The Easel

30th January 2024

Carl Andre, the pioneering Minimalist artist accused of murdering his wife, dies aged 88

Theo Farrant | Euronews | 25th January 2024

From his first exhibition in 1965, Andre wanted to show objects as “pure matter”, devoid of emotion. His severe minimalist works proved to be a huge influence on modern sculpture. One writer noted that minimalism shared with Pop “a coldness, an attachment to the novel and the technical no matter what form the results might take”. He was charged with his wife’s murder in 1985 and acquitted but some people never stopped wondering. An interview, as minimalist as his sculptures, is here.

600 years late, a forgotten Italian artist gets his first show — and it’s remarkable

Waldemar Januszczak | Waldemar.tv | 16th December 2023

If an artist is forgotten for 600 years, shouldn’t art history just move on? In the case of Pesellino, the answer is no. In his short life he won patronage from Florence’s Medici and Rome’s papal court. His few works are small but masterpieces of narrative clarity, finely drafted details and spatial clarity. So, why forgotten? Perhaps simply because his output was small – and often misattributed – and because he liked to collaborate. Says a London critic “the loveliest winter exhibition in years”. More images are here.

Stéphane Mandelbaum

Johanna Fateman | 4Columns | 26th January 2024

Mandelbaum was an outsider. He died an outsider too, shot having just committed an art burglary. In his short life he produced hundreds of portraits of the Brussels demimonde. Everyone looks tired, “swollen cheeks, greasy hair … The line between victim and oppressor, innocent and guilty, gets hopelessly blurred.” There is a churn of ideas – shifting identity, war guilt, self-doubt – that is ultimately “transfixing, bewildering”. The curator agrees; “This stuff is beyond edgy,” A bio piece is here.

A Major Caspar David Friedrich Show Brings the Underserved in From the Cold

Edna Bonhomme | Frieze | 24th January 2024

Friedrich is getting a retrospective to mark 250 years since his birth. He remains the star of German Romanticism and it’s easy to see why. His melancholic pictures of misty mountains viewed by the solo traveller speak to contemporary ideas – individualism, a respect for nature. Fine, except that that is a rather watered down version of Friedrich’s pre-occupations – ideas about God, the sublime and the German nation.  Still, reinventing an old-fashioned white guy for the modern age is not such a bad thing.

Tiffany’s abstract window

Karen Azoulay | Maharam | 10th January 2024

In his studio, Louis Tiffany produced a variety of stained glass objects, often with Art Nouveau styling. For his own apartment, though, he installed a unique leaded-glass window. The window’s asymmetrical pattern partly reflected his interest in North African textiles. More obviously, though, the central S curve gives it a distinctly abstract feel. This was “shockingly modern” for 1880 and pre-dated the full emergence of abstraction in painting by decades. It perfectly expressed Tiffany’s ambition to “paint with glass.” 

How “Unnamed Figures” at the American Folk Art Museum Challenges Dominant Narratives of American History

Karla Méndez | Elephant | 4th January 2024

Portraits are intended to flatter, to elevate. They can tell other stories too. In the case of 18th century American folk art they reveal Black erasure. In some cases, the absence is literal but other times Black figures are simply placed in the shadows. Focusing on the “there but not there” tendency reveals new historical narratives: Black contributors to nation building; the presence of slavery in the north; successful Black property owners – in other words, a more complete American history.

Long-searched-for Andy Warhol piece goes on display in Edinburgh

Nan Spowart | The National | 21st January 2024

Many have forgotten that when Warhol was a commercial illustrator, textile design was a major part of his job. Long before soup cans, his fabric designs used repeating motifs – butterflies, ice creams, suitcases – that somehow make utilitarian objects memorable. One critic notes that “they are unmistakably similar to his advertisement work, and just as concerned with selling to America’s shoppers”. Most of the designs were sold anonymously through agents – after all, who was Andy Warhol?

19th December 2023

Holidays

This is the year’s last regular newsletter. Next Tuesday, and the Tuesday after, we will highlight the year’s most popular stories among Easel subscribers. After a break of a few weeks, The Easel will resume on Tuesday January 30, 2024.

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Be impulsive – send your question or comment!

In a recent Easel, I invited readers to send in a question or comment on an “arty topics”. Click on the title above to see a list of thought starters. Our Contributing Editor, Morgan Meis, will combine these with his own musings on the year just past and whip them all into a delightful flummery that will appear at the start of 2024. Comments/questions/views can be sent to me, the editor, at: andrew@the-easel.com.

Small effort, nice reward!!`

The Triumph of Dana Schutz

Jerry Saltz | Vulture | 30th November 2023

A modern redemption story? In 2017 Schutz was excoriated for a painting of a socially sensitive subject. Everyone has moved on – mostly – and her new work is being acclaimed. Intricate paintings, in thick oils, are allegorical, “luridly iridescent moonscapes … giant marionette-like figures with spidery limbs and oversize heads.” Somehow, the impending chaos of all this detail is kept in check by her “stately composition”. Says one critic “one of America’s best painters”.

Vera Molnár: The grande dame of generative art

Bryan Martin | Sotheby's | 14th July 2023

Molnár started exploring computer generated art in 1960’s Paris when she queued alongside scientists to use a mainframe computer. Inspired by artists like Mondrian, she used computers to explore the boundary between regularity and chaos. Randomness, she said, was a “sort of artificial intuition” and claimed that Mozart used dice to introduce chance into his music. Fêted at the 2022 Venice Biennale, Molnár is widely regarded as a founder of generative art. An interview is here.

Best contemporary art books: a guide for 2023

Harriet Lloyd-Smith | Wallpaper | 11th March 2023

‘Best of’ lists are always worth a read – fun, often surprising and full of gift ideas – including for oneself. At this time of year, lists of best art books for 2023 are thick on the ground. My pick would be the linked list above, which has a slight UK tilt or this which leans Stateside. The NYT list is comprehensive, while the Christie’s list is hugely eclectic. Others are here, here, and here. A good list of photography books is here and, if you want something for the coffee table, consult this.

Robert Storr, the Bad Boy of Curating, Is Back, With a Large Group of Misfits, To Induce ‘Retinal Hysteria’

David Hiroshi Jager | The New York Sun | 29th November 2023

Despairing about the world? Storr, a renowned curator and writer, is interested in art that has that vibe – works that “vibrate with panic, uncontrollable anger, out-of-control laughter, orgasmic release”. Reviewers seem non-plussed at his show of provocative, irritating artworks – presumably a sign they didn’t like it. Storr responds, “like is a relatively weak emotion to have in relation to [a piece of] art. I have noticed it, and that signals to me it is substantial and strong.” An interview with Storr is here.

This Manet portrait of Berthe Morisot is ablaze with mutual attraction

Sebastian Smee | msn.com | 15th December 2023

A deep dive into one famous painting on which the writer is an expert. Manet was a conventional fellow and married but was bowled over on meeting Berthe Morisot in the Louvre. An affair being improper, he instead settled for painting her – repeatedly. “Manet responded to the sensuous charge in things … as the very flavor of a civilized existence. Without a whisper of doting, [Manet’s Repose] is a lesson in how to love”.

After the British Museum scandal, we’ve lost our faith in art institutions

Alastair Sooke | The Telegraph | 17th December 2023

An English art critic’s summary of 2023 struggles to avoid being a catalogue of art world woes. There have been some positives –notably the stunning Vermeer retrospective. But all those worries. Debate over the Elgin Marbles has turned acrimonious due to British Museum failings in the care of its collection. More broadly, museums are uncertain how to respond to social justice campaigns. Sighs the writer, at least the Vermeer show assures us there is “a huge audience for the Old Masters”.

William Blake was called a ‘lunatic’ in his lifetime. The Getty hails him as a visionary now

Christopher Knight | Yahoo | 12th December 2023

This writer gets straight to the point – “Blake was a bit of a nut”. While contemporaries like Constable and Turner gazed idealistically at the English countryside, Blake focused on his own “poetic imagination”. Apocalyptic though his imagery often was, he could also combine “Michelangelo’s drawing, the formal crispness of Raphael [and] Durer’s commitment to printmaking”. Such works, dismissed by his peers, are now thought “wonderfully weird”. Nutty or not, Blake is a superstar.

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