The Easel

3rd December 2024

Picasso: printmaker at the British Museum review – an eye-opener of a show in more ways than one

Melanie McDonough | The Standard | 6th November 2024

Picasso loved the print medium – in bursts. His print activity was dominated by two vaunted collections – the mid-career Vollard Suite and the huge 347 Suite done toward the end of his life. At well over 2000 works, printmaking was a major part of his oeuvre. It was a place to develop ideas (often inspired by classical sculpture) and express his erotic obsessions. And print offered many different techniques. He mastered all of them, with “insolent ease”.

The magic of Tirzah Garwood

Matthew Lyons | Engelsberg Ideas | 26th November 2024

Garwood married a renowned artist who died early in WW2. Her own death, soon after the war, propelled her “into an unearned oblivion”. A current London exhibition is her first in 70 years. After an initial foray into woodblock printing, she switched to painting, capturing a distinctive “English vernacular … dog shows, vegetable gardens, quiet domesticity”. Some works might seem “childlike”, but they are “without sentimentality. [This is] life itself hiding in plain sight. The more you look, the more astonishing it all is.”

26th November 2024

Islamic art and the sumptuous Victorian designs of William Morris

Weronika Strzyżyńska | Hyphen | 11th November 2024

William Morris was a quintessentially English designer, and his wallpapers and fabrics celebrated the flora and fauna of the English countryside. Yet behind his designs was a profound influence from Islamic arts. He was an active collector of Middle Eastern carpets and decorative tiling, and their flower motifs and geometric patterns were reflected in his wallpaper designs. Said he, “Persia has become holy land, for there in the process of time our art was perfected”. An essay by a curator is here.

Should we open our hearts to Vanessa Bell?

Waldemar Januszczak | Waldemar.tv | 18th November 2024

Some critics think Bell’s art deserves more acclaim. She picked up on early modernism, not just in painting but also in ceramics, furniture and illustration. From one perspective, “openness to experimentation” is a good thing. Yet it feeds the criticism that her work is derivative. “[She was influenced] by the post-impressionists. “Which ones?” you may be wondering. All of them! Cézanne, Seurat, Gauguin, Van Gogh, [all have] an impact. In 1912 alone she attempted a dozen approaches …” 

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