Christopher Wool's Suspended Painting at Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris

The Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris presented a major exhibition of Christopher Wool from March 30 to August 19, 2012. The show featured works spanning a decade, highlighting Wool's unique position between abstraction and representation. The critic Damien Sausset noted that Wool's painting neither flatters nor evokes reality reassuringly, but maintains a suspension of painting's components. The exhibition drew parallels to Barnett Newman's sublime, Robert Ryman's inquiries, and Andy Warhol's silkscreen limits. Wool's grammar was explored through sequences, tensions, and the interplay of mechanically reproduced motifs with subjective spray-paint interventions. The final room addressed the false promises of color. The absence of Wool's photographic work was noted as a regret, as it defines the limits of contemporary image.