The Easel

15th October 2024

Machines like us

Silke Hohmann | Monopol | 7th October 2024

When Lee builds her “body horror” sculptures, she isn’t looking for a considered judgement but rather wants to “trigger extreme feelings.” As the recipient of this year’s Tate Turbine Hall commission, her latest work is there, writ large. The assemblage of pumps, motors and hoses drip and squirt yukky-looking fluids, leading the writer to call it “disturbingly dark work that balances on the edge of disgust”.  Another critic says its “the best installation for years.”  A third says its kitsch. Phew! Images are here.

Francis Bacon: A Very Human Presence

Christian House | Sotheby's | 23rd September 2024

It has been said that Bacon’s work attracts admiration rather than fondness. That’s understandable given the “painterly violence” of his portraits. One is described as “monstrous … [the subject’s] face a pummelled, minced mask of meat”. Lovers appear in different palettes – “a bruised prism of hues, from rich plums to sickly greens and deep pinks”. Says one smitten critic “Bacon holds his own here with Rembrandt [and] with Velázquez’s flickering fluid brushwork”.

Fashion photography is in vogue

Staff | The Economist | 3rd October 2024

Fashion photography is increasingly “coveted” as fine art. Is that because we are more celebrity-obsessed, or because fashion photography has changed? Deborah Turbeville’s photography suggests the latter. Diverging from the usual glossy fashion aesthetic, her images were unpolished and show women preoccupied with their own thoughts. Such images proved influential and brought a darker element to fashion. Said Turbeville “I never thought the clothes were the main thing.”

8th October 2024

Mike Kelley, Ghost and Spirit review: American artist’s conceptual art was trashy, visceral and hilarious

Mark Hudson | The Independant | 1st October 2024

When looking at Kelley’s work, says the writer, just “[go] with the flow”. A product of working class Detroit, Kelley adopted the persona of the disgruntled adolescent.  His influential conceptual art is diverse – performance to video, sculpture to drawing, sewing and stuffed toys – full of ideas and, at times, “wilful crassness”.  “Whether he was a perverse genius or a slightly creepy provocateur (likely both) this show has incredible energy, a sense of the mess and confusion of real life blasting through it.”

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