The Easel

12th November 2024

How a single year in Florence changed art forever

Martin Gayford | The Spectator | 2nd November 2024

Renaissance art seems so distant that we can lose the drama surrounding its creation. Florence in 1504 is a case in point. Michelangelo and da Vinci “distained” each other. Then, a young Raphael arrived, learned from both and started winning commissions they probably wanted. Rivalries sharpened further. Da Vinci and Michelangelo, seeing “flaws” in each other’s work, tried to out-do the other while the observant Raphael produced his “harmonious synthesis”. How very contemporary. Background is here.

I ventured to Michael Heizer’s remote land art masterwork—and left transformed

William Van Meter | artnet news | 6th November 2024

To call this piece an appreciation would be an understatement. Located in the desert, Heizer’s monumental land art/sculpture City is “an oasis in the vastness.  It is its own ecosystem, an awe-inspiring, soul-cleansing, liberating, transcendental experience. There was an electric frisson that overtook me … a palpable feeling I got once before when visiting Pompeii. More than a monument, it delves into the ancient and the unknown. Profound.” A review of some other Heizer sculptures is here.

The drawings the Shakers got from God

Jackson Arn | The New Yorker | 7th October 2024

The Shakers led famously unadorned, disciplined lives. Their simple, elegant furniture is celebrated while their art – notably drawings – deserve greater attention. Made exclusively by women and inspired by spiritual visions, drawings were gifted to other communities. They were not intended for display, pride and ownership both being sinful. Contrasting with their severe lives, these drawings are “ravishing” and brimming with colour – somewhat akin to the godless outside world. If you have paywall problems, another review is here.

The Great Mughals review – dazzling decorous delights waft you to paradise

Jonathan Jones | The Guardian | 6th November 2024

The Mughals were a contradiction. They were violent, engaging in palace coups at home and military conquest abroad. Yet their courts were religiously tolerant and intellectually open, incorporating Central Asian, Persian and European influences. Immensely wealthy at their peak (about 1560 – 1660) their ravishing palaces were full of art, books and precious objects. Their floral patterning was widely influential. Their gardens were to die for. Which, eventually, they did. Images and background are here.

Looking at Art Will Never Be the Same Again

Francesca Billington | The Nation | 6th November 2024

Is it OK to take photos with your phone at a gallery? If we want to pay “rapt attention” to the art, perhaps not. An older idea, though, was that looking at art was “social spectatorship”, so texting and sharing images seems fine. A new book links the issue to how phones have reduced our attention span. Yet phones provide information quickly, becoming “a “prosthesis for viewing”. Is this now blaming phones for an old issue, namely whether expert opinion (however delivered) ends up telling people what to think about art.

5th November 2024

Egypt is building a $1-billion mega-museum. Will it bring Egyptology home?

Miryam Naddaf | Nature | 22nd May 2024

After decades of construction, the Grand Egyptian Museum is (mostly) open. It is immense. Its conservation centre, similarly huge, will prioritise study of Tutankhamun’s treasures, 70% of which have never been properly analysed. Some hope the museum will help “reclaim a national narrative of Egyptology”, long dominated by academics from abroad. And the objects? “Ancient Egyptian art is so exquisite … so in line with our ideas of beauty that [properly displayed] the effect is dazzling.”

“It’s Not Real But It Happened”: A Sophie Calle Survey Confronts the Stories We Tell Ourselves

Emily Watlington | Art in America | 1st November 2024

Calle’s self-description, a “narrative artist”, hides a lot. Notable projects include following a man across Europe, secretly photographing guests’ belongings in hotel rooms, and a narrated video of a road trip with her lover. Cumulatively, they are about “the boundaries between public and private; truth and fiction”, issues of great contemporary relevance. One writer observes “the unconsidered self, in possession of a supposedly natural story, is lost in Calle’s carefully staged endeavours, but [Calle gains an art book].”

Drawing the Italian Renaissance review: This will delight Da Vinci and Michelangelo fans

Florence Hallett | iNews | 2nd November 2024

Drawing flourished in the Renaissance and not just because paper had become affordable. Drawing was also an ideal medium in which to explore new ideas, notably a naturalistic approach to portraiture. While it might have started as a subsidiary activity, the “immediacy and virtuosity” of drawing established it as a unique artform. Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael and others all developed and shared their ideas on paper. Collectively, drawing helped define the aesthetic of the Renaissance. A “sensational” show.

Gustave Caillebotte — a once-in-a-generation show at the Musée d’Orsay

Jackie Wullschlager | Financial Times | 31st October 2024

“Lone men haunt Caillebotte’s paintings.” The writer feels this “vast” retrospective is rather fixated on the matter, although it seems a reasonable inquiry. Male figures are more common in his work compared to the other Impressionists. Anyway, this writer isn’t pleased, especially as Caillebotte’s “truly original” flower paintings are omitted.  What seems agreed, though, is that Caillebotte had a unique vision of Paris’s urban life, “recognisable but imaginatively transformed.” [If the FT link doesn’t work, try this.]

Rosario de Velasco

Staff | Burlington | 1st November 2024

Why did de Velasco become invisible? Let’s count the ways. She was a reputable female artist in macho 1930’s Spain, but by WW2 had fallen from view. Her elegant figurations that blended an Old Masters style with modern realism, were out of step with an art establishment that favoured abstraction. Lastly, her support for the anti-democratic forces in the civil war “sidelined” her among those writing art history. Images are here.

The rebel painter who ushered in a new era of Indian art

Janhavee Moole | bbc.com | 2nd November 2024

Gaitonde had a liking for silence, perhaps reflecting the multiple artistic influences he was juggling. Although Gaitonde trained in realist Indian miniature painting, both Paul Klee and, later, Mark Rothko made him, as he stated it, a “non-objective” painter. He didn’t mean he was an abstractionist, though it’s difficult to explain the difference. He was, says a writer, a “radical individualist” intent on discovering “not visions of the outer world, but visions of his inner self.” A backgrounder is here.

Museum shows can be death for street art. Osgemeos look alive and well.

Sebastian Smee | Yahoo | 1st November 2024

Apart from rare examples like Keith Haring, graffiti artists just don’t get art world attention. Brazilian duo Osgemeos seem another exception to this rule. Their art comes out of 1980’s hip hop and comprises intricate drawings, paintings and sculptures. So, what allows them to straddle the street art / fine art divide? Their art is original but also “twee and repetitive”, prone to nostalgia for 1980’s-style graffiti. This writer found Osgemeos’ appeal came from elsewhere: “discernment is not the point: exuberance is.”

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