The Easel

12th June 2018

Giacometti: Beguiled by Thin Men and Women

Great though Giacometti’s ‘surrealist’ sculptures were, he was drawn back to the ““thrill and the anxiety” of figuration.” The reviewer finds optimism in these later, gaunt figures. That’s a surprise. A more common view is, as put by another writer “If existentialism was a brand, a Giacometti stick figure would be on the T-shirt”.

Amid surging interest in black artists, Art Institute spotlights Charles White

The linked piece gives a nice overview of a Chicago retrospective of White’s career but much the better accounting of this under-recognised artist comes in Kerry James Marshall’s poetic homage to his mentor. “His most accomplished drawings achieve true perfection. The effect is dazzling … nobody else has drawn the black body with more elegance and authority”

5th June 2018