The Easel

7th May 2019

At 84, Sheila Hicks Is Still Making Defiant, Honest Art

Alina Cohen | Artsy | 2nd May 2019

A bumpy interview. Hicks likes her tapestries and wall hangings big. Sadly, they are sometimes thrown out when foyers get a make-over. Hicks is unfazed by the implied lack of recognition of her art. Of her piece shown at the last Venice Biennale: “The idea of its monumentality is to envelop you … you’re not thinking about the grains of the sugar. You’re into a very big meringue”. A better, older interview is here.

30th April 2019

El Anatsui’s Monumental New Show Is an Act of Justice

Jason Farago | The New York Times | 29th March 2019

A fierce review. The Ghanaian Anatsui makes textile-like wall sculptures using bottle caps, “some of the most extraordinary sculptures of this new century”. Fumes the writer, why are in-depth exhibitions of this artist so rare? Anatsui seems unbothered: “Individual little caps don’t have much to say but when I put them together, then they have a voice.” Indeed. Images are here.

Obituary: Monir Farmanfarmaian, the artist who opened the world’s eyes to Iran

Roland Hughes | bbc.com | 28th April 2019

An encounter with traditional cut-glass mosaics in an Iranian mosque changed Farmanfarmaian’s career. Thereafter she blazed a trail of allying “modernist abstraction with Islamic ornament.” This brought international acclaim as well as decades-long exile from Iran. Times change – a museum dedicated to her “lucent” work recently opened in Tehran. Images are here.

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