CrosswordNewsletters
DAILY BEAST
  • Royalist
  • Cheat Sheet
  • Politics
  • Crime
  • Entertainment
  • Media
  • Covid-19
  • Half Full
  • U.S. News
  • Scouted
  • Travel

Phyllida Barlow At Hauser & Wirth Is The Daily Pic By Blake Gopnik

Zooming In

Blake Gopnik

Updated Jul. 14, 2017 3:20AM ET / Published Dec. 13, 2012 4:34PM ET 

(©Phyllida Barlow, courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth; photo by Genevieve Hanson)

I don’t know any work of art better balanced between sculpture and painting than Phyllida Barlow’s “Untitled: Lattice (Large)”, in her solo show at Hauser & Wirth gallery in New York. That makes it more interesting than her other works, which sit too safely within the traditions of sculptural installation. “Lattice” comes close to being a massive, 3D enlargement of a tiny paint chip from a Rothko or a Reinhardt: The fractured grid reads as the threads of a canvas, and the specks of color read as underpainted pigment buried deep in the pictorial matrix. This creates a wonderful tension between the diminutive and the monumental, as has sometimes been achieved by Old Master painters working on the surface of the canvas alone. One cranky question: In what sense is “Lattice” untitled? And if it isn’t without a title, why include the word “untitled” in its name? I’d be willing to take it as a clever comment on titling, if it weren’t that this kind of un-titling is now the norm among artists.

For a full visual survey of past Daily Pics visit blakegopnik.com/archive.

READ THIS LIST

DAILY BEAST
  • Royalist
  • Cheat Sheet
  • Politics
  • Crime
  • Entertainment
  • Media
  • Covid-19
  • Half Full
  • U.S. News
  • Scouted
  • Travel
  • Beast Inside
  • Crossword
  • Newsletters
  • Podcasts
  • About
  • Contact
  • Tips
  • Jobs
  • Advertise
  • Help
  • Privacy
  • Code of Ethics & Standards
  • Diversity
  • Terms & Conditions
  • Copyright & Trademark
  • Sitemap
  • Coupons
© 2021 The Daily Beast Company LLC