Karen Wilkin
Encyclopedia
Karen Wilkin is a New York-based independent curator and art critic
specializing in 20th century modernism
. Educated at Barnard College
and Columbia University
, she was awarded a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship and a Fulbright Scholarship, to Rome. Wilkin has organized numerous exhibitions internationally and is the author of monographs on Stuart Davis
, David Smith
, Anthony Caro
, Kenneth Noland
, Helen Frankenthaler
, and Hans Hofmann
. Her recent projects include a Hofmann retrospective for the Naples Art Museum, Naples, Florida
, and, with William C. Agee, the introductory essays for the Stuart Davis Catalogue Raisonné.
Wilkin met Clement Greenberg
in the early 1970s. When the Portland Art Museum
, Oregon, acquired the critic’s collection, she was asked to contribute the main essay to the catalogue, because of her long friendship with Greenberg and her expertise on his writings, his studio practices, and the artists with whom he was closely associated. Recently she was curator of the Syracuse exhibition “Clement Greenberg: Then and Now” that examines some of the Syracuse painters influenced by Greenberg. In 2009 Wilkin curated a posthumous retrospective of the painter Cleve Gray
at the Boca Raton Museum of Art
.
Wilkin teaches in the Master of Fine Arts program of the New York Studio School. She is the Contributing Editor for Art
for the Hudson Review and a regular contributor to The New Criterion
, Art in America
, and the Wall Street Journal.
Source Syracuse University - Newhouse School
Art critic
An art critic is a person who specializes in evaluating art. Their written critiques, or reviews, are published in newspapers, magazines, books and on web sites...
specializing in 20th century modernism
Modernism
Modernism, in its broadest definition, is modern thought, character, or practice. More specifically, the term describes the modernist movement, its set of cultural tendencies and array of associated cultural movements, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western society...
. Educated at Barnard College
Barnard College
Barnard College is a private women's liberal arts college and a member of the Seven Sisters. Founded in 1889, Barnard has been affiliated with Columbia University since 1900. The campus stretches along Broadway between 116th and 120th Streets in the Morningside Heights neighborhood in the borough...
and Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
, she was awarded a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship and a Fulbright Scholarship, to Rome. Wilkin has organized numerous exhibitions internationally and is the author of monographs on Stuart Davis
Stuart Davis (painter)
Stuart Davis , was an early American modernist painter. He was well known for his jazz influenced, proto pop art paintings of the 1940s and 1950s, bold, brash, and colorful as well as his ashcan pictures in the early years of the 20th century.-Biography:He was born in Philadelphia to Edward Wyatt...
, David Smith
David Smith (sculptor)
David Roland Smith was an American Abstract Expressionist sculptor and painter, best known for creating large steel abstract geometric sculptures.-Biography:...
, Anthony Caro
Anthony Caro
Sir Anthony Alfred Caro, OM, CBE is an English abstract sculptor whose work is characterised by assemblages of metal using 'found' industrial objects.-Background and early life:...
, Kenneth Noland
Kenneth Noland
Kenneth Noland was an American abstract painter. He was one of the best-known American Color field painters, although in the 1950s he was thought of as an abstract expressionist and in the early 1960s he was thought of as a minimalist painter. Noland helped establish the Washington Color School...
, Helen Frankenthaler
Helen Frankenthaler
Helen Frankenthaler is an American abstract expressionist painter. She is a major contributor to the history of postwar American painting. Having exhibited her work in six decades she has spanned several generations of abstract painters while continuing to produce vital and ever-changing new work...
, and Hans Hofmann
Hans Hofmann
Hans Hofmann was a German-born American abstract expressionist painter.-Biography:Hofmann was born in Weißenburg, Bavaria on March 21, 1880, the son of Theodor and Franziska Hofmann. When he was six he moved with his family to Munich...
. Her recent projects include a Hofmann retrospective for the Naples Art Museum, Naples, Florida
Naples, Florida
Naples is a city in Collier County, Florida, United States. As of July 1, 2007, the U.S. Census Bureau estimated the city's population at 21,653. Naples is a principal city of the Naples–Marco Island Metropolitan Statistical Area, which had an estimated total population of 315,839 on July 1, 2007...
, and, with William C. Agee, the introductory essays for the Stuart Davis Catalogue Raisonné.
Wilkin met Clement Greenberg
Clement Greenberg
Clement Greenberg was an American essayist known mainly as an influential visual art critic closely associated with American Modern art of the mid-20th century...
in the early 1970s. When the Portland Art Museum
Portland Art Museum
The Portland Art Museum in Portland, Oregon, United States, was founded in 1892, making it the oldest art museum on the West Coast and seventh oldest in the United States. Upon completion of the most recent renovations, the Portland Art Museum became one of the twenty-five largest art museums in...
, Oregon, acquired the critic’s collection, she was asked to contribute the main essay to the catalogue, because of her long friendship with Greenberg and her expertise on his writings, his studio practices, and the artists with whom he was closely associated. Recently she was curator of the Syracuse exhibition “Clement Greenberg: Then and Now” that examines some of the Syracuse painters influenced by Greenberg. In 2009 Wilkin curated a posthumous retrospective of the painter Cleve Gray
Cleve Gray
Cleve Gray was known as an Abstract expressionist painter, who was also associated with Color Field painting and Lyrical Abstraction.-Biography:...
at the Boca Raton Museum of Art
Boca Raton Museum of Art
The Boca Raton Museum of Art is located at 501 Plaza Real, Boca Raton, Florida in Mizner Park. It houses works of art by a number of the great masters.-About:...
.
Wilkin teaches in the Master of Fine Arts program of the New York Studio School. She is the Contributing Editor for Art
Art
Art is the product or process of deliberately arranging items in a way that influences and affects one or more of the senses, emotions, and intellect....
for the Hudson Review and a regular contributor to The New Criterion
The New Criterion
The New Criterion is a New York-based monthly literary magazine and journal of artistic and cultural criticism, edited by Hilton Kramer and Roger Kimball. It has sections for criticism of poetry, theater, art, music, the media, and books...
, Art in America
Art in America
Art in America is an illustrated monthly, international magazine concentrating on the contemporary art world, including profiles of artists and genres, updates about art movements, show reviews and event schedules. It is designed for collectors, artists, dealers, art professionals and other...
, and the Wall Street Journal.
Source Syracuse University - Newhouse School
Select Publications
- 2007 - Color As Field:American Painting, 1950-1975. Karen Wilkin and Carl Belz. Published: Yale University Press; 1 edition (November 29, 2007). ISBN 0-300-12023-0, ISBN 978-0-300-12023-3
- 2007 - Stuart DavisStuart Davis (painter)Stuart Davis , was an early American modernist painter. He was well known for his jazz influenced, proto pop art paintings of the 1940s and 1950s, bold, brash, and colorful as well as his ashcan pictures in the early years of the 20th century.-Biography:He was born in Philadelphia to Edward Wyatt...
: A Catalogue Raisonné (3 volumes) by William Agee (Editor), Karen Wilkin (Editor), Ani Boyajian, Mark Rutkoski (ISBN 0-300-10981-4) - 2005 - Kenneth NolandKenneth NolandKenneth Noland was an American abstract painter. He was one of the best-known American Color field painters, although in the 1950s he was thought of as an abstract expressionist and in the early 1960s he was thought of as a minimalist painter. Noland helped establish the Washington Color School...
: The Nature of Color by Kenneth Noland (Author), Alison De Lima Greene (Author), Karen Wilkin (Author) (ISBN 0-89090-130-9) - 2003 - Hans HofmannHans HofmannHans Hofmann was a German-born American abstract expressionist painter.-Biography:Hofmann was born in Weißenburg, Bavaria on March 21, 1880, the son of Theodor and Franziska Hofmann. When he was six he moved with his family to Munich...
(ISBN 0-8076-1526-9) - 2001 - Clement GreenbergClement GreenbergClement Greenberg was an American essayist known mainly as an influential visual art critic closely associated with American Modern art of the mid-20th century...
: A Critic's Collection by Bruce Guenther, Karen Wilkin (Editor) (ISBN 0-691-09049-1) - 2000 - David SmithDavid Smith (sculptor)David Roland Smith was an American Abstract Expressionist sculptor and painter, best known for creating large steel abstract geometric sculptures.-Biography:...
: Two into Three Dimensions (ISBN 1-886438-01-3) - 1999 - Stuart DavisStuart Davis (painter)Stuart Davis , was an early American modernist painter. He was well known for his jazz influenced, proto pop art paintings of the 1940s and 1950s, bold, brash, and colorful as well as his ashcan pictures in the early years of the 20th century.-Biography:He was born in Philadelphia to Edward Wyatt...
in Gloucester (ISBN 1-889097-34-9) - 1998 - Isaac WitkinIsaac WitkinIsaac Witkin, internationally renowned modern sculptor, was born in Johannesburg, South Africa on 10 May 1936, and he died 23 April 2006. Witkin entered St Martin’s School of Art in London, in 1957. Studying under Sir Anthony Caro and alongside other luminaries in training such as Phillip King,...
(ISBN 1-55595-153-8) - 1998 - Giorgio MorandiGiorgio MorandiGiorgio Morandi was an Italian painter and printmaker who specialized in still life. His paintings are noted for their tonal subtlety in depicting apparently simple subjects, which were limited mainly to vases, bottles, bowls, flowers, and landscapes.-Biography:Giorgio Morandi was born in Bologna...
(Twentieth-Century Masters Series) (ISBN 0-8478-1947-7) - 1995 - Frankenthaler: Works on Paper 1949-1984 (ISBN 0-8076-1104-2)
- 1992 - Georges BraqueGeorges BraqueGeorges Braque[p] was a major 20th century French painter and sculptor who, along with Pablo Picasso, developed the art style known as Cubism.-Early Life:...
(Modern Masters Series) (ISBN 0-89659-947-7) - 1986 - Milton AveryMilton AveryMilton Avery was an American modern painter. Born in Altmar, New York, he moved to Connecticut in 1898 and later to New York City.-Biography:...
: Paintings of Canada (ISBN 0-88911-403-X) - 1984 - David SmithDavid Smith (sculptor)David Roland Smith was an American Abstract Expressionist sculptor and painter, best known for creating large steel abstract geometric sculptures.-Biography:...
(Modern Masters Series) (ISBN 1-55859-256-3)