Fredric Koeppel

• Art Review: Dynamic paintings celebrate abstraction Published 02/09/2012 at 5:52 p.m.

  There's no denying that David Comstock's abstract paintings are attractive, though to say that they're easy on the eyes would perhaps stray into the area of condescension.

• Art Review: Photos aim to capture 'reality' of Memphis Published 02/01/2012 at 6:19 p.m.

  A sense of place depends as heavily on our imaginations as it does on reality, while the definition of "reality" can be as fluid as it is ambivalent. What, then, is the reality of Memphis? Cinematically, the gamut runs from ...

• Exhibit turns spotlight on volunteers Published 01/25/2012 at 6:01 p.m.

  Since ArtsMemphis is a not-for-profit entity, it depends heavily on the support and work of volunteers, many of whom, it turns out, are artists. The group, which raises money and distributes funds to local arts organizations, gives back to those ...

• ‘Rembrandt, Rubens' at Dixon tracks changes in style, society Published 01/19/2012 at 5 p.m.

  Vast changes came to Europe between about 1600 and 1800. Revolutions in exploration, including the opening of the New World and increased trade with Asia; revolutions in science and religion; revolutions in politics and government, economics and culture; and wars ...

• Brooks exhibit remembers scandal of 1943 Published 01/12/2012 at 10:20 a.m. 1 Comment

  Did the Brooks get fleeced in 1943? That year, Brooks Memorial Art Gallery -- now Memphis Brooks Museum of Art -- was 27 years old. It owned a small collection of paintings housed in a compact and beautiful white marble ...

• Art Review: Exhibit zeroes in on brief period in Faiers' career Published 01/05/2012 at 4:58 p.m.

  I promise that at the end of this year, when I'm compiling my list of best exhibitions of 2012, this show, "Ted Faiers: Flat Space, paintings and works on paper 1953-56," will be among those selected. Since 2002, David Lusk ...

• Buchanan raised Dixon Gallery & Gardens profile Updated 01/03/2012 at 1:30 p.m.

  John E. Buchanan Jr., director of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco and former director of the Dixon Gallery and Gardens in Memphis, died Friday. The cause was pancreatic cancer; he was 58.

• Art Review: Comical, sublime contained within unique vessels Published 12/29/2011 at 1 p.m.

  If you're feeling a bit of a letdown between Christmas and New Year's, drive down to the National Ornamental Metal Museum for a bright pick-me-up in the form of Sarah Perkins' "Tributary" exhibition. It's a compact show, and the 13 ...

• Best of 2011: Standout Memphis art shows made compiling list easy Published 12/22/2011 at 4:56 p.m.

  Choosing the five best art exhibitions from a year's worth of looking and writing might seem to be fraught with conflict and contradiction, decision and indecision, but actually, once I went back over the shows I wrote about in 2011, ...

• Art Review: Lusk exhibits peer into artists' creative methods Published 12/15/2011 at 5 p.m.

  For its last shows of 2011, David Lusk Gallery juxtaposes the witty, elegant and highly finished welded bronze sculptures of Carroll Todd with the purposefully unfinished -- or at least giving that illusion -- sketches and drafts of works by ...

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