The Easel

5th April 2022

Anselm Kiefer: Pour Paul Celan

Ana Beartri Duarte | Studio International | 3rd January 2022

Paul Celan is widely considered the greatest postwar German language poet. Kiefer, the celebrated German-French artist, has long been inspired by Celan’s work and especially his renowned poem on death. In a recent show intended as a homage to Celan, the works carry the heavy overtones of war.  Says one critic, these are objects of “European memory”. Fittingly, they are sombre, incorporate materials such as ash and are “intimidatingly” large. They are “the past and the future linked by a vortex”.

Planetary Crisis? The Art Market Is Doing Just Fine

JJ Charlesworth | ArtReview | 1st April 2022

A bullish tone is struck in this year’s Art Market Report. Art sales reached $65bn in 2021, about the same as pre-pandemic levels (actually not quite, if adjusted for inflation). Online sales have doubled compared to 2019 while art related NFT sales show the influence of younger collectors. Art fairs have been hammered, which may please galleries and auction houses. Says the author, “the art market that has emerged from the pandemic no longer looks like the one that went in.”

Patrick Demarchelier, Fashion and Portrait Photographer, Has Died

Laird Borrelli-Persson | Vogue | 31st March 2022

Demarchelier was widely regarded as one of the greatest fashion photographers. Self-taught, he came to prominence working for Vogue and Harpers Bazaar, developing a signature style that “combined ease and elegance”. His celebrity portraits and images for magazines and fashion houses had an impact beyond fashion, embedding the supermodel in 1990’s popular culture. Such was his fame that in the movie The Devil Wears Prada, the lead character at one point shouts “get me Patrick”.

Pompeii in Color: The Life of Roman Painting

Ed Voves | Art Eyewitness | 9th February 2022

Pompeii was Rome’s pleasure dome – similar perhaps to the Hamptons in New York – with numerous lavish homes. Their frescoes, preserved by the ash of Vesuvius, were mostly decorative and reveal sophisticated Roman aesthetics. Besides landscapes and portraits there are still lifes and “astonishing trompe-l’oeil”. Ancient Greek art was a major influence, but these frescoes are “valuable creations in their own right”, authentic expressions of Roman culture.  Background is here.

The Whitney Biennial Falters On

Jerry Saltz | Vulture | 1st April 2022

Having skipped a year, the Whitney Biennial has returned. As usual, it focuses on what’s current. Leaning against the popularity of figurative work, abstract works are plentiful as is art coming out of #blacklivesmatter, and art still angry about the AIDS crisis. A notably diverse group of artists is represented. Wall labels, always a pet peeve, are often infuriating. This writer seems moderately pleased: “about 20 percent of the [show] is really alive … it radiates with the power of now.”

The Trouble With Writing About Vivian Maier

Jeremy Lybarger | The New Republic | 21st December 2021

Vivian Maier is a riddle among modern photographers. While her day job was nannying for Chicago and New York families, she had a passion discovered only after her death – photography. Her images are so good that “if she’s not quite in the canon yet, she’s certainly wait-listed.” A new biography speculates that mental ill-health may explain Maier’s strange reticence. Let her keep her mystery, says the reviewer. Maier’s truth is in the “indelible images she left behind in those storage lockers.”

Takesada Matsutani On His Show Combine And The Power Of Material Experimentation

Devid Gualandris | Ignant | 6th March 2022

Japan’s gutai movement wanted to achieve “the scream of matter”. That meant exploring the expressive potential of materials – paint, tar, mud, glue, newspaper and more. Matsutani was an early member and, oddly, focused on what he could achieve with vinyl glue. Quite a lot, it turns out and his blobby works that straddle sculpture and painting have brought him acclaim. Even after a long career, though, he still feels bound by the same gutai challenge – “finding an individual approach”.

29th March 2022

Why Francis Kéré Won the Pritzker Prize?

Nicolás Valencia | Archdaily | 21st March 2022

Architecture’s top honour – the Pritzker Prize – has always gone to western architects. Now, Kéré, from Burkina Faso, has won for projects built with cheap local materials and miniscule funding. He uses traditional designs and sees the architect as both designer and community organiser. Gushed the Pritzker Foundation, he is “a singular beacon in architecture… [His projects] have presence without pretense and an impact shaped by grace.” Says Kéré “I still don’t believe it”. Images are here.

Thomas Struth on four decades of art: ‘I know more, I see more, and I suffer more’

Charlotte Jansen | Wallpaper | 24th March 2022

A New York show of Struth’s photography poses the question – why is his work so engrossing? For decades he has photographed mind-boggling scientific equipment, family portraits, empty streets and crowded museums. Some images are huge – metres long – and full of detail, hinting at some big but undefined issue. That is exactly Struth’s intent – “to address something which has a larger scale, a larger value, than the specific details or locations shown”.

“A Dyed-in-the-Wool Revolutionary Spirit”: Paul Gorman on the Legacy of Barney Bubbles

Elizabeth Nelson | LA Review of Books | 24th January 2022

The highly influential designer, Barney Bubbles, is “grievously underappreciated”. He joined London’s fabled 1960’s music scene and, in the 1970’s, designed record album covers using an aesthetic that included geometric designs, brash colours and a subversive wit. While also creating light shows, homewares, set designs and video, his album covers are his most acclaimed work – “lasting images for fleeting times” and the “missing link between pop and culture”.  More images are here.

Ai Weiwei: The Liberty of Doubt

Staff | The Design Edit | 17th February 2022

Is Ai Weiwei primarily an artist or a political activist? The linked piece inclines to the former, saying his current show illustrates that human experience is “as fluid as the meanings of these objects:  in a constant state of uncertainty”. Another critic definitely views him as an activist: “superficial art that we are urged to appreciate as “important” because of the artist’s unquestionably heroic political acts. [He is] better at throwing concepts in the air than clarifying what he means by them”.

Warhol-Prince Photo Case Brings Fair Use Fight to High Court

Kyle Jahner | Bloomberg Law | 29th March 2022

Cutting a long story short, Warhol altered a photo of the musician Prince. Years later, the photographer who took the images sued for breach of copyright, lost the case at first hearing but succeeded on appeal. The case is now headed to the Supreme Court. Did Warhol’s transformation “add new expression and meaning” to the photo? What makes the case so difficult is “the difference in legal thinking and art thinking”.  A whole genre of visual art will be impacted by the answer.

Surprisingly weird: why there is more to Raphael’s portraits than meets the eye

Alastair Sooke | The Telegraph | 27th March 2022

A big Raphael show opens shortly in London and this writer jumps in early to defend the artist. Once regarded with reverence, some now wonder if Raphael’s work is too perfect, “too melodious for our jangling times”. If you hold such doubts, look at his portraits. Often these were portrayals of friends and thus a “sanctuary” from demanding clients. These works best uphold his reputation, showing the very modern qualities of “human warmth and closeness”.

Will the new Burrell Collection give Glasgow global reach?

Samuel Reilly | Apollo | 25th March 2022

William Burrell’s donation of his magnificent art collection to Glasgow in 1944 was a great act of British philanthropy. Now, re-opening after a six-year renovation, how does the institution modernize the stories that its objects tell? Display works thematically, not taxonomically. Frame the collection as an expression of Burrell’s tastes, not an “impartial” story of civilization. And change the Deed of Gift so the Collection can lend works in order to borrow others.

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