The Easel

12th September 2017

The Outside-In Art of Grayson Perry

“Popularity,” says Perry “is a serious business.” Via his art and associated media activity, he has become a popular – and astute – social commentator on contemporary Britain. So why does he irk some critics? Is it art world anxiety that popularity denotes a lack of seriousness? Or is it that Perry, a potter, wants to show that “craft is also “art,” and that it belongs to us all.”  More images are here.

Seurat to Riley at Compton Verney

Op art was popular in the 1960’s but these days is passé. This review mounts a defence. This show “is a genuinely independent display of curatorial thinking. And I cannot tell you what a relief it is to encounter it. [Pop art is] the artistic equivalent of having an ice cream on a sunny day. The art world … needs to stop obsessing about identity and to place some renewed trust in its eyes.”

Giovanni da Rimini: A 14th-Century Masterpiece Unveiled

We take perspective for granted but it only appeared in painting around 1400. Before that Byzantine iconography was the dominant style – no sense of depth, figures without a sense of volume or genuine emotion. Around 1300 Giotto broke with this tradition by painting from real life and Giovanni followed suit. But, progressive and talented though Florence was, it took another century before realism was fully mastered.

5th September 2017

Artist Rachel Whiteread talks to Simon Schama

With an imminent retrospective at Tate the British sculptor Rachael Whiteread is in the spotlight. She is best known for her casts of internal spaces including, famously, the inside of an old terrace house. “I think of her work as dominated by memory rather than memorial, and marked by traces of warm life as much as chill death. Whiteread’s great pieces are sighs made tangible.” A short video (8 min) is here.

Daniel Richter in five works

Richter was designing record covers and posters before a belated burst of study led him to discover painting. “Hugely influential” according to one critic, Richter’s work is being featured for the first time at a London public gallery. He often draws inspiration from photos in the media to which he adds his own political commentary, sometimes giving a sense of the “retired anarchist”. An interview with Richter (28 min) is here.