Since many paintings included in the exhibition are drawn from remote sources, these works are not the Spanish pieces we know in person and by heart.
One could quibble and say that Picasso is overused in the show; in fact, two of his pieces appearing here are not good paintings. At the other end of the quality spectrum, so sublime is the range and beauty of the works by Goya, that it confirms, once again, his standing among the best painters in the world.
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
Fifth Avenue at 89th Street
MOMA: Armando Reverón
Evidence to the fashion for all things Latin American is the retrospective of Venezualan artist Armando Reverón (1889-1954) at the Museum of Modern Art. This Venezuelan master depicted a world bathed in the blinding equatorial light whose power deprives objects of their color and leaves ghosts in place of solid forms. Reverón's main body of work consists of ethereal figurative paintings--some so faint as to recall the images of death shrouds. (Forming and dissolving with light, Armando Reverón's painterly vision finds more recent echos in the sensitive works of Argentine artist Miguel Diomede (1902-1974) and in those of contemporary Taiwan-born painter Vivian Tsao.) The illusive quality in Armando Reverón paintings is emphasized by the rough burlap on which the painter often worked. Such poor materials don't harm our enjoyment of Armando Reverón's vision, but they do testify to the difficult circumstances of his life.
Through April 16, 2007
Museum of Modern Art
11 West 53rd Street