The Easel

24th October 2017

Louise Bourgeois: An Unfolding Portrait

Jill Spalding | Studio International | 11th October 2017

Metal spider sculptures secured Louise Bourgeois’ fame. It seems, though, that for large parts of her career, print making was the focus of her creative process. A survey show of these works on paper will help free her reputation of the “clichés miring her sculpture in rabid feminism.” Because of “their vigour, breadth and intuitive gesture, [they] release Bourgeois from her legend”. A video on the show (31 min) is here.

Inside The Dramatic Yves Saint Laurent Museum In Marrakech

Hadja Sayej | Harpers Bazaar | 14th October 2017

Yves Saint Laurent, as much as anyone, brought art and fashion together. His partner observed of this connection “Fashion is not an art, but you need an artist to make fashion”.  All this is now celebrated in two new museums. One, in his Paris atelier, is a kind of permanent retrospective. The other is in Marrakech. Why Marrakech? As the great man once declared “Marrakech taught me color”.

Other French Artists

Sarah Fensom | Art and Antiques | 30th September 2017

The 19th century French art establishment viewed women as “scaled down men”. A ban on women artists studying life (nude) drawing was just one of many barriers. Nonetheless many persevered and a few, such as Berthe Moriset and Mary Cassatt prospered. “[I]t’s possible to look at works that are different not just because they’re by women, but because they’re not what’s mainstream.” Some images are here.

The Fearless Chris Ofili Enters His Own Personal Paradise Lost

Jerry Saltz | Vulture | 5th October 2017

Chris Ofili is an important painter. But his latest, widely reviewed, show seems plain difficult – four paintings in a gallery, displayed behind a floor-to-ceiling wire fence. Some explanations are lengthy and one critic admits “I don’t fully grasp this exhibition”. This writer thinks the show is “stunning”. Summoning up his explanatory powers he suggests the difficult-to-see works are about “venturing resolutely upon a new vision of reality”.

Reflections: Van Eyck and the Pre-Raphaelites

Johnathon Kantrowitz | Art History News | 10th October 2017

When London’s National Gallery acquired van Eyck’s famous Arnolfini Portrait in 1842, it inspired the Pre Raphaelite movement in British art. This much discussed art is hailed by some as radical. For others, however, it’s “Victorian tripe”, or even “a fraud … mediocre.” Ouch! What is not in dispute is van Eyck’s 1434 work. “Mesmerising” is undoubtedly a consensus view, “the first really lifelike domestic interior ever painted.”

‘I wanted to do something I have never done before’

Fatema Ahmed | Apollo | 10th October 2017

Going from the Memphis Design Group to fine art painting is something of a leap. Du Pasquier’s work still reflects her design DNA – using scale models to assist still life compositions and the ever-present bright colours that so characterized Memphis designs. Several shows reveal a new shift underway, toward abstraction. It’s “a different kind of position. I became a builder, an inventor.’ More images are here.

The Master of Eglfing-Haar

Sanford Schwartz | The New York Review of Books | 26th October 2017

Eugen Gabritschevsky was a distinguished Russian biologist until engulfed by mental illness. Confined to a psychiatric hospital he started painting.  What had before his collapse been the occasional drawing, afterwards became a prolific activity. When a new medication was introduced his art stopped, though he seemingly retained “a deep wisdom full of resignation.”

17th October 2017

EASEL ESSAY: “How to See the World Properly”: An Interview About Jasper Johns

Morgan Meis | 17th October 2017

A companion piece to Morgan Meis’ recent Gallery Essay.

The Royal Academy of Arts landmark survey of Jasper Johns work, “Something Resembling Truth”, was co-curated by Roberta Bernstein, a personal friend of Johns.  Johns has said about his work “I have no ideas about what the paintings imply about the world. I don’t think that’s a painter’s business.” Morgan recently interviewed Roberta about this famously elusive artist.

“He is a complex man and his art is challenging. The understanding of a painting as a real object occupying space was so vividly conveyed [by Painting with Two Balls (1960)] and made me think about art in a new way. [Johns] is, I think, struggling with (and also fascinated by) the impossibility of fixing meaning or meanings. He’s more interested in how the mind … constructs meaning.”

Collecting Strokes of Genius

Holland Cotter | The New York Times | 12th October 2017

Wow … “one of the paramount group drawing shows of the era”!  A distinguished collection of drawings, gifted to the Morgan Library, includes “heartbreaking” Rembrandt, “gossamer-handed” Tiepolo, “beyond superb” Palmer and others. 16th century drawing was moving toward “a medium for inventing rather than recording”. [By the 18th century] “drawing as a vehicle for fantasy took full flight”. More images are here.

‘Trigger’ Exhibition At The New Museum Tackles Gender But Ponders So Much More

Adam Lehrer | Forbes | 5th October 2017

Too often, art that addresses gender issues is discussed in cliché-ridden prose. No such problem here. A group of artists was invited to address gender issues, resulting in some “stunning” art and an “unmatched” survey of rising contemporary artists. Does a clear narrative emerge on this vexed topic? Not really – “any show with 40 plus artists is going to run into curatorial issues”. More images are here.

Japan’s Pioneering Street Photgrapher

Eve Watling | 1843 | 3rd October 2017

This writer’s description of Moriyama – a “photography obsessive” – seems apt. Growing up in a post-war Japan that was furiously modernizing – and westernizing, Moriyama gravitated to those on the margins of this profound social change. His signature dark, grainy aesthetic seems reflective of that gritty environment in which he moved: “When I am in the streets, I feel like a hunter”.  Multiple images are here.

The incredible story of how the last known work of Leonardo da Vinci was almost lost forever

Preeti Varathan | Quartz | 11th October 2017

All eyes will be on the Christie’s NY saleroom next month when the only privately owned da Vinci painting goes for sale. The story of its re-discovery and authentication is fascinating but so are subsequent events. Once confirmed as genuine, it was sold twice – both times leading to law suits. Assuming it reaches the expected $100m its current owner, a “divorced oligarch”, will have lost on the deal!

Martin Puryear

Veronica Simpson | Studio International | 5th October 2017

Puryear, a “giant” of American art, is well overdue a London retrospective. This “tremendous” survey makes amends. Puryear clearly loves working in wood, an echo of the wood cultures he encountered in Africa and Japan. His sculptures convey allusions and ambiguities. As one critic noted about one of his pieces “the logic of the thing’s making is obvious but… something else is hidden … lurking”.

Photography, Poetry, Music and Philosophy: The Medium from a Critic’s Eye

Alexander Strecker | Lensculture | 12th October 2017

A gently interesting interview with a photography critic interspersed with piercing insights about the medium. First, the big claim – “photography is the key medium of the moment, the only one keeping up with, and indeed driving, the fast-forward digital-social media-insta culture.” Then, caveats: “the image [is] often dependent on [being accompanied by] just the right words—and just the right number of words.”

COMING UP: According to renowned US author and critic Jed Perl, Alexander Calder remains America’s greatest sculptor. Based on unprecedented access to Calder’s letters and papers, Perl is completing the first biography of this artist. It will be published by Alfred A Knopf later this month. Easel Contributing Editor Morgan Meis recently talked to Perl about the project and its famous subject. The interview will appear in The Easel at the end of October.

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