The Easel

17th June 2025

Steamy scenes in urban underworlds were Edward Burra’s great subject—now they’re coming to Tate Britain

Florence Hallett | The Art Newspaper | 30th May 2025

Blessed with family wealth but cursed with ill-health Burra was an eccentric. When he started painting in the 1920’s, abstract work in oils was all the rage. He was the odd man out, preferring watercolours and painteing the “louche underbelly of city life”. They are satirical, resonating somewhat with George Grosz’s works about Weimar Germany. Says one writer, “one of the most overlooked artists of the 20th century”.

10th June 2025

Beyond Grosz

James Panero | The New Criterion | 1st May 2025

Germany’s Expressionist movement used shrill colours and bold forms to convey the anxieties of urban life. But defeat in war, a failed monarchy and a failed Weimar republic yielded tumult and a view that expressionism was “overly aesthetic”. Artists like Beckmann, Dix and others responded with “New Objectivity” art that was technically more traditional, yet pitiless and brutal.  Soon to be called degenerate, it portrayed a Germany losing its collective mind. “It is impossible not to see a ticking alarm clock”.

Older links