Ilya Bolotowsky Abstraction

Work of the Week: Ilya Bolotowsky, “Abstraction”

Engaging with art in challenging situations can provide respite and solace and remind us to find joy and beauty in basic things we often take for granted. As the new year unfolds and presents us with unexpected questions to consider and new goals to pursue, once again, I turn to art. It seems that for Bolotowsky, abstract art provided the order and balance needed in a historical moment that saw enormous socio-political changes as well as defining shifts in the art world.

On Changing Artistic Tastes and American Modernism

Recently, while conducting research on the painter Elizabeth Murray (herself worthy of a future blog post), I came across an interesting anecdote. In 1994 Kirk Varnedoe, the Museum of Modern Art’s Chief Curator of Painting, asked Murray to curate an