The Easel

10th October 2017

Treading on Euphemisms for Women

Barbara Pollack | Hyperallergic | 6th October 2017

Mao said that ‘women hold up half the sky’. To Lin Tianmiao, an eminent Chinese contemporary artist, that’s not a feminist statement. She takes descriptors of women, such as ‘leftover women’ or ‘soccer mom’, embroiders them into rugs, and then invites viewers to walk on them. It is art that expresses her individual experience as a woman. Just don’t call it feminist. An interesting tug-of-war with an interviewer on this topic is here.

The Anger of the Guns

John Haber | johnhaberarts | 15th September 2017

Has the story of art in the Great War been fully told? Vivid anti-war imagery by Otto Dix and others is well known but only part of this story. Other artists expressed a range of views, not all of which were opposed to the war. “The Met sees an arc from initial enthusiasm at war to horror and revulsion, but it was difficult to separate them even from the start.” Multiple images are here.

3rd October 2017

Why the Guggenheim’s Controversial Dog Video Is Even More Disturbing Than You Think

Ben Davis | artnet news | 29th September 2017

New York’s Guggenheim has run into ferocious criticism over disturbing videos of animals in a new show of Chinese art. Removing the most controversial items has only brought accusations of censorship. Claims of animal mistreatment are rejected by some as hypersensitivity Are there cross-cultural misunderstandings? Widespread mistreatment of animals on factory farms scarcely rates a mention.

Face to Face

Peter Schjeldahl | The New Yorker | 28th September 2017

On the centenary of Rodin’s death New York’s Met has mounted a huge show. Rodin’s career was slow to get going but this didn’t dent his confidence. He was, as one critic puts it, “a man of nineteenth century amplitude and not twentieth century doubt”. His portrayal of skin, his choice of poses were so modern that he “wrenched figurative sculpture … and sent it tumbling into modernity … the greatest sculptor since Bernini.”

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