The Easel

5th February 2019

Robert Mapplethorpe was one of the most controversial artists of the ’80s. Now he looks entirely innocent.

Philip Kennicott | The Washington Post | 24th January 2019

A fine essay on Mapplethorpe’s art. “Was he an art-world dandy who used sexual imagery to boost his brand? Or was he using his exceptional technical skills to give pornography the sheen of high art? Neither was the case. [He saw] desire as inherently dignified and, as such, nothing to be confined to dark spaces or behind closed doors.”

The Exhibit That Painted Itself

Robert Sullivan | The New Yorker | 3rd February 2019

John Cage sometimes put “indeterminate” sections in his music, inspiring his friend Steir to do the same in her art. Her works (“emphatically not abstract”) are not so much painted as poured and flicked, a result of “chance within limitations”. The writer thinks they are “gorgeous”: Steir says “In some way, the paintings paint themselves.” A video of Steir working (8 min) is here.

29th January 2019

Midlife Crisis on an Unlimited Budget: Marc Newson’s Furniture for the 1%

Glenn Adamson | Frieze | 25th January 2019

Since designing the Lockheed lounge and Embryo chair Newsom has been at “the very apex” of design. Most reviews of his current show are gushing – “a form of alchemy … furniture pieces of immense beauty.” Not so the linked piece. It worries about “objects as hyper-commodities” and wishes Newsom would show “he can still be ingenious on the cheap”.  More images are here.

There’s a Reason Why Lucio Fontana’s 60-Year-Old Art Feels Vital Right Now

Michael Anthony Farley | Observer | 23rd January 2019

Fontana has “muffled visibility” a hangover, perhaps, from having once worked for Mussolini.  A retrospective shows this neglect is unwarranted. Fontana pioneered “spatialism”, using light and colour to create an immersive viewer experience. And he took to making refined cuts in his canvasses, breaking the picture plane to reveal a dark void. For some, this alone secures his place in art history.

Native American Art Receiving Broad Reassessment In Museums Across U.S.

Chadd Scott | Forbes | 21st November 2018

After a century, the American wing of New York’s Met finally holds a show of native American art. One critic fumes that the show is coloured by “the pride and resentments of identity politics”. That seems a bit tough. Clearly, an effort is being made to change old attitudes: “designating arts as ‘primitive’ or ‘ethnographic’ has limited our capacity to see a broader … humanity.”

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