The Easel

9th April 2019

Sean Scully’s Figurative Leap

David Carrier | Hyperallergic | 5th March 2019

Scully’s childhood encompassed poverty and homelessness. Becoming a father has impacted him greatly, happily, and in unexpected ways.  In Scully’s art, figurative paintings featuring his son are suddenly emerging alongside his renowned abstractions. “Staying with what is safe is not attractive. [I]f you take enormous risks it can go wrong. But if you don’t it will go wrong anyway”.

2nd April 2019

Listening to Paintings in the Silence of the Studio

Barry Schwabsky | The Nation | 19th March 2019

What thinking lies behind an abstract painting? Jack Whitten, who died late last year, recorded his thoughts in a diary. It reveals a roller coaster of ambition about his own art. He wanted a “synthesis of abstraction and subject matter”, but also to “get rid of the spiritual”. Sometimes he wanted “revenge”. Later, “please do not show me anything that doesn’t go beyond the self!”

Older links
Newer links