The Easel

19th November 2019

The Ceaseless Innovation of Duane Michals

Some artists – just a few – seem endlessly innovative. Michals is one. He was never attracted to the photography of objective story telling, à la Life magazine. His work is almost the opposite – staged sequences, handwriting on his images, manipulated images. In so doing he has expanded what photography can be. As the curator expresses it “Duane cut photography’s umbilical cord”.

Curators of Culture

In a landmark moment, New York’s Met is holding an exhibition of native American art. Good news, right? Well, not according to this writer who argues that this “deeply depressing” show fails to present objects in their cultural context. Others suggest that many items, being ceremonial, are not even art. The Met protests that it consulted widely on the show but is now moving to hire a curator specialized in this area.