The Easel

15th June 2021

The Madman and the Dwarf: Van Gogh and Lautrec

Jeffrey Myers | The London Magazine | 7th June 2021

An odd friendship between “freakish outsiders”. Toulouse Lautrec was aristocratic, witty and “grotesquely ugly”. Van Gogh was socially awkward and mentally fragile. Somehow they clicked, recognizing each other’s talent. “[Lautrec] found Vincent’s gaucheries and wearisome habits appealing … [they were] familiar partners in the bars and cabarets of the Butte.” Lautrec suggested that Van Gogh try the “brilliant atmosphere” of Provence. Van Gogh went.

The clay’s the thing – Ceramic: Art and Civilisation, reviewed

Glenn Adamson | Apollo | 9th June 2021

A new book describes ceramics as “‘a vibrant enabler of civilisation”. Modern art ceramics is diverse, “a contest between functionalism and aestheticism”. What links modern and ancient works is that the skill of the potter is paramount in determining the power of a piece. “One’s first instinct with a good Roman red-gloss pot is to eat it. Or at least lick it all over.”

How the Dutch are facing up to their colonial past

Cath Pound | bbc.com | 3rd June 2021

Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum has boldly chosen to tell the “social story” of Dutch colonialism. Systemic racism came out of colonialism and “permeated every level of society”. Looking closely at its collection, the museum found traces of colonialism everywhere. For example, Marten Soolmans – the subject of Rembrandt’s “magnificent” portrait – became rich buying sugar from slave-based plantations. “[Dutch] people were not unaware of what was happening.”

The pleasures and denials of window-shopping

Rosalind Jana | Magnum Photos | 13th June 2021

The shop window is a realm where the “ever-wanting imagination” confronts possibility. That makes it a psychological space and a happy hunting ground for photographers. Retail displays indulge fantasy, tempting us to believe. “Sidelong glances, longing stares and small noses pressed against glass … illustrations of the idle pleasures of browsing, as well as reminders of distance”. And shoppers want to believe, too.

The Inheritance of Nations

Hannah Barbosa Cesnik | The American Scholar | 14th June 2021

The Horses sculptures in St. Mark’s Basilica in Venice were looted from Constantinople. Napoleon later looted them to Paris. And after Waterloo, The Horses returned again to Venice. Turkey has never sought their return – does that extinguish their entitlement? Restitution cases like the Benin bronzes seem clear cut; so many others are not. “Who owns the inheritance of nations that no longer exist? Culture is an elastic concept. An active heir is a rightful heir.”

8th June 2021

A Year Lived Inside With Instagram and a Dutch Master

Benjamin Moser | The Nation | 3rd June 2021

Elegant interiors are hugely popular on Instagram. Vermeer’s tranquil interiors are similar escapisms, as are those of Vermeer’s near equal, Pieter de Hooch. Sadly, they were “inventions” because war and strife were commonplace. De Hooch moved to Amsterdam to exploit his renown, but in the bigger city his works lost “freshness”. Those late pictures are “a shipwreck”. Like Instagram, de Hooch’s main act had been to keep ugliness “carefully at bay”.

Epic Iran at the V&A review: five millennia of glittering culture

Nancy Durrant | Evening Standard | 26th May 2021

An ambitious show on Iran’s artistic heritage somewhat obscured by writers and critics trying oh-so-hard to not cause offence. Iran’s culture is just as accomplished as that of Egypt – the first written records around 5000 years ago, political unification in 550BC, a flowering of Persian art around 1000AD. The writer’s summation is very clear– “The stuff is incredible … [contemporary works are] as vivid as the rest” A potted history of Iranian heritage is here.

A Moment of Reckoning: Thomas P. Campbell and András Szántó on Museums and Public Trust

András Szántó | Literary Hub | 4th June 2021

Familiar issues, yes, but articulated with oomph by a museum director who has to fix them. Museums are “not entertainment … we are places of education.” To do that they must be trusted by their communities. Winning new audiences brings new expectations. Return stolen antiquities and “appropriated” objects. Tell the history of colonialism fully. And “you still have to fundamentally enjoy objects … embrace the romance of the physicality of the objects”.

David Smith: Follow My Path

Phyllis Tuchman | The Brooklyn Rail | 1st June 2021

Iron and steel are quintessentially modern materials and Smith was the master of their use in sculpture. His works tended to be modest rather than monumental, and often were painted to achieve a desired effect. Welded steel can seem old hat, now that assemblages predominate. That doesn’t diminish Smith’s development of 20th century modernism, something he achieved with nothing more than “manual labour, grit and a bit of magic”.

Martin Wong’s Tender, Gritty Cityscapes Helped Me Appreciate My Hometown

Lisa Wong Macabasco | Artsy | 25th May 2021

Wong’s favourite colour, it seems, was brown – the colour of the brick buildings in his Lower East Side locale. Self-taught, he developed a documentary style and focused on his local community. The highly detailed buildings were but a backdrop against which to “glorify that which often gets passed over”. His community was a hybrid, one that “crosses racial boundaries and challenges gender stereotypes … a community simultaneously real and imagined.”

Itō Shinsui: Modern print master

Staff | Asian Art Newspaper | 26th May 2021

Starting work at a print factory at 10, Shinsui rapidly became famous for his woodblock prints. His best works combine technical excellence with western techniques like perspective and lighting. Hugely popular abroad, at home it was more a case of honoured. He had helped printmaking survive and his bijinga (images of beautiful women) brought a contemporary feel to ukiyo-e, the traditional artistic contemplation of life’s worldly pleasures.

“Alice Neel: People Come First” at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY

Mario Naves | Too Much Art | 1st June 2021

A show covered previously, but this review couldn’t be more different. Neel was a “second tier” talent with a “meanness of spirit”. Striving to communicate immediacy, her portraits instead can come across as “blunt” and “superficial”. The character of her sitters is unexplored, making them seem like “butterflies in a curio cabinet” and the works “peculiarly neutral”. She was “a painter endowed with a cruel and unlovely gift.”

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