Peter Plagens (born 1941) is an American artist, art critic, and novelist based in New York City. He is most widely known for his longstanding contributions to Artforum and Newsweek (senior writer and art critic, 1989–2003), and for what critics have called a remarkably consistent, five-decade-long body of abstract formalist painting. Plagens has written three books on art, Bruce Nauman: The True Artist (2014), Moonlight Blues: An Artist's Art Criticism (1986) and Sunshine Muse: Modern Art on the West Coast, 1945-70 (1974), and two novels, The Art Critic (2008) and Time for Robo (1999). He has been awarded major fellowships for both his painting (John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts) and his writing (Andy Warhol Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts). Plagens's work has been featured in surveys at the Museum of Modern Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), Whitney Museum, and PS1, and in solo exhibitions at the Hirshhorn Museum and Las Vegas Art Museum. In 2004, the USC Fisher Gallery organized and held a 30-year traveling retrospective of his work. Critics have contrasted the purely visual dialogue his art creates—often generating more questions than answers—with the directness of his writing;<ref name="Zona04">Zona, Louis A. "Afterword," Peter Plagens: An Introspective, Los Angeles: Fisher Gallery, University of Southern California, 2004, p.27.</ref> they also contend that the visibility of his bylines as a critic has sometimes overshadowed his artmaking—unduly.Saltz, Jerry. Review, Peter Plagens, New York Magazine, March 4, 2018. Retrieved January 18, 2018. Los Angeles Times critic David Pagel described Plagens's painting as a "fusion of high-flying refinement and everyday awkwardness" with an intellectual savvy, disdain for snobbery and ungainliness he likened to Willem de Kooning's work. Reviewing Plagens's 2018 exhibition, New York Times critic Roberta Smith called the show an "eye-teasing sandwich of contrasting formalist strategies," the hard-won result of a decade of focused experimentation.
Life and career
Plagens was born in Dayton, Ohio in 1941 and grew up in Los Angeles. He attended the University of Southern California, where he majored in painting (BFA, 1962) and drew cartoons for the Daily Trojan. He left USC an abstract painter, influenced by Hans Hofmann, Willem de Kooning, Richard Diebenkorn and Elmer Bischoff, which set him at odds with the somewhat conservative painting faculty at Syracuse University (MFA, 1964) where he did his graduate studies. He moved back to California in 1965 and took an Assistant Curator position at the Long Beach Museum of Art; soon after, he approached Artforum editor Phil Leider for work as a reviewer—at five dollars per review—in order to keep up with the Los Angeles art scene. In 1966, Plagens accepted a teaching position at the University of Texas, remaining until 1969, when he accepted a position at California State University, Northridge. He taught there until 1978, and at the University of California, Berkeley (1972), the University of Southern California (1978–80), and the University of North Carolina (1980–4), where he also chaired the art department.
During his time at Cal State, Plagens shared a 3,000-square-foot studio with painter Walter Gabrielson on the same block in Pasadena as artist Bruce Nauman's; in 1975, he appeared in Nauman's short film Pursuit.Knight, Christopher. "What Is an Artist? Peter Plagens's 'Bruce Nauman' Illuminates,'" Los Angeles Times, June 7, 2014. Retrieved January 21, 2018. Plagens began exhibiting professionally in 1967, and was featured in the 1971 LACMA show, "24 Young Los Angeles Artists" and the 1972 Whitney Biennial. He has shown at Nancy Hoffman Gallery in New York since 1975, and showed regularly at the Jan Baum Gallery in Los Angeles (1977–1992) and Jan Cicero Gallery in Chicago (1986–98).Muchnic, Suzanne. Review Peter Plagens exhibition at Jan Baum Gallery, The Los Angeles Times, November 18, 1977.Bucholz, Barbara. "The Art of Peter Plagens," Chicago Tribune, May 1, 1998. Retrieved January 18, 2018. His 2004 retrospective at USC traveled to Columbia College Chicago and the Butler Institute of American Art in Akron.Wachunas, Tom. Review, Dialogue, September–October 1996. Plagens married the painter, Laurie Fendrich, in 1981. They moved to New York City in 1985 where they continue to reside, while also maintaining a studio outside the city.