The Easel

22nd May 2018

The Hyperreal Meets The Slightly Unreal At Met Breuer ‘Life Like’ Exhibition

New York’s Met is focused on the historical but wants the crowds that contemporary art attracts. A current show combines the two. One critic is appalled – “politics by other means … indifference to distinctions of high and low art.” More, however, side with the writer: “a marvel … it’s disarmingly appealing to indulge in a show that is so rooted in pure aesthetic”.

Adrian Piper: The Thinking Canvas

The critic writes of a “fierce, steady logic” to Adrian Piper’s career. And fierceness was probably needed given her focus on racism and sexism. Her art is varied – graphics, performance, film – and tough. An unusual choice for MoMA, which has “tended to shave off the awkward corners of art … In this case, the corners and edges stand firm.”

German Art Without Jews

It is hard to look at 1930’s German art without searching for hints of the disaster to come. Yet there is little sign of prophesy in these works. The prevailing style – “New Objectivity – was rooted in the politics of the day, if not the ghosts of WWI. One commented later that catastrophe was not suddenly visible; it revealed itself slowly through the details of ordinary life.

15th May 2018

The Vulnerable Ferocity of Chaim Soutine

When it comes to Soutine the real attention grabber is his use of paint. One critic described it as trying to “turn the substance of the world into thick, squidgy, excited paint”. Thoroughly modern, but not easily categorised, Soutine is widely influential among artists but lacks public recognition. Hold the art theory suggests the writer, “only look”. More images are here

“Heavenly Bodies” Brings the Fabric of Faith to the Met

Catholicism, says an archbishop, is as much about beauty as goodness. This rationale has inspired an immense show tracing the influence of church regalia on contemporary fashion. The show is careful, respectful – “these designers are sometimes rule breakers [but] not apostates”. The current Pope’s aversion to ostentation goes unremarked. A video (5 min) is here.

Modernists and Mavericks by Martin Gayford

New York was the centre of the 1950’s art world but a new memoir champions the achievements of post-war London. Francis Bacon was the central figure who “revolutionized how proceeding artists would handle paint”. The legacy of this period is “the survival of the medium of paint itself [which has proven capable of] taking on a multitude of different approaches”.