On the Upstream segment of this week’s Radio Free Acton podcast, I discuss the visual art of Renee Radell with Gregory Wolfe. Radell’s work is the subject of Renee Radell: Web of Circumstance (Predmore Press, 2016, 220 pages, $80), a book presenting a career overview of her artistic efforts.

In his review of Web of Circumstance for The University Bookman, Wolfe – founder and editor of Image magazine – determines the panying text by Eleanor Heartney superficial in contrast to Radell’s paintings.

“The career this book traces—one spanning nearly seventy years—amounts to a signal achievement in American art,” writes Wolfe. “Radell stands with the best artists of her generation not only as a gifted figurative painter but also as one whose works plumb the philosophical, political, and spiritual dimensions of our age.”

Wolfe concludes: “In a political climate dominated by shallow nationalism, coarsened public discourse, and the cult of the strongman, Radell’s prophetic art not only provides a critical counterbalance, but the hope inherent in a humbler, more humane, and spiritually grounded vision.”

Photos of artwork used by permission of Kevin Radell.