The Easel

31st October 2017

How Cezanne rescued the portrait: the UK’s exhibition of the year

Jackie Wullschlager | ft.com | 27th October 2017

Isolated in Aix-en-Provence, Cezanne struggled to express in paint what he truly saw. This quest impacted his portraits just as much as his famed landscapes. Early youthful romanticism give way to later exuberant use of colour. And then came his multiple portraits of his wife, “by turns casual and straightforward, stylised into flattened shapes … complex and dissonant”. Beyond this “painterly evolution” lay the path to modern art.

Sleeping By The Mississippi

Alec Soth | Magnum Photos | 12th October 2017

As a young photographer with “nothing to lose” Soth did a road trip down the Mississippi. The resultant book, just re-printed, is regarded as one of the “great representations of the United States”.  “Charles – with his aviation gear and model airplanes – represents a “humble search for creative exploration”. Sleeping by the Mississippi, [is] a lyrical way of moving through the world that hints at sleep and dreams.”

The meaty essence of humanity – Soutine’s Portraits: Cooks, Waiters & Bellboys review

Jonathon Jones | The Guardian | 17th October 2017

Some critics think Soutine’s portraits of hospitality staff reflect a concern for others. This writer is unconvinced. Soutine was indifferent to anything outside his own emotions – “these people are meat for his artistic vision.”  What is not in doubt is that his extraordinary, raw, portraits have been highly influential among artists, acclaimed by Willem de Kooning, Lucien Freud and more. More images are here.

24th October 2017

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.

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