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The Arts Intel Report

Joe Fig: Contemplating Compositions

Joe Fig, Alex Katz, Gathering/Guggenheim (The Great Katzby), 2022–23.

Sept 8 – Oct 21, 2023
219 Bowery Floor 2, New York, NY 10002, United States

The painter Joe Fig describes the artistic process of stepping back and assessing one’s work as “this moment of seeming inactivity when the artist is working the hardest.” His new series of paintings flips this phenomenon, instead exploring the viewer’s process of contemplation and analysis. In the 10 paintings at Cristin Tierney, Fig documents museumgoers looking at works by Alex Katz (at the Guggenheim) and Wangechi Mutu (at the New Museum). Do they plant themselves front and center, or off to the side? How close do they get to the art? What are they doing with their hands? —Lucy Horowitz

Photo courtesy of the artist and Cristin Tierney Gallery