The Easel

1st August 2017

Explore the Genius of Design Legend Ettore Sottsass

Alina Cohen | Galerie | 26th July 2017

When Sottsass designed the Olivetti “Valentine” typewriter he wanted it to appeal at an emotional level. Later in his protean career he founded the influential (but short-lived) Memphis design collective. Their first show created uproar with shrill colors, Pop designs and wacky ideas. And it stole the limelight, leading Sottsass to grumble about the group “it’s just like candy. Too much can make you sick.” Images are here.

Discovering the Brilliance of Hélio Oiticica

Peter Schjeldahl | The New Yorker | 31st July 2017

With Brazil under military rule, Oiticica decamped to New York. The career-defining installation pieces he produced were designed to transform the viewer “from a spectator into an active participant.” They are strange, influenced by the 1970’s drug scene plus the culture of Rio’s favelas. His work “anticipates subsequent generations of installation artists, none of whom can beat it for immersive and bracing cogency.”

25th July 2017

Carol Rama: Outside the Institution

Sarah Fensom | Art and Antiques | 31st May 2017

A new book published in conjunction with a Carol Rama survey says the following: “Not just anyone can go mad. It’s not such a casual, easy thing to do. And even if you do, only the truly possessed and determined few can render their madness into enduring art.” Whether literally true or not, this captures something of Rama and her psychosexually charged art. Images and a detailed discussion of some of her paintings are here.

How Artsy finally convinced galleries to sell art online

Ben Popper | The Verge | 18th July 2017

A leading online art sales start-up has just received a big dollop of new funding. Even discounting for the “rah-rah” tone of the linked piece, online sales are proving attractive to some art buyers. But a second piece articulates a gallery counter-argument: “The way that galleries show and sell art is a touchy-feely process, it’s a very personal process.”

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