at the Art Institute of Chicago May 15, 2015 and concluded on October 4. The exhibition was co-organized by the Art Institute, its only North American venue, and the Kunstmuseum, Basel. Six of Ray’s sculptures—including four new works in their museum debut: Horse and Rider, Huck and Jim, (huge, nude, controversial) Silver, (woof) and Girl on Pony—are on view only in Chicago……..
la Biennale di Venezia: Part Two: Americans in Venice
September 21st, 2015 | by Cynthia Kukla
The Venice Biennale, which opened in May, is on view through Nov 22 with exhibitions in the Giardini and the Arsenale, featuring 136 artists, 89 participating countries, and 44 collateral events presented by non-profit organizations and exhibited in various locations across Venice. The city’s massive Arsenale (of Venice’s mighty past as controller of the Mediterranean) […]
la Biennale di Venezia: Part One
Aug 5, 2015 | by Cynthia Kukla
Inaugurated in 1895 with the first international presentation in 1897, la Biennale di Venezia is the oldest and in my opinion, still the most prestigeous of the contemporary international exhibitions of visual art. Venice celebrates the 120th anniversary of the first Exhibition (1895).Venice is an erotic city, steeped in cultural, and military history and it it retains its magic and mystery in the twenty-first century.
Letter from Springfield Pro-Text: When Words Enter Visual Art
Mar 24, 2015 | by Cynthia Kukla
Not every Friday the 13th is as memorable as the opening reception and new exhibition at the Illinois State Museum-Springfield Gallery. Curated by the museum’s Robert Sill, Pro-Text: When Words Enter Visual Art “explores the various ways artists choose to combine language in their visual art. It features art by self-taught artists and works by […]
February 28, 2015: Reflections at the End of Black History Month. Where We At? Dealing (with) Black Feminism
Mar 24, 2015 | by Venise Keys, Edited by Cynthia Kukla
In the great tradition of Black Feminism, I have integrated a daily practice of self-love into my lifestyle as a full-time graduate student. This self-love is deeper than an assortment of wooden Afrocentric jewelry or a proclaiming Black Nationalist flag (although I proudly have both)…it is an active […]
WHAT IS THIS ART THING?
Feb 11, 2015 | by Ruben Morrissey, Edited by Cynthia Kukla
Read this like you saying, “Homie is a baller.” Swaying would be good too. http://www.learner.org/courses/globalart/work/207/index.html So I says, “Man, look at all those chairs. 2014 was “The Year of Chairs!” I see this exhibit, orange chairs, lime green chairs sitting in front of really boring paintings not even made with paint (can you imagine?) What’s […]
Letter from the Midwest
Oct 31, 2014 | by Cynthia Kukla
Letter from the Midwest differs from my previous “Letters.” It is a quick romp through parts of the Midwest where there have been interesting exhibitions. While “there is good art everywhere” to quote myself, we can’t get everywhere, so I hope this snapshot gives you an impression of some of the exhibitions, or it inspires […]
Seeking to Make “Everyday Objects Shriek Aloud”
Oct 4, 2014 | by Cynthia Kukla
Why a new exhibition on Magritte? “René Magritte: The Mystery of the Ordinary, 1926-1938,” is the Art Institute of Chicago’s season blockbuster. This stunning exhibition is the first that zeroes in on Magritte’s most inventive and experimental years, showing us his seminal experiments of 1926-27 on through 1938. I was bowled over. Among art lovers, […]
Letters from Thessaloniki
Aug 15, 2014 | by Cynthia Kukla
In April and May of this year, during my second art research trip to Greece, I had many long discussions about art and politics with my good friend, fellow artist and professor Xenis Sachinis. When he told me of the special circumstances of his poignant print series, Traces and Memory, and that he donated one of them to Aristotle University for the commemoration of […]
Letter from Wyoming – There is Good Art Everywhere
Mar 25, 2014 | by Cynthia Kukla
By Cynthia Kukla There is good art everywhere, just look. Look a little harder and you will find great art just about anywhere. Such is the case with the exhibition of Robert Motherwell and Lee Hall in Jackson Hole, Wyoming’s big ski country. Great art indeed. Tayloe Piggott, owner and namesake of her gallery, presented/paired […]
Letter from Chicago: Focus on Five Artists and a Nod to Leyster
Jan 25, 2014 | by Cynthia Kukla
Twenty years ago, in 1993, the Frans Hals Museum mounted an exhibition of the dozen authentic oil paintings of the ‘lost’ Judith Leyster (1609-1660). Banners throughout the city of Amsterdam proclaimed and celebrated this centennial of Leyster’s rediscovery. Why was this significant? Judith Leyster was […]
Letter from Champaign: “Return to Sender”
Nov 24, 2013 | by Cynthia Kukla
LETTER FROM CHAMPAIGN: “RETURN TO SENDER” By Cynthia Kukla “I study cancellations, the manner in which the stamp is placed, the way the address is done…. It’s a marvelous art form, the letter – full of wonder and surprise.” Ray Johnson (1965) Mail Art and Ray Johnson remain vivid and remembered, owing to the […]
Letter from Chicago
Oct 23, 2013 | by Cynthia Kukla
City of Big Shoulders, is home to numerous gems of specialized art museums beyond the Art Institute of Chicago and the Museum of Contemporary Art. The Polish Museum of Art, Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art, National Museum of Mexican Art, The Arts Club of Chicago, DePaul Art […]
A Contemporary Art Checklist
Sep 22, 2013 | by Cynthia Kukla
“ALL ART HAS BEEN CONTEMPORARY” Neon installation piece above entrance to the Altes Museum, Berlin’s collection of classical antiquities. What is contemporary art? This increasingly important topic is complex and it is debated with no clear-cut conclusions, since current conditions fold back upon themselves and older conditions re-emerge […]
Letter From Chicago: Part II
Apr 21, 2013 | by Cynthia Kukla
I returned to Chicago for the April 19th symposium on Picasso1 organized for the “Picasso and Chicago” exhibition and seeing the exhibition again strengthens my already deep […]
Letter From Chicago: Part I. “Picasso and Chicago: the Fearless Pursuit of the Modern”
Mar 21, 2013 | by Cynthia Kukla
Questions flood the mind after seeing a stunning exhibition by an artist whose name is part of the cultural and popular vernacular. In this first of a two-part analysis, questions arise. […]
Letter From Los Angeles
April 2012
Our Debt to the West Coast: Pacific Standard Time: 1945-1980
“An unprecedented collaboration of more than 60 cultural institutions across Southern California coming together to celebrate the birth of the L.A. art scene.”
Visiting L.A. is like a review of your whole life. Driving around greater L.A. in traffic much less crazy than my hometown Chicago, mind-surfing images of hot-rods and humming Beach Boys tunes, seeing the exit signs for Disney world brings iconic childhood movies flooding into my mind: “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” and “Lady and the Tramp.” The lure of Hollywood is present with each glimpse of luscious palm trees hugging sleek, contemporary architecture. The music scene at Venice Beach from the 60’s just about rises from the pavement as we pass hippie holdout stores, houses and shacks. I can still hear The Doors playing. In Venice Beach, we pass the street named Ocean Park as we drive to LA Louver to see the Ed Kienholz Retrospective. Immediately, the iconic paintings of Richard Diebenkorn flash through the museum in my mind.
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