Jan Müller at Lori Bookstein

Jan Müller, The Concert of Angels (1957, Oil on canvas, 56 1/2" x 148")

James writes:

In 1954, the 31-year-old painter Jan Müller (1922-1958) received a pacemaker, version 1.0, which kept him alive for a few desperate years and provided the drumbeat for his urgent artistic output. With a broken heart, he produced a heartbreaking series of paintings based on "Faust." Praised in their day, they are now largely, and sadly, forgotten. Lori Bookstein has brought them back for an exhibition that includes significant work from the permanent collections of the Whitney Museum and the Museum of Modern Art.

Jan Müller, Walpurgisnacht—Faust I (1956, Oil on canvas, 68" x 119")

Mr. Müller's last museum retrospective took place in 1962 at the Guggenheim; his reconsideration is long overdue.

Born in Hamburg, Mr. Müller fled Nazi Germany in the 1930s and emigrated with his family to the U.S. in 1941. From 1945 to 1950 he studied under Hans Hofmann, the godfather of New York School abstraction. But Mr. Müller soon synthesized the influences of German Expressionism and Abstract Expressionism, becoming one of the first Hofmann students to return to figuration.

Jan Müller, The Temptation of Saint Anthony (1957, Oil on canvas, 80" x 121 1/2")

In "The Concert of Angels" (1957), more than 12 feet wide, white ghosts reach down from the canvas edge. A row of figures with terrifying faces sing. Despite the gothic subject matter, the paint handling and composition reveal a modernist sensibility.

The blocky figures are mosaics writ large; the angular spirits are brush strokes—Abstract Expressionism meets animus.

Mr. Müller energized his final paintings with a life that could survive even death.

Jan Müller, Untitled (Temptation of St Anthony) (c. 1957, Oil on board, 15 3/4" x 17 3/4")

Jan Müller at the opening of his solo exhibition at the Hansa Gallery Photograph by Robert Frank, 1957. Müller (facing the camera) is standing in front of his painting Faust, II. MoMA purchased the similar painting Faust, I from this exhibition for $1,500, at that time the Hansa’s largest sale. (from MOMA)

Details:
Faust and Other Tales: The Paintings of Jan Müller
Lori Bookstein Fine Art
138 10th Ave., (212) 750-0949
Through June 23

--Adapted from "Course of Nature and Faust," The Wall Street Journal, June 9, 2012

Cathy Nan Quinlan and Kurt Hoffman at Valentine

Cathy Nan Quinlan, Simple Still Life (2011)

James writes:

Valentine is an apartment gallery in the Ridgewood section of Queens, a vital little venue at the eastern edge of the arts wave that has washed over Williamsburg and now inundates Bushwick, Brooklyn. Fred Valentine, the gallery's owner, is a refugee from Williamsburg with an eye for off-the-grid art. His exhibition of still-life paintings by Cathy Nan Quinlan (b. 1953) and ink landscapes by Kurt Hoffman (b. 1957) demonstrates how alternative the alternative can be.

Cathy Nan Quinlan, Sunset (2011)

Ms. Quinlan starts with Giorgio Morandi's iconic etchings and recasts them in oil, painting her own hatch-marks. The work has an intimate, cool feel, with unexpected colors in place of Morandi's black and white. Ms. Quinlan once ran her own Williamsburg space called the "'temporary Museum" that, she writes on her website, prized the "compact, intense stillness" of oil on canvas.

Cathy Nan Quinlan, Optimism (2011)

At Valentine, her most intense statements are the ones that are the most compact and still, like "Optimism" (2011) and "Sunset" (2011).

Kurt Hoffman, Ramble, NYC, Jan 1, 2012 (2012)

Over the past decade Mr. Hoffman has gone from drawing lewd little pictures to serene large landscapes. Examples of both are now on view. In 2010 the Eastern tradition of ink brushed on paper compelled him to turn off the cartoons and head to Central Park to draw en plein air.

Kurt Hoffman, Japanese Maple (2010)

The resulting landscapes might border on chinoiserie, but the spare beauty of "Japanese Maple" (2010) rises above pastiche with its simple beauty.

Details:
Cathy Nan Quinlan and Kurt Hoffman
Valentine Gallery
464 Seneca Ave., Ridgewood, N.Y.
(718) 381-2962
Through June 24

--adapted from "Course of Nature and Faust," The Wall Street Journal, June 8, 2012

A Guide to Bushwick Open Studios 2012

James writes:

If there was any doubt about the vitality of the outer-borough scene, just go to artsinbushwick.org and scan through the more than 500 venues now participating in Bushwick Open Studios, to take place June 1 through June 3.

This year BOS will include the neighborhood’s first art fair, cheekily called “Bushwick Basel” (with several participants from Ridgewood).

Here's also what I'm looking forward to:

• the final weekend for the Vander Ende-Onderdonk House installation.
• The shows at The Active Space. 
• The works of Dana Gordon (more here).
• My colleague Rebecca Litt
• The 1980s Bushwick photographer Meryl Meisler (whose work I first saw in Steve Malanga's history of Bushwick for City Journal)
• Cathy Nan Quinlan and Kurt Hoffman at Valentine Gallery (more here)
• Amy Lincoln and Kevin Curran
• Maps and Mimosas at Norte Maar
• Group painting organized by Julie Torres at The Coin Locker
• And a show at Sharon Butler’s studio honoring the blog Two Coats of Paint curated by Austin Thomas (whose pioneer Bushwick gallery Pocket Utopia has recently reopened on the Lower East Side).

Bushwick is the place to be for its sixth and biggest open studios this coming weekend. Visit artsinbushwick.org to make your own list.   

Deborah Brown, Freewheeling II (2012) at The Active Space

Meryl Meisler, Vanessa Mártir, Patricia O'Brien, Defying Devastation: Bushwick in the 80s, at The Living Gallery

Rebecca Litt, Elsewhere in the City (2011)

Dana Gordon, Untitled (2011)

Amy Lincoln, Breakfast Table

BOS2012 : Be sure to wear your walking shoes! Here's a map of the shows

 --adapted from "Gallery Chronicle," The New Criterion, June 2012