The Easel

22nd November 2022

Meret Oppenheim Exhibition Is a Marvel about a Swiss Unicorn

Brian Allen | National Review | 19th November 2022

Oppenheim’s fur-covered teacup was so instantly famous that it makes her seem a ‘one hit wonder’. She wasn’t. After a lean two decades, her diverse and cerebral output– paintings, sculpture, assemblages, collage – reveals less an orthodox surrealist than someone able to put unlikely things together. States one critic “Oppenheim deserves a place in any modernist pantheon you can assemble.”

John Currin’s Paintings Are Disgusting and Amoral. That’s Why They’re So Good

Rosanna McLaughlin | ArtReview | 14th November 2022

Libido is in danger of becoming a “persona non grata, an entity too embarrassing to engage with openly” in contemporary art. Figurative painting is increasingly populated with works driven by a desire to be ethically good while avoiding “interiority”. Enter the work of John Currin, an artist known for his “libidinous” portraits of women. His current work is “horny, gross and humiliating” . But it expresses a sought-after quality – spirit. “A sick spirit, undoubtedly, but a spirit nonetheless.”

Maya Lin’s Vietnam memorial blazed a path in 1982, but no one followed

Philip Kennicott | Houston Chronicle | 16th November 2022

Washington’s Vietnam Veterans Memorial is “the most consequential monument of the 20th century”. Initially crticised by some as a “wall of shame”, its radical character is, forty years on, more easily seen. Lin wanted the memorial to be experienced as art – “open ended, ambiguous” – rather than a “curated sentimental experience”. Although now widely copied, no similar work “forces the visitor into the emotional space and isolated contemplation” of this memorial. An interview with Lin is here.

In Memoriam: Billy Al Bengston (1934–2022)

Editors | Unframed | 14th October 2022

At one time, Los Angeles was an art world “afterthought”. Its now loftier status owes something to Bengston. His early 1960’s minimalist works, often painted with gleaming auto lacquers, referenced biker culture and were early examples of consumer culture influencing fine art. This gave LA credibility with the New York-centric art world. Presumably it was less enthused by Bengston’s later comment that “both racing and art take tenacity, talent, hard work, knowledge and skill”.

A thrilling female perspective on sex, self, birth and death

Hettie Judah | iNews | 16th November 2022

A Royal Academy group show of early twentieth century female artists is an “essay in rediscovery”.  Kollwitz – the best known – is especially accomplished though many critics also note Modersohn-Becker’s “singular brilliance”. While stylistically diverse, they were collectively “central” to the emergence of German expressionism. Further, in contrast to the “masculinised gaze” of Gauguin and Picasso, this is “art rooted in the body, in feeling … a woman’s perspective”.

Magdalena Abakanowicz at Tate Modern: strange, evocative, extremely suggestive tapestries that think they’re sculptures

Alastair Sooke | The Telegraph | 15th November 2022

You probably haven’t heard of Abakanowicz. In the 1970’s, though, her enormous textile sculptures were seen internationally as a commentary on communist Poland. More likely they explored her view that fibre is “the basic element constructing the organic world”. She helped spark a revival in fibre sculpture. Her works, resembling huge coats or hollow trees invite, as one critic puts it, “physical and psychological closeness”. This writer agrees, calling them “a superb contribution to 20th century art”.

The best female Old Master you’ve never heard of. Until now.

Malcolm Gay | The Boston Globe | 10th November 2022

A chance discovery in a Vienna museum in the 1990’s has uncovered Michaelina Wautier as a major Baroque-era artist. She was adept not just in the ‘female’ domain of still lifes and portraits but also complex history paintings and even male nudes. Art market valuations have skyrocketed leading to the emergence of further works – now numbering about 40 – including some previously attributed to male artists. Wonders a curator “how did we miss these things for so long?” More background is here.

15th November 2022

Still hot. Maurice Sendak’s ageless imagination

Nicole Rudick | Artforum | 31st October 2022

Believing children capable of pragmatic thinking, Sendak’s acclaimed illustrations combine “seriousness and play … and above all, truthfulness”. ‘To convey this complexity he frequently drew on art history. His art in Mr Rabbit and the Lovely Present, for example, seems to set the story in Monet’s gardens. Other work contains “a symphony of homages” to Titian, El Greco and Blake. All were used in “blending a child’s perspective with the visual vocabulary of “grown up” fine art”.

Hollow City

Jackson Arn | The Baffler | 2nd November 2022

The Whitney’s Hopper exhibition is different, it claims, because it highlights his focus on New York. Hopper’s paintings, though, are not exactly strong evidence. Where are the New York crowds, or New York’s looming skyscrapers? Are we back to Hopper’s theme of “quiet desperation”? Perhaps not – his New Yorkers don’t seem miserable but instead, seem to just “sit and wait”.  If Hopper’s pictures have a mood of despair, they also carry a “twinge of hope”. In this particular city, things can change.

We’re Witnessing the Birth of a New Artistic Medium

Stephen Marche | The Atlantic | 28th September 2022

Sensible optimism. When photography emerged in the 1850’s, it was called the “mortal enemy” of art. Of course, things didn’t turn out that way. The same applies to AI. “It’s simply going to reconfigure the nature of creativity, as machines have been doing since the advent of modernity.” What form that creativity might finally take is an unanswered but “tremendously joyful” question. “Creative AI is the art of big data … what could be more suitable to our moment?”

Edouard Manet, the man who shocked France with nudity, executions and everyday life

Michael Prodger | Country Life | 2nd November 2022

A profile. Manet could be difficult – ambitious, petty, provocative, “never shy of the unorthodox”. When sentimental pastoral vistas were popular, he painted life in Paris. Rejected by the 1867 Exposition, he simply hired a venue and exhibited himself. So what? Besides, his own innovative (but misunderstood) painting, Manet mentored “young rebels” such as the Impressionists and was prophetic in his challenge to the art establishment to accept the radical art arriving on its doorstep.

Extraordinary Bronze Statues Discovered at the Sanctuary of San Casciano dei Bagni

Gary Manners | Ancient Origins | 8th November 2022

Before the Romans, it was the Etruscans who dominated central Italy. In “one of the most remarkable discoveries in the history of the ancient Mediterranean” a trove of 24 well preserved Etruscan statues has been found near Florence. They are notable for being bronze (rather than terra cotta) and date to the period – about 200 BCE – when the Romans were gradually absorbing the Etruscan civilisation. Says an official “It’s a discovery that will rewrite history”. More images are here.

Lee Bontecou, Artist of Delightfully Uncategorizable Sculptures, Dies at 91

Jasmine Liu | Hyperallergic | 9th November 2022

Recognition arrived quickly for Bontecou, on the strength of her unclassifiable sculptural reliefs – bulbous works with fabric stretched across a metal armature. Often, they featured a central black void-like structure. She didn’t help much by way of explanation, stating that these works were “too rich” for minimalism (obvious) but weren’t about “feminist issues”. Over the last decade there has been a revival of interest in her work. A video is here and detailed review here.

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