The title Entropvisions is in homage to my mother, the poet and art critic, Harriet Zinnes. In 1990 New Directions published a collection of her poems titled Entropisms, a word she made-up combining entropy - the tendency toward disorder - and tropism - the growth towards or away from a stimulus. Similarly, my short reviews combine entropy and tropism by suggesting growth towards a vision of art from the chaos of the art world. Through the back door, my title also pays homage to my physicist father, Irving Zinnes, whose long discussions with my mom got her thinking about entropy and tropism in the first place.
Brice Marden at Gagosian Uptown
2023.11.21
The
Brice Marden paintings and drawings at Gagosian Uptown through Dec. 22 cry with the pathos of a passionate artist at the end of his life,
making art as if to survive the ordeal of cancer that would finally
defeat him. Confined to a wheelchair, Marden still managed to paint
these large – about 6 or 8 feet – paintings, letting every feeling,
every experience, every piece of painterly knowledge flow through him.
Brushstrokes subtly weave through space, becoming transparent, opaque,
suddenly stopping or gracefully continuing, always following the
instinct of pure energy and feeling. Marden lived a long life – from
1938-2023 – and the paintings and drawings in this show are a testament
to the joy and pain, fear and hope that Marden experienced throughout
his 85 years on our planet. The paintings might make you cry from the
generosity and belief in art and life that they transmit, and definitely
are worth a trip uptown to see.