Poles of the Feminist Spectrum
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
Two exhibitions of paintings by women who work with words represent opposite poles of approach to facture, and wildly divergent ideas about what makes a painting interesting to look at. For all their differences, however, each demonstrates a feminist undertow, and both are distinctly New York. They represent flip sides of our schizophrenic metropolis.
The gonster machers of postwar New York painting collide with gay-positive pull-quotes from show-biz milestones in the new work of veteran painter Deborah Kass, whose “Feel Good Paintings for Feel Bad Times” is on view at Paul Kasmin Gallery. In their polish, control, and unremitting cleverness, these eight paintings from 2007 (plus one from 2003) are as devoid of spontaneous invention as a Broadway blockbuster, and just as annoying.
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