The Critic’s Notebook: By the Editors

Back

The New Criterion, January 4, 2021

“Wolf Kahn: The Last Decade 2010–2020” and “Emily Mason: Chelsea Paintings” at Miles McEnery Gallery, New York (January 7–February 13, 2021): This Thursday, spread across the gallery’s two Chelsea venues, Miles McEnery will enlighten the dark days of winter with a luminous husband–wife double-header. “Wolf Kahn: The Last Decade 2010–2020” looks to the artist’s pastel-like landscapes, oils that imbue New York School abstraction with the warmth of Pierre Bonnard. “Emily Mason: Chelsea Paintings” opens a window onto the sunny compositions the artist developed in her New York loft, in which she worked since 1979. Taken together, the paired exhibitions honor two artists, married for sixty-two years and both recently deceased, who maintained a connection with Tenth Street and, in their enduring work and long life, each other.  —James Panero