The Easel

25th April 2023

Hilma af Klint & Piet Mondrian: Forms of Life review – a thrillingly odd couple

A show directly comparing Mondrian and Af Klint sounds risky and so it proves  These artists’ personal stories have some parallels – both were fascinated by the natural world before rach developed spiritually influenced abstract styles. But few critics see much commonality in their art.  Af Klint’s art is “strangely inert … you are constantly trying to understand the systems of belief. With Piet Mondrian, you are witnessing the evolution of art.”

Anthony Caro: The Inspiration of Architecture

Caro called his work “sculpitecture”, reflecting his interest in scale and volume. The overlap goes only so far – architecture is so much about planning whereas the modernist abstract beauty of Caro’s sculptures is anything but planned. They inhabit an “in between zone” says one reviewer, a mix of found and manufactured components that have “the vernacular of the construction site”.  So, does Caro’s work sing or scream when placed next to harmonious architecture? “A bit of both”.

18th April 2023

The exquisite pottery of Lucie Rie

When Rie fled to London in 1938, she carried with her the urban aesthetic of Viennese Modernism. It was hardly a good fit with English ceramics comfortable in the embrace of “rustic nostalgia”. As a “ravishing” exhibition shows, she not only prospered but helped elevate the status of studio ceramics. The pared back elegance of her designs, exquisite colours and different surface treatments are “astonishingly self-sufficient [and] so giving of their beauty.”

The Rossettis: Radical? Plain creepy, more like

In Britain’s popular imagination, the 19th century Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was a group of artistic creatives. However, a London show featuring the Rosetti family – Brotherhood stalwarts – fails to live up to this hype.  Women are depicted as femme fatales – “bee-stung lips, voluminous hair and languor”. Stylistic allusions to early Renaissance art only serve to make the art look “fogeyish”. One critic calls the show “a bloated mess”. All it offers, observes another, is “nice wallpaper”.