The Easel

18th May 2021

Introducing: Jean Dubuffet

Camille Houzé | Barbican | 11th May 2021

Dubuffet was rebellious, hating academic art theory and rigid art traditions. His aim was to “‘amuse and interest the man in the street”. Child-like figures in his early works, then numerous experiments with “banal” non-traditional materials and, in late career, graffiti-like abstractions. Hockney, Haring and Basquiat are among those to have sung his praises. As for the man in the street, “the success my work has had is quite contrary to the beliefs I hold”.

The Turner Prize’s Radical Chic

JJ Charlesworth | ArtReview | 14th May 2021

A brisk slap in the face for the Tate and its famous Turner Prize. This year’s short-listed artists are all art collectives. Tate says this reflects “the mood” in British art. The writer doesn’t buy it – this is all about Tate positioning itself as “progressive”. It is doing so because of “the fashions prevalent among its institutional curators”. Catering to this group means neglecting the “diverse reality of its wider public” and its own responsibility for “a national conversation about art.”

The Making of Rodin review – not a radical, just a plain old genius

Jonathon Jones | The Guardian | 11th May 2021

A case of trying too hard? After umpteen Rodin shows, London’s Tate is showing a large array of Rodin’s preparatory plaster casts. Its unclear that they show something new. Repeated use of particular casts was nothing more than standard procedure for the day. Further, Rodin’s mix-and-match method has none of the spirit of today’s ready-mades. We are left with what’s already known – Rodin’s radical vision replaced stilted realism with the expressive modern body.

11th May 2021

Peter Hujar: The Show Must Go On

Laurie Barron | Ocula | 5th May 2021

Once just a minor figure in New York’s downtown subculture, Hujar is now seen as a great of American photography. Especially acclaimed are his meticulous, empathetic portraits. Drag performers were a particular fascination because of their courage to be different as well as the ambiguous dividing line between the person and the performance. Said Nan Goldin “he found beauty and value in every stage of life, and grace in every variety of flesh”.

Apocalypse now: John Akomfrah’s The Unintended Beauty of Disaster

Adrian Searle | The Guardian | 15th April 2021

There is plenty of acclaim for Ghanaian-born, London raised Akomfrah’s new show. His videos don’t offer a single flowing narrative. They are montages of images and video footage, visually different but arranged in “affective proximity”. His current work obviously addresses a #blacklivesmatter moment, but also themes of community, migration and the environment. Says one critic “[Collectively, they] stand among the great bodies of art produced this century”.

Markus Lüpertz: Recent Paintings

Joe Lloyd | Studio International | 3rd May 2021

Lüpertz believes in painting and sculpture only (forget new media) and is impatient with those who think otherwise. Like other post-war German artists, he is labelled a neo-Expressionist but that belies a career marked by “variousness of genres”. He has slalomed between extremes, “abstract and figurative … severity and smirk”, making much of his work “inscrutable”, an artist of prowess but one “easier to respect than enjoy”. A career bio on his 80th birthday is here.

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