The Easel

30th December 2020

Shiva the Inscrutable

Michael Glover | Hyperallergic | 2nd May 2020

Appreciation of an 11th century devotional statue of the great Hindu god Shiva. Here, he takes the form of Nataraja, the cosmic dancer. “His right foot crushes a demon. In his right hand he holds a drum — its boom represents the resonance of creation itself — and in his left, fire, which ravishes the world. His dance feels like an act of gymnastic brilliance … with nothing but his own miraculous powers of balance to stop him falling away into nothingness.”

The radical quilting of Rosie Lee Tompkins

Roberta Smith | The New York Times | 26th June 2020

A collector stumbled across Tompkins’ quilts at a Berkeley flea market. After decades of collecting her work he bequeathed his collection in 2018 to a museum. The writer’s glee at this first show is palpable. “I left in a state of shock. The sheer joy of her best quilts cannot be overstated. They come at us with the force and sophistication of so-called high art … with the power of painting. Tompkins seems to have been an artist of singular greatness.”

Who Was Giorgio Morandi, Master Painter and Perfecter of the Meditative Stare?

Andy Battaglia | ARTnews | 17th July 2020

Morandi lived in a modest Bologna apartment, for decades painting pale still-lifes of bottles and tins. No bright colours or brand names, no dramatic shapes, yet these works stand out. Explaining this, Robert Hughes referenced the Japanese aesthetic of wabi – “the clarity of ordinary substance seen for itself, in its true quality.” John Berger, in an old but excellent piece, thought similarly – “precise and sharp observation … monastic”.

David Hockney’s Paintings Are World Renowned, But He Never Lost His Desire to Draw

David D’Arcy | Observer | 4th October 2020

While there may be some unevenness in Hockney’s overall output, when it comes to drawing he is a “master”. What jumps out from this current New York show is his variety – pencil, charcoal, Polaroid, iPad – the emotion he is able to convey about those he sketches, and an allegiance to the truth.  Enthuses one writer “the intensity of Hockney’s self-inspection, fag in mouth, bears comparison with Rembrandt.” Images are here.

Newly restored Ghent Altarpiece reveals humanoid ‘mystic lamb’

Bettina Baumann | DW.com | 28th January 2020

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.

Commoner with the divine touch

Michael Prodger | The Critic | 9th September 2020

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 Provocations of Kent Monkman

Nick Martin | The New Republic | 22nd May 2020

Kent Monkman, a Cree Nation / Canadian citizen, has had two of his paintings hung in New York’s Met. Good, one might think – recognition of an artist and of the terrible treatment of indigenous peoples. Some think otherwise, worrying that mainstream artworld success compromises art advocacy of indigenous causes. Frets this writer, can indigenous art avoid being “overwhelmed by the historical context”?

22nd December 2020

Holidays

This is the last regular newsletter for 2020. What a difficult year – and for some readers the disruptions continue, including lockdown. With so few exhibitions being reviewed, producing the newsletter has, to be frank, at times been excruciating. I hope those still under restriction are able to find some positive aspect to isolation (perhaps catch up on back issues of The Easel!).

Next Tuesday, and the Tuesday after, the newsletter will highlight the year’s most popular stories among Easel subscribers. There will then be a break of a few weeks with the The Easel resuming on Tuesday January 26.
I hope you have enjoyed your reading over the last year.

Season’s greetings to all.
Andrew

The Three Key Moments This Year That Changed the Art Market

Uri Bollag | Mutual Art | 15th December 2020

Covid19 has forced big changes on the art market in 2020. It has “turbo-charged” online auction sales, which are now nearly four times greater than a year earlier. Sotheby’s boasts that discarding traditional marquee sales in favour of small, highly produced online auctions has been especially successful. Apparently, more is to come. “These adjustments are only the infancy of what we will come to know as the new face of the market.”

Zanele Muholi, Tate Modern

Waldemar Januszczak | Waldemar.tv | 14th December 2020

Despite opening and closing in a flash, this show impressed the few quick critics, one saying “Muholi is breaking ground like no other”. Her “gripping” art is portraiture, some personal, some “communal” in defense of the LGBTQ minority. That produces a salient judgement in a year replete with politically infused art: “Obviously, this event did not set out to prove that communality improves life and diminishes art. But that is what it does.”

Attention Servicemember

Justin Herfst | Lensculture | 10th December 2020

What is truth in war? Brody has published a book on Iraq and Afghanistan. He explains how, as an armed forces photographer, his images were used selectively to build optimism and downplay brutality. As an independent photojournalist, Brody frets his images misrepresent soldiers, making them seem “one dimensional superheroes”? Of course, truth is often elusive; as George Orwell wrote “all art is propaganda”.

Ancient books, an introduction

Antonio Carnevale | Conceptual Fine Arts | 17th December 2020

Books were “the first design object in Italy”. More than their content, the appeal of ancient (16th century) books is beauty and craftsmanship – “composition, illustrations, the balance between text and image, the very refined typography”. Distinguished provenance may add further allure. Admits a clearly besotted interviewee, books’ “preconceived image of dustiness … scares people off … artworks seem more straightforward”.

Struth’s unpeopled photos evoke the loneliness of urban life

Richard Deming | Psyche | 14th December 2020

A meditation on urban life. Thomas Struth’s photographs of empty streets are acclaimed. What is their allure? Crowded streets sometimes convey “the evidence of people, but no real community”. When empty, New York’s streets show that city “was never a gentle place … What’s revealed is an intrinsic feeling of abandonment that exists below the surface of all human spaces.”

Best Art Books of 2020

Staff | The New York Times | 26th November 2020

Most art book lists feature works that reflect the year’s big themes – recognition of women artists, of artists of colour, and restitution. But there are many additional choices ranging, like the art world itself, from the quirky to the esoteric. For a comprehensive list of accessible books, the New York Times is hard to beat. Lists from the Guardian and Five Books, at five items each, are admirably concise. Christie’s list is admirably eclectic and alluring.

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