The Easel

15th February 2022

Louise Bourgeois: The Woven Child, Hayward Gallery, review: So good it will give you shivers

Hettie Judah | iNews | 9th February 2022

Drawing on a troubled childhood Bourgeois fashioned a stellar career as a sculptor. Her late works were often in textiles, using skills picked up from her family home. Many are “sexy/violent” – cloth heads for example, that “howl, kiss, smirk, leer”. She saw spiders as “agents of repair” but in her work they also convey menace.  Some works are obvious but “my God, when Bourgeois’s good it gives you shivers.”

Astonishing and gripping: Van Gogh’s Self Portraits at the Courtauld reviewed

Martin Gayford | The Spectator | 12th February 2022

London’s Courtauld has re-opened with a “wonderous” show of van Gogh’s self-portraits, done in his last years of life. The suggestion that they are most notable for showcasing his evolving technique is so odd that one critic snorts, “[the curators] can, frankly, piss off.” Rather, they collectively reveal van Gogh’s struggle to cope with periodic mental collapse. “These pictures amount to an utterly gripping exercise in self-examination. [His] will to paint was more powerful, apparently, than the will to live.”

Why Leonora Carrington’s work feels so of the moment

Kate Dwyer | W Magazine | 5th February 2022

A backgrounder on the surrealist artist Leonora Carrington. Rebelling against her wealthy family she fell in with the surrealists, establishing herself on equal terms with the men. Her paintings of enigmatic situations and otherworldly creatures are underlain by a “slightly offbeat humor”, which is “not what you get in French [or American] Surrealism.” This year’s Venice Biennale is titled The Milk of Dreams, the phrase taken from one of Carrington’s books.

8th February 2022

A Look at the Wallace Collection, Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow

Brian Allen | National Review | 3rd February 2022

The Wallace Collection bequest is probably the most valuable such gift Britain has ever received. That makes the collection a story in itself. Five generations of the family used their wealth to build an immense art collection – Rembrandt, Rubens, Velazquez, French Rococo paintings galore, galleries “full of grand stuff”. The Collection has recently started loaning works and has a plan to “transform the visitor experience”. Says this US writer – “Perfection is never transformed for the better.”

Older links
Newer links