The Easel

21st September 2021

Helen Frankenthaler: Radical Beauty, Dulwich Picture Gallery review – adventures in print

Florence Hallett | the arts desk | 17th September 2021

Frankenthaler has long borne criticism that paintings as pretty as hers cannot be serious. What about her woodblock prints? Described as “visions of overwhelming beauty”, they have a familial link to her paintings. Woodblock printing is complex and signs of the technique, such as wood grain, add surface texture and ‘dimensionality’ to a work. By accentuating such effects, an evidently serious Frankenthaler achieved “a paradoxical distillation of all that is painterly”.

‘It’s just a perpetual slaughter’: Barbara Kruger on why she’s remaking some of her old critiques of power for her new museum show.

Julie Baumgartner | artnet news | 21st September 2021

One famous Kruger aphorism is “your body is a battleground”. So is her art. It has been described as “one-liners that do no serious harm to anyone” and “one long exercise in preaching to the choir”. Well, imitation is the surest form of flattery and her text/photo style is widely copied. Further, her critique of consumerism and cultural power resonates loudly. Does that make her feel prescient? “No … the past 1000 years is fraught with power and its abuses”.

A Study for ‘Worn out’: a newly discovered Van Gogh drawing

Teio Meedendorp | The Burlington Magazine | 1st October 2021

Having just moved to The Hague, the young van Gogh was drawing figures in the hope of becoming a magazine illustrator. He drew both men and women, in particular one old man from a nearby home. One of those drawings, long held by a Dutch family, has re-surfaced. Says one expert involved in the authentication “a very fine, powerful drawing, which stands up entirely on its own.” (The linked piece is the authentication report, temporarily out from a paywall.)

Christo’s Wrapped Arc de Triomphe Set for Moment of Glory

Madis Kabash | Bloomberg | 15th September 2021

Dreamed up by Christo in 1962, the Arc de Triomphe was finally wrapped this week. The installation uses 25,000 square metres of silvery blue polypropylene fabric, secured by 3,000 metres of red rope. Says one writer, “the effect is at once disorienting and riveting”. Livestreaming video of the installed work is here and an interview with Christo about the project is here.

14th September 2021

9/11: Trials And Triumphs Of The ‘Tribute In Light’

Christian Viveros - Faune | The Village Voice | 5th September 2021

Each year on the anniversary of 9/11, two towers of light are switched on in New York city. These “ghostly columns” shine from dusk to dawn and are a notable piece of public art. Leaving aside the squabbles about who first came up with the idea for the memorial, what stands out is the idea that, in a crisis, people wanted “a powerful artwork”. One writer, looking at the square rigs of spotlights, says ”I could not avoid the sensation that it was a church”.

A Conversation About Joan Mitchell

Sarah Roberts and Katy Siegel | SFMOMA | 15th February 2021

The abstract expressionism style clearly rubbed off on Mitchell. However, those artists didn’t believe in paintings having a subject. Mitchell did. Her enduring loves were poetry and nature and a big retrospective shows just how much they figure in her work. Not literal still lifes or landscapes, but the moods they convey. “There is no word for the territory she created … she straddles and defies both abstraction and landscape … a beautiful/ugly duet”.

With Pleasure

Sowon Kwon | 4Columns | 10th September 2021

This exhibition of Pattern and Decoration works was praised when shown in Los Angeles. Less so in New York. The 1970’s movement opposed the austerity of Minimalism and the claimed superiority of fine art. Some works have merit, concedes the writer, but many pieces would suit “hotel gift shops”. And even Japan, with its long craft tradition, still distinguishes between that and fine art. Still, whatever you make of these arguments, “decoration is worthy of admiration”.

Pipilotti Rist’s MOCA Geffen takeover is a sensuous pleasure trip you don’t want to miss

Carolina Miranda | LA Times | 6th September 2021

To host a Rist retrospective, you need lots of room. In LA she has been given it, filling a “cavernous” space with videos, large scale installations, sculptures and other highlights of a 30-year career. It’s an “engulfing” experience that showcases Rist’s interest in using vivid colour and light to affect our emotions and to create shared experiences. Overall, the show “is an overdose … a welcome overdose.”

How Paul Sandby painted Britain as he saw it

Michael Prodger | The New Statesman | 9th September 2021

This profile of Sandby, an early Romantic era British artist avoids an obvious question – was he second-rate? Trained as a draftsman, Sandby made his name as a watercolour landscapist. Turner, younger by a just few decades, brought drama and emotion to landscape painting. Sandby brought … accuracy; he showed the facts of a landscape. When art history considers which artists should be deemed great, skill is perhaps necessary but is certainly not sufficient.

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