The Easel

12th May 2020

Alina Szapocznikow’s Radical Instability

In 1960’s New York, “emotionless” minimalist sculptures were all the rage. Some European sculptors wanted the opposite – sculpture that expressed emotion. Szapocznikow was one. Her sculptures, “awkward objects … that capture the fleeting moments of life” included body parts, cast in unconventional materials like resin. Her works are of their time but “contributed significantly to redefining the visual language of sculpture today”.

5th May 2020

Shiva the Inscrutable

Appreciation of an 11th century devotional statue of the great Hindu god Shiva. Here, he takes the form of Nataraja, the cosmic dancer. “His right foot crushes a demon. In his right hand he holds a drum — its boom represents the resonance of creation itself — and in his left, fire, which ravishes the world. His dance feels like an act of gymnastic brilliance … with nothing but his own miraculous powers of balance to stop him falling away into nothingness.”