Christopher Wool gets better in this century. The Guggenheim retrospective (through Jan. 22) proves it. The words and wallpaper-roller and black-on-white sprayed, printed and tricked-up paintings of the last century all have their place, but the 21st-century “gray paintings” are so far his best. Less sarcastic. More complicated. More subtle. More ironic. I look upon his 20th-century paintings, even the word paintings, as rehearsals for the  gray paintings. No more offhand appropriations of … [Read more...]