The Easel

5th September 2017

Richard Gerstl, Neue Galerie, New York — mesmerising

Ariella Budick | ft.com | 16th August 2017

Fin de siècle Vienna was a nervy place and it produced some nervy artists. Richard Gerstl was certainly one of those. Talented but unhappy he had an affair with a friend’s wife which was promptly discovered. Uproar ensued and, shortly thereafter, Gerstl committed suicide at just 25. “[D]id mental illness shape his style, or does his work look especially desperate because we read backwards from his suicide?”

29th August 2017

Marc Chagall and Twentieth-Century Designs for the Stage

Stephanie Barron | Unframed | 1st August 2017

Going to Paris in 1911 exposed Chagall not only to the titans of modern art but also to the fabled Ballets Russes. Set design became an enduring interest and a major contributor to Chagall’s artistic reputation. The idea that dancers’ costumes could make them “mobile elements” of the overall set design remains influential. More images are here.

Statue-phobia

JJ Charlesworth | ArtReview | 25th August 2017

Municipal statues are public art that tell a story. So how should the removal of Confederacy – era statues be viewed? Are they suddenly intolerable? Pulling down statues “[embodies] a political attitude which would rather blame the political shortcoming of today on the far-distant past … erasing its traces to sanitise the public realm of any recollection of it … statue-phobia is the worst form of fetishism.”

Why a Massachusetts museum selling its prized Norman Rockwell painting should worry art museums everywhere

Christopher Knight | LA Times | 23rd August 2017

A Massachusetts museum plans to raise money by selling some of its art.  One prominent critic is incensed. “Plainly they’ve lost their minds. [A] collection is held in the public trust … Absurdly, museum standards are being vandalized to protect the museum. Here’s an idea: Donate the art to other museums that would benefit most from having it. With community treasures being turned into private possessions, the public is the loser.”

Cartier-Bresson’s Distant India

Ratik Asokan | The New York Review of Books | 25th August 2017

Having helped found the Magnum agency, Cartier-Bresson set out for photojournalism. Sent to India, his images of Gandhi just before his assassination, and the subsequent funeral, brought fame. “Cartier-Bresson’s Indian photos are quiet, self-effacing … If in Europe he chased the “decisive moment,” there’s something conspicuously timeless about his panoramas of Indian peasants and cowherds.”

Older links
Newer links