The Easel

1st August 2023

From the ruins of the future

Florian Illies | Zeit Online | 13th July 2023

An elegant speech about Kiefer, just awarded the German National Prize. At a public event in 1970, Kiefer raised his arm in a Nazi salute in an attempt to break through “the silence and the self-justification” about the Nazi era. The ensuing controversy revealed Germany as a “community of shame”. Kiefer’s paintings, with their unconventional materials and “confrontational” scale, “not only reveal the scars of history, but also look into the open wounds of the future.” An interview with Kiefer is here.

A Must-See Matthew Wong Retrospective Reveals New Sides of an Artist Whose Story Is Still Emerging

Alex Greenberger | ARTnews | 28th July 2023

Art history loves the story of the young artist suddenly struck by greatness. Such stories are prone to exaggeration and in Wong’s case become “too grandiose for work that’s so humble”. A Boston show includes among his earliest works a few of his duds. It took him a little time to find his footing as a Canadian of the Asian diaspora. Once he did, though, his unique, lush landscapes with their small insignificant figures included a bounty of masterpieces. Images are here.

Pueblo Pottery Comes To Manhattan At The Met And Vilcek Foundation

Chadd Scott | Forbes | 16th July 2023

Pueblo pottery, a quintessential Native American art form, is regularly evaluated by museum curators in terms of Western aesthetics. Puebloans think that is a misunderstanding. To them, pottery is all about a “group narrative”, about people and place. A pottery show, currently in New York, takes a community approach to curation, with over 60 individuals involved. Said one, about a favourite piece, “[it] sings loudly to me through its design and its lived experience.” Interactive images are here and a video here.

The Raphael of Flowers: Pierre-Joseph Redouté

Lorraine Ferrier | The Epoch Times | 17th July 2023

To be described as the “Raphael” of anything is high praise. Born into an artist family, Redouté found his way to Paris at a time when botanical illustration was fashionable. He was soon a fixture at the Versailles court, survived the Revolution and won Empress Josephine as a patron. His rendition of her collection of roses is still acclaimed and her iris collection filled eight volumes. These publications underpin his current reputation. After Josephine’s death, Redouté abandoned botanical fidelity and painted purely for beauty.

‘Clearly a copy from the 19th century’—Old Masters scholars reject AI-attributed Raphael

Gareth Harris | The Art Newspaper | 26th July 2023

Technologists have used AI to attribute a much-debated painting to Raphael. Previously thought to be just a copy, this finding calls much connoisseurship into question, to the displeasure of Old Masters experts. Says one “This story is so perfectly AI; it can’t tell what’s real or not”. In response, a technologist claims that AI can detect “subtle differences, for example brushstroke patterns, colours, hues … in greater detail than the naked eye”. Recent pigment analysis is consistent with the AI finding. Expect more fireworks!

“Becoming Van Leo”

William Poundstone | LACMA On Fire | 17th July 2023

Our interest in identity long pre-dates social media. Take the case of Van Leo, the Cairo-based photographer. Fascinated by Hollywood imagery, he used the same style for Egyptian film stars… and himself. Starting in the 1930’s he created multiple identities that spanned gender, race and class. Cindy Sherman and Gillian Wearing have made these explorations feel commonplace but Van Leo’s puzzled contemporaries thought he was “a sort of Hollywood-adjacent enigma.” Images are here.

25th July 2023

Erwin Wurm: Trap of the Truth

David Trigg | Studio International | 21st July 2023

Wurm’s sculptures depict consumer items in funny ways – overweight cars, bendy trucks, couture bags on long spindly legs. It’s OK to laugh, but that just shows how skillfully Wurm uses his favourite “tools” – paradox, and the idea of the absurd. Does the price tag on a Hermes Birkin bag justify its prestige – it is, after all, just a bag. Yet we conform. “Advertisements give us this illusion of freedom, and we believe it, which is more than ridiculous.”

Video art cuts through the noise. But the noise is getting louder

Philip Kennicott | The Washington Post | 6th April 2023

Is the vitality of video art fading away? A large survey show in New York has critics calling it “elegiac”, “I’m anything but enthusiastic”, or even “it’s a post-mortem”. One critic admits he still had “no idea” if he liked it. Video emerged in a world dominated by network television but now it’s all about smart phones and social media. Can video art be a “cultural signal” when we are learning that images can’t be trusted? “Reality itself begins to feel fugitive. We [want to dispel] the mental torpor of “screen time.””

Private view: Albrecht Dürer

Holly Black | The World of Interiors | 18th July 2023

Dürer’s prints were the “blockbusters” of that age. His representation of mythical and religious stories was an obvious attraction but also conspicuous were items of technology – books, textiles, scientific instruments, clocks. These placed the images in contemporary Nuremberg, gaving his images a “hidden power” – an ingenious way to “bring together the visual codes of religion and myth with the vernacular objects of contemporary life.” Images are here.

How Architects Fell Into Bed With the Artworld

Joe Lloyd | ArtReview | 20th July 2023

Art and architecture are growing closer. Art prizes regularly go to architects. The Venice Biennale of Architecture is full of “art and artists”. Are architects “detaching the public face of architecture from its practice”? Cynics smirk that architects are using art to draw attention away from “unsavory” clients. A more charitable view is that some architects draw inspiration from art, enriching the profession’s discourse. Says one, “Architecture is not a prison … architects are free to sail out in search of new ideas”.

Lui Shou-Kwan’s Zen Painting and American Abstraction

Tao Wang | Art Institute of Chicago | 5th July 2023

Chinese ink painting, like calligraphy, balances disciplined form and personal expression. Lui trained in that tradition but, seeing contemporary 1950’s American art, decided to apply a modernist sensibility. His “zen” paintings have a spontaneous “splashing” brushwork that he said drew on Chinese traditions of abstraction. Besides pioneering the New Ink painting movement, his work attracted international interest already whetted by the wave of abstraction coming out of New York.

Hardwick Hall tapestries: 440-year-old artefacts restored and displayed after two decades of work

Zena Hawley | Derbyshire Live | 21st July 2023

A 24 year renovation … OMG! The 13 Gideon tapestries were made in Flanders in 1578 and purchased by an Elizabethan aristocrat in 1592. They have hung in the same country house ever since. Because they are so old, so dirty and so big, the painstaking conservation (described here) has taken decades. A conservator estimates that the tapestries, now back on the same walls they have decorated for centuries, are good to go for “at least another 100 years”.

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