The French painter Pierre Bonnard (1867-1947) was one of the most original and consummate colorists of the first half of the 20th century and one of the few great painters of the period to remain unaffected by cubism. Pierre Bonnard was born at...

Pierre Bonnard Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris FRIENDS KNOW IT IS NOT MY HABIT to praise the installation of French museum shows, but this past January my reverse chauvinism was (temporarily) overturned, as Paris offered three superbly hung exhibitions,...

The Pierre Bonnard retrospective staged by the Tate Gallery in Mar 1998 offered the most coherent presentation of the painter's oeuvres. His paintings are characterized by accurate awkwardness, visually foreboding compositions and light-reflecting objects. The last room of the show include five paintings from...

The American painter Arnold Friedman (1874-1946) once groused about the “cadging—pettifogging [and] lickspittling” typical of the art scene of his day. Some verities are eternal. Friedman liked to vent his spleen by writing on the backs of his canvases. One note reads: “Modern aestheticism with...

The American painter Arnold Friedman (1874-1946) once groused about the “cadging—pettifogging [and] lickspittling” typical of the art scene of his day. Some verities are eternal. Friedman liked to vent his spleen by writing on the backs of his canvases. One note reads: “Modern aestheticism...