Author Archives: Deven Golden

Remembering

Posted on March 5, 2022 by Deven Golden

The essay “Remembering” by Millree Hughes has been removed at the author’s request.

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The Last Wave: Figurative Painting in Chicago at the End of the 20th Century

Posted on October 20, 2019 by Deven Golden

My catalogue essay from What Came After: Figurative Painting in Chicago 1978 – 1998, organized by Phyllis Bramson. At the Elmhurst Art Museum, September 14, 2019 – January 12, 2020: The past is a foreign country; they do things differently … Continue reading →

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Invisible Man

Posted on August 13, 2019 by Deven Golden

Joseph Elmer Yoakum June 20 – July 26, 2019 Venus Over Manhattan 980 Madison Avenue New York, NY 10075 Thirty-five years ago I reviewed an exhibition that attempted to show Joseph Yoakum’s influence on a wide range of artists working … Continue reading →

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Joseph Yoakum: His Influence on Contemporary Art and Artists 1984

Posted on May 12, 2019 by Deven Golden

Viewing a wall of drawings by the ever astonishing Joseph Yoakum at the Frieze Art Fair this year seemed like a good enough reason to make my next things not on the Internet because I wrote them before the Internet … Continue reading →

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Minority Report

Posted on March 21, 2019 by Deven Golden

Dana Schutz: Imagine Me and You Petzel January 10 – February 23, 2019 Dana Schutz has enjoyed a rather fervent following almost since day one of her career, extolled alike by critics, collectors, artists, and ordinary viewers. Multiple artists have … Continue reading →

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Drella on Ice

Posted on March 13, 2019 by Deven Golden

ArtMonkeyWrench welcomes its first guest contributor, artist Millree Hughes Andy Warhol: From A to B and Back Again Whitney Museum of American Art Nov 12, 2018–Mar 31, 2019 “To what extent the artist is only a preliminary stage. The world as … Continue reading →

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Judith Linhares: Riptide, Catalogue Essay for 2011 Exhibition at Ed Thorp Gallery

Posted on February 5, 2019 by Deven Golden

Here is another addition in my ongoing project to post writings previously not online. This month I’ve selected a catalogue essay written in 2011 in honor of Judith Linhares’ solo exhibition Hearts on Fire at P.P.O.W., which aptly opens on Valentines … Continue reading →

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Holly Miller: Twist, Bend and Rise…

Posted on January 18, 2019 by Deven Golden

Continuing my posting of writings previously not “online”, here is my essay for Holly Miller’s 2015 show at Elizabeth Harris Gallery titled: Holly Miller: Twist, Bend and Rise… “I see again my schoolroom in Vyra, the blue roses of the … Continue reading →

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Tower of Power

Posted on January 2, 2019 by Deven Golden

Hilma af Klint: Painting for the Future at the Guggenheim October 12, 2018 – April 23, 2019 Weeks after viewing the revelatory Hilma af Klint exhibition at the Guggenheim, three thoughts continue to circle around in my mind. First, naturally, … Continue reading →

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Judith Geichman 1988 (and now)

Posted on November 13, 2018 by Deven Golden

Those who follow ArtMonkeyWrench know that I have begun posting reviews and essays from the New Art Examiner and other publications that ceased to exist before the Internet, and so have not been available online. In Chicago to catch the … Continue reading →

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Gertrude Abercrombie: Queen of the Chicago Bohemians

Posted on October 20, 2018 by Deven Golden

Karma, a gallery/publisher on the Lower East Side in New York, presented a major exhibition of Gertrude Abercrombie from August 9 through September 23, 2018. Abercrombie, although well known among artists and collectors in Chicago, is largely unknown outside of … Continue reading →

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The Raw and the Cooked

Posted on September 25, 2018 by Deven Golden

Ordinarily I only refer to my previously published articles on the ArtMonkeyWrench Links to Other Writing page. I’m making an exception and reposting this piece directly on my site because it’s the very first essay I wrote for Artcritical and … Continue reading →

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Don Voisine, Catalogue Essay for 2009 Exhibition at McKenzie Fine Art, New York

Posted on September 7, 2018 by Deven Golden

While I work on my next essay for ArtMonkeyWrench, I thought it might be a good idea to start posting previous catalogue essays and old reviews that are not otherwise available online (which in our modern world means that they … Continue reading →

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Wirsum 2018

Posted on August 13, 2018 by Deven Golden

On Dangerous Ground Like Isaac Bashevitz Singer’s simple but honest hero Gimpel the Fool, Wirsum’s goofy characters often inhabit a dangerous, unpredictable territory. Yet, like Gimpel, they manage, whether from divine intervention or sheer luck, to find a happy ending. … Continue reading →

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Wirsum 1984

Posted on September 12, 2017 by Deven Golden

I’ve been thinking a lot about Karl Wirsum lately. As luck would have it, a selection of his work titled Mr. Whatzit: Selections from the 1980s is currently showing at Derek Eller Gallery through October 8, 2017. What follows is … Continue reading →

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Death and the Critic

Posted on August 10, 2017 by Deven Golden

For me, the difficulty writing about visual art starts with my struggle to describe the open-ended and visceral experience of looking within the far narrower limitations of language. Prose writers complain about the information and nuance lost when their work … Continue reading →

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The Whitney Biennial: This, That, and the Other Thing

Posted on May 31, 2017 by Deven Golden

The 2017 Whitney Biennial The seventy-eighth installment, March 17 through June 11, 2017 People have expressed problems with the this year’s 78th Biennial, as one can assume they have since the very first one in 1932. It is, once again, … Continue reading →

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The Chimera Francis Picabia: Our Heads Are Round so Our Thoughts Can Change Direction Museum of Modern Art, New York November 20, 2016 – March 19, 2017 Problem Child Francis Picabia’s art continues to confound. To simply read the reviews … Continue reading →

Posted on April 22, 2017 by Deven Golden | 1 Comment

Unquiet Americans

Posted on April 22, 2015 by Deven Golden

From Pop to Punk: Peter Saul February 25th – April 25th, 2015 Venus Over Manhattan 980 Madison Avenue, FL 3 New York, New York 10075 Peter Saul, who will be 81 this year, has been happily making trouble for over … Continue reading →

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Brave the cold!

Posted on January 7, 2015 by Deven Golden

January in New York,  but with the temperature below twenty degrees, it feels more like Chicago. Fortunately, there are any number of exhibitions opening this month that are worth seeing. With that in mind, I wanted to do a quick … Continue reading →

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Sundays in the Arbor with Gladys

Posted on December 22, 2014 by Deven Golden

Gladys Nilsson October 23 – December 6th, 2014 Garth Greenen Gallery 529 West 20th Street – 10th floor New York, NY 10011 How happy I was to walk into Garth Greenan Gallery this past Saturday and find that the exhibition … Continue reading →

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Modern Love

Posted on November 15, 2014 by Deven Golden

Henri Matisse: The Cut-Outs Museum of Modern Art October 12, 2014–February 8, 2015 Perhaps you are wondering if this show of late Matisse cut outs is worth it? Rather than writing a lengthy explanation of why, YES!, it most certainly … Continue reading →

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The Alchemist

Posted on October 15, 2014 by Deven Golden

JEFF KOONS: A RETROSPECTIVE Whitney Museum of American Art June 27 – October 19th, 2014 Rem Koolhaas: “But is there a Machiavellian part of you?” Jeff Koons: “Some of it is there. I guess it is harder to recognize that, … Continue reading →

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Dead Enders

Posted on August 30, 2014 by Deven Golden

“Italian Futurism, 1909 – 1944: Reconstructing the Universe” at the Guggenheim Museum, February 21 – September 1, 2014 “Degenerate Art: The Attack on Modern Art in Nazi Germany, 1937” at the Neue Galerie, March 13 – September 1, 2014 Will … Continue reading →

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Joan Mitchell x 2

Posted on June 28, 2014 by Deven Golden

Joan Mitchell: Trees May 15 – August 29, 2014 at Cheim & Read and Joan Mitchell: The Black Drawings and Related Works 1964 – 1967 May 8 – June 28 at Lennon, Weinberg, Inc.. Joan Mitchell (1925 – 1992) is … Continue reading →

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