Putting personal dramas behind him, the artist opens his first New York show in five years (at a new gallery).

By Ted Loos

April 25, 2019

Mr. Bleckner, 69, made his name in the 80s and 90s by channeling the anger and sorrow of the AIDS crisis into somber, abstract paintings. Since then, he has been painting steadily, lately from his base in the Hamptons.

He hasn’t had a show in New York in five years, but on April 24 he debuts a suite of more than a dozen canvases at Petzel Gallery in the show “Pharmaceutria” (“sorceress” in Latin). It furthers Mr. Bleckner’s exploration of modes of perception.

Renowned artist Glenn Ligon (b. 1960) guest-curates a lyrical meditation on blue and black. Inspired by the Pulitzer’s monumental Ellsworth Kelly wall sculpture, Blue Black, Ligon will expand Kelly’s exploration of the two colors with a diverse selection of more than forty works spanning almost a century and touching upon notions of language, identity, and memory. 

Fast Forward: Painting from the 1980s presents a focused look at painting from this decade with works drawn entirely from the Museum’s collection. The exhibition includes work by artists often identified with this explosive period—Jean-Michel Basquiat, Sherrie Levine, David Salle, and Julian Schnabel—as well as by several lesser-known painters.