14 May 2026
Paul Thek @ Galerie Buchholz (NY): didn't get to make the big Pace show because it wasn't open on the one day I had free to walk around, but I'm guessing it had the lion's share of the good stuff. Even so, it was worth seeing for the new-to-me 1973 series of collaborative collages he made with Ann Wilson. I believe there were five of them, each organized around a central triangle shape. One filled with a cloudy blue sky that bled into a bird form, another filled with gold leaf, another framing a sea horizon. Diaristic in approach and feeling, lyrics (Beatles) and sections of religious texts scrawled along the edges of the triangles or floating around them, line drawings of animals cut out and dropped in here and there (a sheep with the words “kiss me” next to its face). Refreshing in its playfulness, a collaborative game. Felt like two friends trying to out-mantra each other. Perhaps they resonated with me because of the “inscrutable spiritual symbol” stuff I've been trying my hand at (as described by Jonathan). Also enjoyed the two 1975 “Untitled (Grapes)” newspaper paintings. Done seemingly so “correctly” (and directly), but handled with such an abundant and loose hand that they break down in the good way on close inspection. In one of them, a moment where the thick green vine squiggles part like curtains to reveal a shape that looks like a curling cartoon shrub underneath.