The Easel

26th April 2022

Sheila Hicks: Off Grid

Beth Williamson | Studio International | 19th April 2022

Hicks, the eminent textile artist, claims that textiles are “a crucial and essential component” across all cultures. She has walked that talk, working with craftspeople in many different cultures. What distinguishes her work, though, is how far she has gone beyond those craft foundations. Compared with her early loom-based pieces, many are now sculptural and abstract, use non-traditional techniques and incorporate diverse materials. “Simply delicious”, enthuses this writer.

The exquisite pottery of Richard Batterham

David Sexton | The Spectator | 23rd April 2022

How does the traditional fit into contemporary art? Working with “tide-like regularity” Batterham handmade beautiful, minimally decorated, stoneware ceramics, using just a small repertoire of designs.  One writer described his work as “for us – ordinary people – not for museums”. His valedictory show in London has received modest coverage. Says the writer, his “simple pieces can shape your sensibility more directly than less accessible fine artworks”.  A video (30 min) is here.

Kawanabe Kyōsai: the demon with a brush

Christopher Harding | RA Magazine | 2nd March 2022

The trade deals forced on Japan by Admiral Perry in 1853 were seen internally as a political and commercial “humiliation”. The consequent political upheaval fascinated Kyōsai. A “masterly” painter, he also had a “mischievous genius” for satire and used it to highlight the dilemma of wanting both Western approval and political autonomy. Today Kyōsai is “one of the best loved chroniclers of Japan’s entry into the modern world”.

19th April 2022

Discovering Frank Auerbach’s true colours

Anthea Gerrie | The JC | 7th April 2022

A show of Auerbach’s paintings and drawings reveals the intricacy of his work process.  He is renowned for attempting a painting, scaping off the result and then repeating that process multiple times. This formidable effort is preceded by repeated drawings of the image. He draws not to record an image, he says; rather, “it’s a question of invention”. Drawings “drive” a new show and are Auerbach’s response to discovering, when he turned to painting, the “struggle to get it right”.

A State of Matter: Modern and Contemporary Glass Sculpture

Joe Lloyd | Studio International | 10th March 2022

Some think glass is too pretty a material to be taken seriously as fine art. The writer pushes back, politely, noting the many innovative ways glass is now being worked. True. What he bypasses, though, is whether the complexities of working with glass limit its use. Says a curator “interest in glass as a material for sculpture has never been greater.” Responds one critic “what really astonishes about contemporary glass is how little progress has been made since the Romans.”

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