The Easel

11th February 2020

Desert Empires: Wonders to Behold

The southern edge of the Sahara, the Sahel, is politically turbulent. It was not always thus. For thousands of years it was a prosperous trading area, a centre of learning and the location of multiple empires. Its art was much more diverse than the tribal art many today associate with Africa. This show affirms “the integrity and complexity, past and present, of something called the Sahel … there is no “typical,” no one style, no one “Africa.”

At the ICA, rescuing an art star from the auction frenzy

Spotting a hot new artist is easy – reviews overuse the word ‘amazing’ and fascinate about auction prices. Self is one such artist, having gone from student to ‘somebody’ in about five years. Her work features ‘aspirational representations’ of Black females. Says she “For individuals who have been made to feel marginalized … images, and aesthetics become landmarks for self-identification and self-esteem.” And the auctions? “Tasteless”.

How Radical Was the Italian Design of the 20th Century?

Informative writing without being elegant. Italy’s post-war “economic miracle” created a social backlash. One expression of disaffection was Radical Design, a movement focused on new ideas about how people could live. Outlandish and unwieldy furniture is its key legacy. Amidst a welter of styles, the common theme was to prioritise an object’s ability to communicate an idea above its functionality.

British Baroque — Power and Illusion review: The magnificent emergence of a new political era

After the austerity of Cromwell, Britain opted to restore the monarchy. Welcome the extravagant Baroque! From there opinions diverge. Some critics are not bothered by paintings awash with satin and silk and “outrageous pomp”. Others definitely are bothered: “the art of power, dominance and shagging your cousins. Pompous, over-the-top, ridiculous. Call it royalty, call it parliament, it’s all power, and it’s all ugly.”

What Do We Want History to Do to Us?

More on Kara Walker’s monumental fountain, currently in London. What do we want from public art? “To memorialise”. Yes, but memorialise whom, whose history and which memories? “Public art claiming to represent our collective memory is just as often a work of historical erasure and political manipulation. Monuments are complacent; they put a seal upon the past, they release us from dread.”

The Eternal Glow of Tiffany’s Sacred Glass

As America’s nineteenth century cities grew, churches proliferated. The skyrocketing demand for stained glass windows benefitted, among others, Tiffany. Ecclesiastical windows, infused with American optimism, were the perfect vehicle for his talents – “opalescent coloured glass, glass with embedded inclusions, cut facets, beveling, pressed designs, and scrolling effects, as well as folded glass”.

4th February 2020

Newly restored Ghent Altarpiece reveals humanoid ‘mystic lamb’

Van Eyck’s Ghent altarpiece is hugely famous. Painted in 1432, it is regarded as the first great oil painting and the first significant Renaissance work. Both Napoleon and Hitler tried to steal it. Unexpectedly, restoration has found extensive over-painting. Now cleaned, the original reinforces Van Eyck’s genius – as well as revealing, in the centre panel, a lamb with a human-like face. “We are all shocked” says the restorer.

From the ‘Unknown Lady’ to Beyoncé, 500 years of pregnancy portraits

Art about motherhood is common. However, until very recently there has been reticence about pregnancy. Why? Pregnancy denotes female sexual activity which has been “hugely problematic” for some. And then there is the view that when pregnant, women do not ‘look their best’. And then there is the spectre of miscarriage or death. Even with modern medicine, “the pregnancy portrait is the space “where death and life intersect.”

Ikebana: The Living Flowers of Japan

Ikebana boasts an ancient lineage but gets scant coverage in English media. This piece, though brief, is thus of interest. Sōfu Teshigahara, a 20th century ikebana master, considered Ikebana as art rather than decoration. He introduced unconventional materials – like scrap metal – blurring the line between ikebana and sculpture. The video referred to in this piece is here (32 min; the second half is the more interesting)

‘For Goya, the normal, the terrible, and the fantastical existed cheek by jowl’

Amidst the Prado’s 200th birthday celebration, a landmark exhibition of hundreds of Goya’s drawings. Between war against the French and the sorry reign of Ferdinand VII, Goya was “able to find something cruel, stupid or both almost wherever he looked”.  And look he did, at length. Whatever the reason for his fascination with suffering, these expressive drawing have a cumulative effect that is “astonishing”.

Agnes Denes: Absolutes and Intermediates

Denes’s 1982 wheat field in a Manhattan landfill site was a seminal work of land art. A New York retrospective shows a career full of divergent ideas – buried poetry, patterned tree plantings, floating sculptures. Technical drawings of “great beauty” attempt to visualize branches of knowledge. And then there are her pyramid sculptures: “what they all convey is the human drama, our hopes and dreams against great odds.”

Artist Noah Davis died tragically at age 32. A New York show reveals a great lost talent

Reviews of this show carry a flavor of ‘what might have been’. Davis’s profile was rising, having early success in the LA art market as well as establishing a thriving Black-centred art space. At just 32, he died. Will his lasting achievement be the art center or his “atmospheric” art? Perhaps the latter, muses the curator of a New York survey: “I think he’s a really great artist”. Says the writer “I think she might be right”.

Making Marvels: Science and Splendor at the Courts of Europe at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Eighteenth century European royalty believed that ‘knowledge is power’. What better way to show this than with ornate scientific objects, like clocks, compasses, telescopes, that displayed both scientific ingenuity and regal erudition. And, if this messaging was too subtle, there was a sub-text. As the history of the Dresden Green diamond makes clear …’if you’ve got it, flaunt it’.