The Easel

22nd November 2022

John Currin’s Paintings Are Disgusting and Amoral. That’s Why They’re So Good

Rosanna McLaughlin | ArtReview | 14th November 2022

Libido is in danger of becoming a “persona non grata, an entity too embarrassing to engage with openly” in contemporary art. Figurative painting is increasingly populated with works driven by a desire to be ethically good while avoiding “interiority”. Enter the work of John Currin, an artist known for his “libidinous” portraits of women. His current work is “horny, gross and humiliating” . But it expresses a sought-after quality – spirit. “A sick spirit, undoubtedly, but a spirit nonetheless.”

A thrilling female perspective on sex, self, birth and death

Hettie Judah | iNews | 16th November 2022

A Royal Academy group show of early twentieth century female artists is an “essay in rediscovery”.  Kollwitz – the best known – is especially accomplished though many critics also note Modersohn-Becker’s “singular brilliance”. While stylistically diverse, they were collectively “central” to the emergence of German expressionism. Further, in contrast to the “masculinised gaze” of Gauguin and Picasso, this is “art rooted in the body, in feeling … a woman’s perspective”.

Magdalena Abakanowicz at Tate Modern: strange, evocative, extremely suggestive tapestries that think they’re sculptures

Alastair Sooke | The Telegraph | 15th November 2022

You probably haven’t heard of Abakanowicz. In the 1970’s, though, her enormous textile sculptures were seen internationally as a commentary on communist Poland. More likely they explored her view that fibre is “the basic element constructing the organic world”. She helped spark a revival in fibre sculpture. Her works, resembling huge coats or hollow trees invite, as one critic puts it, “physical and psychological closeness”. This writer agrees, calling them “a superb contribution to 20th century art”.

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