Syracuse University University of Southern California
Known for
Painting, drawing, art criticism
Style
Abstract
Spouse
Laurie Fendrich
Website
Peter Plagens
Peter Plagens (born 1941) is an American artist, art critic, and novelist based in New York City.[1][2][3] He is most widely known for his longstanding contributions to Artforum[4] and Newsweek (senior writer and art critic, 1989–2003),[5] and for what critics have called a remarkably consistent,[6] five-decade-long body of abstract formalist painting.[7] Plagens has written three books on art, Bruce Nauman: The True Artist (2014),[8]Moonlight Blues: An Artist's Art Criticism (1986)[9] and Sunshine Muse: Modern Art on the West Coast, 1945-70 (1974),[10] and two novels, The Art Critic (2008)[11] and Time for Robo (1999).[12] He has been awarded major fellowships for both his painting (John Simon Guggenheim Foundation,[13] National Endowment for the Arts) and his writing (Andy Warhol Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts).[14][15] Plagens's work has been featured in surveys at the Museum of Modern Art,[16] Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), Whitney Museum, and PS1, and in solo exhibitions at the Hirshhorn Museum and Las Vegas Art Museum.[17][1] In 2004, the USC Fisher Gallery organized and held a 30-year traveling retrospective of his work.[15] Critics have contrasted the purely visual dialogue his art creates—often generating more questions than answers—with the directness of his writing;[18] they also contend that the visibility of his bylines as a critic has sometimes overshadowed his artmaking—unduly.[2][19][7]Los Angeles Times critic David Pagel described Plagens's painting as a "fusion of high-flying refinement and everyday awkwardness" with an intellectual savvy, disdain for snobbery and ungainliness he likened to Willem de Kooning's work.[6] Reviewing Plagens's 2018 exhibition,[20]New York Times critic Roberta Smith called the show an "eye-teasing sandwich of contrasting formalist strategies," the hard-won result of a decade of focused experimentation.[2]
Peter Plagens, Cleveland Defaults on Its Debts, acrylic on canvas, 66" x 90", 1979
^ abOnline Archive of California. Peter Plagens papers, 1938-2014. Retrieved January 18, 2018.
^ abcSmith, Roberta. "Peter Plagens," The New York Times, February 7, 2018. Retrieved January 18, 2018.
^Wilkin, Karen. "Peter Plagens," The Hudson Review, Spring 2018.
^Newman, Amy. Challenging Art: Artforum, 1962-1974, New York: Soho Press, 2000. Retrieved January 17, 2018.
^Newsweek. "Peter Plagens," Authors, Newsweek. Retrieved January 21, 2018.
^ abPagel, David. "Push It to the Edge," Los Angeles Times, December 1, 2004.
^ abHickey, Dave. "The Jabberwocky and the gorilla in the Corner," Peter Plagens: An Introspective, Los Angeles: Fisher Gallery, University of Southern California, 2004, p. 16–25.
^Plagens, Peter. Bruce Nauman: The True Artist, London: Phaidon, Inc., 2014. Retrieved January 17, 2018.
^Plagens, Peter. Moonlight Blues: An Artist's Art Criticism, Ann Arbor: UMI Research Press, 1986. Retrieved January 17, 2018.
^Plagens, Peter. Sunshine Muse: Modern Art on the West Coast, 1945-70, Berkeley: UC Press, 2000; re-issue of New York: Praeger, 1974. Retrieved January 17, 2018.
^Plagens, Peter. The Art Critic, New York: www.ArtNet.com (2008) and e-book, Hol Art Books, 2012. Retrieved January 17, 2018.
^Plagens, Peter. Time for Robo, Seattle: Black Heron Press, 1999. Retrieved January 17, 2018.
^John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Peter Plagens, Fellows. Retrieved January 18, 2018.
^ArtsWriters Grant Program, "Peter Plagens," Grantees, Creative Capital/Andy Warhol Foundation, 2008. Retrieved January 21, 2018.
^ abUSC Fisher Gallery. Peter Plagens: An Introspective, Los Angeles: Fisher Gallery, University of Southern California, 2004.
^Museum of Modern Art. "Peter Plagens," Artists, Retrieved January 21, 2018.
^Clark, Joseph. "Waxing Idealistic: Post-art melancholy effortlessly reigns in Peter Plagens Painting, 1989-2000," LVcitylife, November 30, 2000.
^Zona, Louis A. "Afterword," Peter Plagens: An Introspective, Los Angeles: Fisher Gallery, University of Southern California, 2004, p.27.
^Saltz, Jerry. Review, Peter Plagens, New York Magazine, March 4, 2018. Retrieved January 18, 2018.
^Nancy Hoffman Gallery. Peter Plagens, January 25–March 10, 2018. Retrieved January 18, 2018.
PeterPlagens (born 1941) is an American artist, art critic, and novelist based in New York City. He is most widely known for his longstanding contributions...
Catholic bishop PeterPlagens (born 1941), American artist, art critic, and novelist This page lists people with the surname Plagens. If an internal link...
original on October 21, 2023. Retrieved October 21, 2023. Don Gummer; PeterPlagens; Evansville Museum of Arts, History and Science; Butler Institute of...
published in 2003, he said he considers himself the kind of critic that PeterPlagens calls a "goalie," someone who says "It's going to have to be pretty...
Christopher Phillips PeterPlagens Nancy Princenthal Carter Ratcliff Walter Robinson Lee Rosenbaum Harold Rosenberg Raphael Rubinstein Peter Schjeldahl Charles...
Machine (New York School Press, 2003.) ISBN 0-9677994-1-4. pp. 130–133 PeterPlagens, "Sunny side up – abstract expressionist painter Sam Francis," Artforum...
Shakespeare" (Ottawa Citizen) and "one of the best films of 1998" (PeterPlagens, art critic for Newsweek). Hitman was produced in cooperation with the...
Writing in Art News magazine's 100th Anniversary Issue, art critic PeterPlagens called Heart Payments "the best novel about an artist I've ever read...
March 17 to May 8, 1966. In a review of the exhibition, art critic PeterPlagens described the work as innovative, but found its large size reminiscent...
L.A. Times, March 27, 1981 Plagens, Peter: Curator's Catalogue Essay, Ron Linden Solo Exhibition curated by PeterPlagens, CUE Art Foundation, New York...
LA's Most Memorable Buildings, Angel City Press, Santa Monica, 2006. PeterPlagens, Sunshine Muse: Contemporary Art on the West Coast, New York, Praeger...
current of sensibility in the esthetic climate of Los Angeles," critic PeterPlagens wrote in 1974. As he saw it, the hard-edge style rose from Los Angeles’...
November 2007 issue of Art in America, PeterPlagens contributed "Report from the Blogosphere: The New Grass Roots." Plagens convened a round table of veteran...
sculpture (which may happen to be colored). A sensuous showing." Artforum, PeterPlagens, March 1966. Eventually he laminated thicker sheets to create a solid...
new forms and contents". Diario de Cuba. Retrieved October 28, 2018. PeterPlagens (November 29, 1992). ""The Next Wave from Havana" They are known as...
exhibitions have been widely reviewed by critics including Roberta Smith, PeterPlagens, and Donald Kuspit. After her death in 2010, a retrospective exhibition...
14th-Century Venice’ Review: Worshiping at the Altar of Beauty" Review by PeterPlagens of Getty Center exhibition. Media related to Paolo Veneziano at Wikimedia...
MFA from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill in 1982, under PeterPlagens. Previously, he had studied under South Carolina artists Carl Blair...
Woman's Building in 1974, garnered a review in Artforum magazine by PeterPlagens where he commented "...the whole show is solid, however, I doubt whether...
one-person show at that gallery in 1958. According to critic and historian PeterPlagens, the 1958 paintings were: ... Abstract Expressionist but contain the...
000) and includes the opportunity to deliver a lecture at the museum (PeterPlagens: “The Brass Ring of Modern Art”). The recipients have included Documenta...
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