The Easel

2nd November 2021

The restitution of African works puts the Senate and the art market on the wind

Martine Robert | Les Echo | 26th October 2021

France announced in 2017 that it would restitute cultural objects looted in Africa. As promised, some 26 objects are returning to Benin this month. Other countries are following suite. Still, controversy continues. One artist in Benin points out that African museums have been plagued by theft, fire and a shortage of qualitied staff. Further, a French supporter of restitution admits that African artworks in French museums are “excellent ambassadors of the culture of their countries”.

26th October 2021

Cartier’s hidden debt to Islamic art uneathed in new Exhibition

James Tarmy | Bloomberg | 22nd October 2021

Around 1900, Europe’s interest in Islamic art was shifting from idle curiosity to avid appreciation. Cartier, famous for its opulent ‘garland’ style – romantic bows and rounded shapes – picked up this change and started to incorporate Islamic geometric designs. It was not a passing fad but an abrupt and sustained aesthetic shift – “there’s no evolution … they used all these Islamic patterns all the time”. More images are here.

Sword fights on canvas: Georges Mathieu at Perrotin and Nahmad Contemporary

David Ebony | Art in America | 22nd October 2021

Postwar European abstraction leaned toward the geometric which didn’t enthuse Mathieu. Visiting New York, he met Pollock and others who, like himself, were exploring gestural abstraction. Thus encouraged, Mathieu built his career on flamboyant gestural paintings, executed at top speed. A revealed liking for painting for an audience did not enhance his reputation. Neither does it diminish his role in pioneering a European expression of “testosterone-driven, postwar angst”.

Older links
Newer links