Bruce Glaser News Today

The painter and sculptor reoriented the North American arts landscape, defying any strict characterizations of his work as it evolved across concepts and media.

As a major exhibition opens at the Whitney Museum of American Art, the US artist reflects on how beauty is “a given” in art—and how, after nearly 60 years, he is still pursuing “the problems of painting”

DURING THE FIRST DECADE of Artforum, two comments appeared in its pages that have long troubled me. They occur in well-known interviews, the first with Tony Smith, published in December 1966, the second with Eva Hesse, published in May 1970, and in each case the artist associates Minimalism with Nazism. Although no explanations are given, the connections are not meant as condemnations—on the contrary. So what relationships are intimated?1“Talking with Tony Smith” was occasioned by two show...