The Easel

15th December 2020

Thoroughly Modern Richie: A Hamilton Re(tro)spective At Pallant House, Chichester

John Quin | The Quietus | 12th December 2020

Eight years before Warhol’s first show, Hamilton produced a collage that he described as “Pop Art … popular, transient, low-cost, mass-produced, glamorous, and Big Business.” Fascinated by consumer goods and with an innate understanding of glamour, Hamilton anticipated much of the cultural impact of mass media and technology. A clearly star-struck reviewer comments “his study of the modern recalls the past and illuminates the future.”

Ralph Steadman’s Wild Life of Illustration: “The World Has Changed So Much”

Cody Delistraty | Wall St Journal | 11th December 2020

If it’s the secrets of illustration that you are hoping for, this article may disappoint. For those wanting a glimpse of one of the great graphic artists of the age, it may suffice. Steadman says of himself “I’ve become a pictorial polluter. Too many drawings, really.” His late collaborator, Hunter S. Thompson – himself something of an expert on weirdness – said of Steadman “They said you were weird, but not that weird.” (If the WSJ paywall is troublesome, try this)

The Great Spiritual

John Dorfman | Art and Antiques | 1st December 2020

Kandinsky did not singlehandedly invent abstract art but was its “outstanding pioneer”. Convinced that art could inspire a better world, a 30-ish Kandinsky gave up the law for art. The spiritualist underpinnings of his art now might seem rather dotty. Nonetheless, his “pictorial vocabulary” – energetic colours and decorative shapes – still stands out, conveying “a feeling of joy and freedom that transcends … time and place.” More images are here.

Pioneering abstract painter Suh Se Ok dies at 91

Moon So-Young | Korea JoongAng Daily | 7th December 2020

As Korea emerged from Japanese occupation, Suh wanted his art to be distinctively Korean. He favoured traditional materials – ink and mulberry paper. His paintings, however, were distinctly modernist, looser and more expressive than calligraphy but quite different from the “muscular gesturalism” of abstract expressionism. Said he “I think of my works as a flight toward every possibility”. A video (7 min) where Suh discusses the dot is here.

‘It’s a Matter of Justice’: Bénédicte Savoy on the Argument for Restitution

JJ Charlesworth | ArtReview | 1st December 2020

Two years ago a French report advocated the repatriation of African objects with “negative histories”. What has happened since? Actual restitutions have been few but the debate about “heritage justice” has grown considerably. In particular, there is a push for openness about the background of artifacts – “restitution of the knowledge of the object’s provenance.” Museum-goers now ask “Do I want to enjoy this at the cost of some other suffering?”

How the Monoliths Became an Instagram Trap

Kyle Chayka | ARTnews | 3rd December 2020

A 10 ft polished steel column appeared suddenly in the Utah desert, only to disappear soon after. Similar objects have now appeared elsewhere. Unpersuaded that these are the handiwork of aliens, the writer sees them as someone’s “Minimalist homage to the rock and the grandeur of nature”. This “human intervention in the landscape, an act as old as civilization … [is] a wholesome, or at least joyfully absurd, moment of connection.”

Fernando Botero’s Journey from Aspiring Bullfighter to Art Market Powerhouse

Nicole Martinez | Artsy | 9th December 2020

Not the most cerebral of reviews. Still, for an artist who gets limited coverage in the art world’s capitals, its better than nothing. Reputedly Latin America’s most prominent artist, Botero’s early study of Old Masters evolved into an exaggerated “volumetric” style. Although he spends little time in his native Columbia, his work focuses on day-to-day Latin American life. Stylistically, and financially it seems, “he really is his own thing”.

8th December 2020

Interiors: hello from the living room

Alfred Mac Adam | The Brooklyn Rail | 1st November 2020

Interiors are a genre with enduring appeal. Images of a simple room with sparse adornments offer “the chaste harmony of geometry “. More often, we get entangled in a painting’s “psychology”. When everything is as it should be, do we infer a sense of security. When things seem a little odd, is it normal messiness or evidence of a crime? And, especially when darkness falls, “looking out or looking in … is charged with voyeurism.” More images are here.

Lynette Yiadom-Boakye review – ‘she’s turned Tate Britain on its head’

Jonathon Jones | The Guardian | 2nd December 2020

Yiadom-Boakye’s subjects are fictitious, but compelling. Mostly young, black and good looking, they show a “black society … as it exist[s] unto itself”. Her work – all oils on canvas – is loaded with the conventions of portraiture and “painterly erudition”. One reviewer is a skeptic – “these pictures smoulder, but never ignite.” The consensus, though, is elsewhere – “in so many ways, she already is [a living old master]”.

Bruegel as cinema

Jackson Arn | Art in America | 1st December 2020

Despite its pretty contrasting of black trees against white snow, Bruegel’s masterpiece The Hunters portrays the bitter suffering of winter. Its mix of “longing and horror” has caught the attention of film directors. Film, like the painting, can deploy details that delight the eye yet leave the viewer with a tumult of emotion. However, no film has matched the painting’s ability to create a “sense of failure, of the lost meaning floating just out of reach”.

Peter Saul: “Crime and Punishment” at the New Museum, New York, NY

Mario Naves | Too Much Art | 1st December 2020

Saul’s early works anticipated later trends in the art world. His crisp graphics are technically impressive. Yet he remains at the art world periphery, a consequence of his acrid focus on violence and mayhem. “The unrelenting nature of Saul’s vision … is, over the long haul, dulling. His [anti-authoritarian] commentaries … retain their vigour [but] the rest is one man’s unrelenting misanthropy—pre-digested, prettified, and taxidermied to perfection.”

Black Lives Matter ranked most influential in art in 2020

Torsten Landsberg | DW | 3rd December 2020

ArtReview’s Power 100 is something of an institution, so is reported widely. What do its rankings signify? Seemingly, it reflects those who made headlines recently, those who influence those who made headlines, plus some others. Few will be surprised that #blacklivesmatter gets top billing in 2020. With the other 99, it seems a reasonable summary of … well, headline makers.

Irina Antonova, legendary art historian who ran Moscow’s Pushkin Museum for 50 years

Staff | The British Journal | 2nd December 2020

Antonova arrived at a dilapidated Pushkin in 1945 and departed in 2013 having turned it into a major cultural institution. She persuaded conservative Soviet leaders to show modern art to Moscovites. Efforts to amalgamate The Hermitage’s fabulous Impressionist art into the Pushkin’s collection led to a rare defeat. Controversially, she kept an iron grip on German art taken during WW2, describing these holdings as “the price paid for remembering”.

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