Sotheby’s has introduced a prize to “support and encourage museums to break new ground”. Applications for the prize are hardly a comprehensive sample of current museum thinking about exhibitions. Still, the collection of new ideas, combined with the comments of a heavyweight jury, perhaps provides a glimpse of the zeitgeist.
A Turner Prize that is slightly less controversial than usual. Some are unhappy about white artists depicting racial issues; others complain that all shortlisted artists produced video art. One critic grouches “the gallery audience of today is not going to sit on their bums for a total of five hours and watch video art.” The jury liked the winning work’s “painterly quality”. Few seem to disagree.
In a show that mostly gets respectful reviews, one critic asks a bigger question. Is this “giant of British art” still on the cutting edge? “The old certainties about what is certifiable ‘avant-garde’, still extant in the 1980s, have mysteriously vanished. [Long’s works] still seem to whisper under their breath ‘Bonjour, Monsieur Monet’. They are drifting away from the world we inhabit now.”
The unprecedented Bruegel show in Vienna has been accompanied by new X-ray analysis of the paintings. They show numerous changes by the artist as well as by later hands. Were these merely his second thoughts about some details? Was he criticizing the government? Was he too macabre for later tastes? “The question of what Bruegel is trying to convey is not resolved.”
John Berger had a bit of talent as a painter, quite a lot as a writer. Television, then new, offered him a way to combine these to tell art’s powerful stories. His landmark show, Ways of Seeing, “originally and humbly planned as a late-night polemic, lit the fuse for the meteoric rise of cultural studies in the academy and the now taken-for-granted politicization of visual culture.”
Christo is repelled by the idea of a retrospective but did agree to reflect on his remarkable career. Self-description – “I don’t know what I am; sculptor? painter? architect?” His success rate? “46 projects refused for 22 realised”. What is success? Something that evokes “elemental emotions … constituting the sense memory that alone will endure.”
For most artists, a two-volume book of one’s paintings would signify recognition. A new luxe collection of Lucien Freud’s works feels different. Is it a celebration of his portraiture or just a marketing opportunity? “There is nothing remotely critical in these books about either the art or the man”. Or, as another critic puts it “more a monument than a book”.
Incredibly, “over 90% of the material cultural legacy” of sub-Saharan Africa is held outside Africa, notably in Paris’s Quai Branly Museum. Restitution seems an obvious step but not everyone can see a moral imperative. Some fret about lack of proper care, others think it doesn’t matter where these objects reside: African bronzes, like European art, “are part of the world’s cultural patrimony”.
China’s Song dynasty was a period of great artistic achievement and some think Su Shi was its “pre-eminent personality of the 11th century”. A master of poetry, painting and calligraphy, he was also a senior scholar in the imperial court – a “proto Renaissance man”. His “gift to art history — the sense of an artist’s inner psychology being appropriate subject matter for art.”
We celebrate Corot for his landscapes. In later life, and more or less in secret, he pursued a sideline – portraits of women. Why he was so reticent is unknown. “Among the most beautiful and underappreciated of the 19th century” says one critic. Degas commented: ““I believe Corot painted a tree better than any of us but still I find him superior in his figures.” More images are here.
Morris long resisted the idea of living life according to a single narrative. Building dance props led to his famous grey painted plywood sculptures – the start of minimalism. His later work was diverse – felt, music, land art and more. “‘Simplicity of shape does not necessarily equate with simplicity of experience” he commented. An excellent background interview is here.
The ghastly experiences of WW1 did not dim Léger’s optimism. He expected technology would improve the quality of life. His art perfectly captures this outlook – ‘cylinder figures’, advertising iconography, forward thrust. Not the greatest show, critics think, but one that nonetheless reveals a “trail blazing artist fully engaged with the world around him”. More images are here.
Ostensibly aimed at artists, much of this piece is also interesting to those who only look. Five of Saltz’s tips for being an artist: “Proficiency and dexterity are only as good as what you do with them.” “An object should express ideas [that] should be easy to understand.” “Learn the difference between subject matter and content.” “Find your own voice.” “All art is subjective.”
Nadar was a flamboyant character in 1850’s Paris. Amidst his various antics he focused enough to become photography’s first great portraitist. This exulted reputation is based less on technical innovation than on the psychological dimension of his portraits. The philosopher Roland Barthes called Nadar’s portrait of his wife “one of the loveliest photographs in the world”.