The Easel

16th June 2015

ARTLESS Why do intelligent people no longer care about art?

Michael Lind | The Smart Set | 12th June 2015

If you are tertiary educated and under 50, you are not interested in art. Art is never discussed at dinner parties. Therefore, art is “insular and marginal”, like fashion. At best, this is a big argument sitting on a small fact base. Yes, art is enduring a bad hair decade (or more). But what else has its potential to express ideas about a sense of place, beauty or the human experience? Not Game of Thrones. Image – Wikipedia

Review: Albert Oehlen: A Master of Disciplined Excess

Roberta Smith | New York Times | 11th June 2015

Last week’s Easel had a bio piece on this German artist and now comes the first major review of his retrospective at New York’s New Museum. It takes something special to enthuse Roberta Smith, so perhaps this show will prove significant for the artist. “…the real ghosts in these ethereal works are Polke, de Kooning, Pollock, Cy Twombly… But if the parts can look familiar, the whole feels like something hard-won and new”.

What Else Can Art Do?

Calvin Tomkins | The New Yorker | 22nd June 2015

Aspiring artists finds their voices in different ways. Improbably, Mark Bradford found his voice while working in his mother’s hair dressing salon in Los Angeles. He didn’t get around to studying art until his 30’s and wasn’t hung in an exhibition until 40. The Tate now holds one of his paintings and another has sold for millions. He no longer works at the hair salon.

The Vienna Seccession in Paris

Staff | artwiz.com | 23rd May 2015

The decorative arts movement (art nouveau) was an expression of European pride. In Austria, where this movement got the name ‘Vienna Secession’, it was also influenced by Sigmund Freud. Out of Freud’s theories about sex and the subconscious came the idea of the ‘femme fatale’ – the lethal seductress. In Klimpt’s Judith, featured in this Paris show, that whole sexy, luxurious, and decorative aesthetic found one of its defining expressions.

Barbara Hepworth: A look back at the late great sculptor’s seminal Italian adventures ahead of her Tate retrospective

Claudia Pritchard | The Independent | 6th June 2015

Despite her early attraction to naturalistic forms Barbara Hepworth’s work became increasingly abstract with time. Critical recognition came slowly, perhaps because of the higher profile of her Yorkshire contemporary Henry Moore, but also because of gender bias. From Hepworth’s perspective her gender was a plus –”in sculpture … there is a whole range of formal perception belonging to feminine experience.”

Zhang Enli “Four Seasons”: new works at Hauser & Wirth Somerset

Christopher Wood | Randian | 23rd March 2015

The work of Zhang Enli diverges from the focus on consumerism that pervades much contemporary Chinese art. His paintings focus elsewhere – human figures and nature. The Chinese art scene is very active but there are few strong reviews in English. Unfortunately this is not one of the few but it does have numerous interesting images.

Shady Canadians – Why art and journalism don’t mix

Felix Salmon | Fusion | 11th June 2015

Complicated markets like the art market are called ‘imperfect’ – a bland descriptor that belies the at-times intricate business of selling paintings. As middlemen get involved so, sometimes, do scoundrels. When the cast of characters includes celebrity journalists and the super-rich, the fallout is spectacular. The ethical issues sound all-too-familiar. Image – Wikipedia

Seeing Charles Pollock anew in Venice

Sebastian Smee | Boston Globe | 30th May 2015

In a celebration of the Pollock brothers at The Peggy Guggenheim Collection Venice, Charles’ plight is obvious: “[The show] is poignant — to the point of heartbreak — because it reveals that he really was very good. The problem was that his brother was in another category.” That is not about to change – next to this overdue hanging of Charles’ work the gallery has placed some of Jackson’s famous works after their extended restoration.

Still Alive

Morgan Meis | The Smart Set | 18th May 2015

It’s not immediately clear how best to describe Theo Jansen’s “Strandbeest” sculptures.  Disorienting perhaps; certainly arresting. Made of PVC piping, they march back and forth along the beach according to the breezes. Its only when they start to move that they become understandable – hence the short video clips are a must. The reviewer’s focus on their feet is not as odd as it sounds.

Grand dame of American abstraction comes to Tate Modern

Alex Hawkins | Its Nice That | 3rd June 2015

Amazingly, Agnes Martin is getting her first retrospective from a major museum in over 20 years. She was one of America’s foremost abstract artists, self-identifying as an Abstract Expressionist. After an early career in New York she decamped to the quiet of New Mexico – as did Georgia O’Keefe and others before her. Her paintings are characteristically tranquil and meditative. An interview with her long time gallerist is here.

Rousseau

Phillip Rylands | The Burlington Magazine | 1st June 2015

The art critic Will Gompertz characterises Rousseau as “the Susan Boyle of his day” – honest and unsophisticated. His primitive style appealed to Picasso and later the Surrealists and secured for Rousseau his place in art history. An exhibition in Venice hangs Rousseau beside some more vaunted contemporaries, perhaps inviting the view that he was the ‘middle aged nobody’ who was in the right place at the right time.

Another Look at Robert Motherwell

John Yau | Hyperallergic | 7th June 2015

Compared to the other abstract expressionist pioneers, Motherwell was the brainy one. He is best known for the black and white “Elergy” paintings and, 20 years later, the more geometric “Open” series. Critical opinion has favoured the Elergy series as the greater achievement, but reviewing a current show in New York, one critic argues that the Open paintings represent Motherwell in top form.

The Accidental Abstractionist

Raphael Rubenstein | Art in America | 1st June 2015

After starting his career being one of the bad boys of the Cologne art scene, Albert Oehlin has evolved into an influential and very deliberate painter. Ahead of an anticipated show in New York later this month, this piece outlines his evolution as a painter. “Admirers should focus… on his refusal, for more than three decades, to ever be satisfied with his own art and on his…pursuit of a deep dialogue with art history”

The Strange Story of One of the World’s Most Famous Paintings

Patrick Monahan | Vanity Fair | 4th June 2015

A catchy piece about a famous image. Paintings in this high Victorian style were in vogue at the time of the Royal Academy show in 1895 where this painting first appeared. However, popular tastes moved on and it ended up in a 1960’s London antique shop. Critical rehabilitation has since occurred. Most recently, it has been made famous by Hollywood.

7th June 2015

Art Review: Lee Miller and Picasso, Edinburgh

Duncan Macmillan | The Scotsman | 30th May 2015

Lee Miller had many lives. She was a cover girl for Vogue, discovered a talent for photography from working with Man Ray and, together with future husband Roger Penrose, became close friends with Picasso. An exhibition in Edinburgh of her photos illuminates life around Picasso before and after the Second World War. The subtext seems to be that while their friendships survived the war unscathed, perhaps their pre-war optimism did not.

Georg Baselitz: artists should steer clear of politicians

Sameer Rahim | Prospect | 29th May 2015

Baselitz grew up in Hitler’s Berlin and then East Germany and established a strong reputation for articulating the battle-scarred German zeitgeist. As a leading German expressionist his career is dotted with prestigious solo exhibitions. However, one critic has described him as a “sturdy German fountain of overwrought mediocrity”. His work is currently on show at Glyndebourne and in New York.

Bernini: He Had the Touch

Ingrid Rowland | New York Review of Books | 4th June 2015

For 17th century popes, Bernini was the go-to guy for busts and sculptures. Besides being affable and highly religious he worked tirelessly and could be relied on to finish a commission. Inspired by Caravaggio’s natural style, he took Baroque sculpture to its zenith. Looking at a terra cotta model, Pope Innocent reportedly said “the only way to resist executing one of his works is not to see them”.

Does Colour Even Exist?

Malcolm Harris | New Republic | 21st May 2015

Not exactly about art, but so closely related. Aristotle’s idea that objects have colour lasted until Galileo. Disputes still abound but scientists are inclined to think, according to this book review, that Galileo is more correct. Colour exists only in our brains and not as a physical attribute. The debates end up in philosophy – “Color is not an object of sight but a way of seeing things”. Sounds quite arty.

“The sky has entered our senses”: Paintings by Etel Adnan

Margaret Graham | Artcritical | 8th May 2015

Lebanon-born Adnan went via the Sorbonne and Harvard to an academic career teaching and writing in the US. Art is thus her second act but the accolades are now coming thick and fast. As the Australian artist Emily Kngwarreye showed, being in your 80’s needn’t stop you having an impact on the art world. Now 90, Adnan is currently showing in New York and Paris. Further background is here.

See the Top Ten Booths at Photo London 2015

Lorena Muñoz-Alonso | artnet news | 21st May 2015

Less a review than a news bulletin. Paris has the highly regarded Paris Photo and now London is in on the act. The fair had sufficient size and quality to be declared a success but reviews are scarce. The linked piece details some significant exhibitions. Just so you know it happened.

Yoko Onon and MoMA: Together as Last

Blake Gopnik | New York Times | 6th May 2015

Yoko Ono the conceptual artist has long been overshadowed by her other persona, the wife of John Lennon. This seems unfair – no less a writer than Will Gompertz acknowledges her provocative Cut Piece video as superb. Having her own show at MoMA is a positive change. Gopnik’s essay also puts Beatles’ baggage in the back seat

Julian Barnes: “art doesn’t just capture the thrill of life… sometimes it is that thrill”

Julian Barnes | The Guardian | 2nd May 2015

While obviously written as a promo for Barnes’ new book, this essay is still a gem. Barnes shares his personal experience of looking at art and his love of modernism. Puzzlingly, Barnes, a major literary figure and art critic, seems to hope for unanimity: “Braque thought the ideal state would be reached when we said nothing at all in front of a painting. But we are very far from reaching that state.”

Why Elaine de Kooning Sacrificed Her Own Amazing Career for Her More-Famous Husband’s

Wendy Moonan | Smithsonian.com | 8th May 2015

Unequal success between the partners of a marriage is a challenge. Elaine de Kooning was a highly talented artist. Her unique abstract expressionist style earned her an invitation to paint JFK’s portrait in 1963. However, the de Kooning marriage was turbulent, perhaps because she was the dimmer of two bright stars. Her personal assessment – “’I don’t paint in his shadow, I paint in his light.'”

Prada Foundation collections refresh view of antiquities

Sebastian Smee | Boston Globe | 23rd May 2015

A Venice exhibition of ancient sculptures explores a decidedly contemporary issue – copying.  Most ancient sculptures are Roman copies of Greek originals. Further, the Greek ‘originals’ themselves may commonly have been brightly painted serial replicas. The reviewer’s punchline – “…they may have looked more like Jeff Koons’s gaudy production-line confections than we may feel comfortable admitting.”

Stroke of genius: Peter Doig’s eerie art whisks the mind to enchanted places

Johnathon Jones | The Guardian | 16th May 2015

With a highly regarded exhibition running in Venice and his work claiming record prices at auction last week, Peter Doig’s reputation grows ever more illustrious. This essay gives some background to the British//Trinidadian artist and the symbolism of canoes. He is “the painter of the global age, a traveller without a destination, between cultures, between jobs, looking for paradise and finding a prison on the horizon.”

Velazquez at the Grand Palais, Paris

Jackie Wullschlager | ft.com | 27th March 2015

The Impressionists are credited with ‘rediscovering’ Velazquez. Picasso, Dali and Bacon have all painted homages. Many regard him as Europe’s greatest painter because of the way he (together with Caravaggio) took painting beyond idealised Catholic propriety. A blockbuster show in Paris covers his entire career. Images that complement this review are here. Image: Wikipedia

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