The Easel

21st December 2021

Life Between Islands, Tate Britain, review: an exhilarating, ambitious look at the British Caribbean story

Hettie Judah | iNews | 7th December 2021

Immigrants from the Caribbean arrived in a post-war Britain that was reluctant to accept them. A show of British-Caribbean art belatedly acknowledges their “massive” impact on British culture. Whatever “British-Caribbean” means, it covers a diverse group of artists, making the show “baggy, rowdy … full of competing voices”. Socio-political overtones do not drown out a “celebratory Caribbean aesthetic”. Says one writer “it makes you damn grateful for immigration.”

Hélène Binet’s architectural photography celebrated in Royal Academy show

Joe Lloyd | Icon | 25th October 2021

Architectural photography worries architects, because images may define a building in a way inconsistent with their vision.  In Binet’s case, she has the eye to define “the place where the building is made” and let that imply the rest of the structure.  That’s more easily said than done, as it requires striking a balance between one detail and the complexity of the whole structure. Says one architect, Binet shows the “luminosity of texture … and the enigma of presence”. Images are here.

14th December 2021

The Neglected Afterlife of the Great Georges Braque

Michael Glover | Hyperallergic | 9th December 2021

Braque co-invented cubism and was the first modern artist given a show at the Louvre. Why is his profile so low? He was “a swimmer against the currents”, someone without the gift of self-promotion. Notes one critic he “”did not paint “look at me” but “here it is””. For a profile of this artist, none is better than the beautiful essay by Picasso’s biographer. Braque had a “zenlike spirituality … [on visiting his studio] I felt I had arrived at the very heart of painting.”

Lubaina Himid, Tate Modern, review: Rich, involving works with a political kick

Hettie Judah | iNews | 30th November 2021

This retrospective is, everyone agrees, well overdue. Why then is there a tone of expectations unfulfilled? The themes of Himid’s career emerge clearly – colonialism, our unequal present. Her painterly skills, wit and clever use of materials – the things that have made her so influential – make many works “great”. As a show, though, it is “rather baggy and lacks focus”. Or, as one critic says, the show “is about as dangerous as a painting of a hammer. It doesn’t escape from art into life.”

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