The Easel

15th September 2020

Commoner with the divine touch

Raphael was a terrifyingly brilliant teenager. In Florence fame came quickly and, moving on to Rome, a certain reverence. For centuries he was seen as the pinnacle of the High Renaissance, combining da Vinci’s emotion and Michelangelo’s buff bodies. Impressionism diminished his allure somewhat by showing that representation is not the only thing in art. Still, a huge show in Rome reminds us that Raphael was “a genius beyond all measure”.

The Colourful Worlds of Pipilotti Rist

Artist interviews aren’t always illuminating but, if you struggle with video art, this one may help. Rist has helped bring video into the mainstream with works that are visually beautiful and popular. Colour, she says, is “borderless, dangerous, emotional” and often underestimated. Her practice is “painting with light” and technology provides her with a “colour piano”. And the main theme of her work – “the glory of life”.

Trevor Paglen Is Putting the Art in Artificial Intelligence

Paglen’s images of trees and flowers are pretty though, on close inspection, somehow odd. His blossoms are AI generated, reflecting a computer’s ‘training’. No matter how good this training, understanding nuance remains a huge challenge for AI systems. “Artists have a massive tradition of thinking about what “seeing” is. I think artists have the capacity to ask questions … that would never occur to engineers.” Images are here.

Where’s Betsy?

Short, but intriguing. The widow of American painter Andrew Wyeth died earlier this year. She had been a major presence in his life. – Wyeth told his biographer “Betsy galvanized me … she made me see more clearly what I wanted.” So why did she feature so rarely in his works and, on those rare occasions, seem “absent emotionally”? “Maybe Betsy hated sitting for her husband … [or perhaps] he needed to escape Betsy … the “director,” as she called herself.”

The Impact of COVID-19 on the Gallery Sector

Dismal news from the art world’s most authoritative score keeper. In the first half of 2020, gallery sales fell a whopping 36%. Further falls are expected and a 2021 recovery is a toss-up. Having to restrict visitor numbers, galleries are cutting back on staff, art fairs, splashy openings and lavish dinners. One New York gallery, after a recent opening, “invited anyone who attended to go to a nearby park for tacos.”

The future of Britain’s stately homes

Britain’s stately country homes have among the greatest holdings of decorative art objects anywhere. Without visitor revenues, the National Trust (the “superpower of stately homes”) has gloomy plans for shutdowns. Denials that curatorial staff will be cut –  “we will not dumb down” – have failed to convince. Indeed, one commentator frets that the Trust intends “to ‘dial down’ its role as a major national cultural institution”.

Bruce Nauman: Endurance Act

Nauman boasts coveted art world accolades and ongoing influence. Yet his “wildly eclectic” work is often baffling. The critic Robert Hughes described it as exploiting “whatever turns you off” while admitting there is a “peculiar grip” to some pieces. The linked piece usefully covers Nauman’s key works and concludes he is a great “permission-granter”, carving out areas for others to explore. “His work … ranks among the glories of postwar art”.

8th September 2020

The meteoric rise of Angelica Kauffman RA

This show calls Kauffmann a “superwoman and influencer”. Quite! Swiss born, she trained in Rome before moving to London. There, her insightful portraiture chimed with the new interest in “the ‘self’, in the gap between … face and heart”. Made a founding member of the Royal Academy of Arts in 1768, she subsequently returned to Rome wealthy and “the most famous female artist in the age of Enlightenment”. Images are here.

How Much Rodin Is Too Much?

When is a Rodin sculpture an ‘original’ Rodin sculpture? He carved Gates of Hell in plaster but died before it was cast in bronze. Posthumous ‘copies’ of this and other works are controlled by Musée Rodin (as Rodin intended) which funds itself from the proceeds. Many museums, believing that owning a Rodin affirms their status, are eager buyers. A complex mix, the writer observes, of access to art, artworld conventions, and financial self-interest.

James Turrell: celestial encounters in light and space

A neat encapsulation of Turrell’s exploration of the perception of light. Early pieces used high intensity projectors but he soon moved to using natural light coming through specially designed apertures. Out of these came his renowned Skyscapes, enclosed rooms with an opening to the sky. “My work has no object, no image and no focus. You are looking at you looking … an experience of wordless thought”.

UK museums are back open – but visitors are staying away

Sombre reading. The challenge of rebuilding museum attendances is becoming clearer. Visitor numbers at British national museums are only 12% of pre-Covid levels, reinforcing findings from midyear polls that restoring public confidence will be crucial. US reports are similarly anxiety-producing, one body projecting that many smaller institutions may close permanently.

Vivian Maier: The elusive genius who hid herself away

Maier’s previously unknown photography was discovered in 2007. Additional research is changing her posthumous narrative – from the nanny who hid her photography to, now, the photographer who supported herself by being a nanny.  Maier’s images “really [look] at texture and colour …not just what’s going on but the framing and composition. She was a real pioneer … we should be comparing [greats like Eggleston, Shore] to her.”

Broken intentions: on damaged contemporary art

Minor touch ups to repair damaged paintings, especially old paintings, is generally accepted. Conserving contemporary works, by comparison, is a minefield. Did the artist want a “broken” look? What if, on consulting the artist, their “poetics” have changed? And what happens where an artist (think Donald Judd) rejects authorship of a work not assembled exactly as they wish. Yup, it’s a minefield.