The Easel

13th October 2020

Robert Kobayashi at Susan Inglett Gallery

Jan Garden Castro | Whitehot Magazine | 1st October 2020

Kobayashi was a charming figure in New York’s art world. After trying painting, he began using strips of tin and nails to make portraits, still lifes and sculptures. The results were somewhat akin to pointillist paintings. Kobayashi avoided gallery representation and attention from critics was therefore sporadic. He put his whimsical works in a shopfront of his studio building; the neighbours complained if new pieces were slow to appear.

6th October 2020

David Hockney’s Paintings Are World Renowned, But He Never Lost His Desire to Draw

David D’Arcy | Observer | 4th October 2020

While there may be some unevenness in Hockney’s overall output, when it comes to drawing he is a “master”. What jumps out from this current New York show is his variety – pencil, charcoal, Polaroid, iPad – the emotion he is able to convey about those he sketches, and an allegiance to the truth.  Enthuses one writer “the intensity of Hockney’s self-inspection, fag in mouth, bears comparison with Rembrandt.” Images are here.

The Later Work of Dorothea Tanning

Craig Morgan Teicher | The Paris Review | 1st October 2020

Art history’s coverage of Tanning is rather one dimensional. Recognition came more from her marriage to Max Ernst than her own “almost photo-realistic” surrealism. Beyond that, not much is said. In fact, she left surrealism behind. Her later works were “unprecedented creations as much about the paint itself as about what she painted. [She] accomplishes everything the abstract expressionists set out to do.” A recent biography is covered here.

The Demolition of LACMA: Art Sacrificed to Architecture

Joseph Giovannini | The New York Review of Books | 2nd October 2020

Fierce controversy over the re-build of Los Angeles’ major museum stems from disagreements about how art should be displayed. The approved plan aims to avoid displays that are “Eurocentric” or that impose a “hierarchical narrative”. Opponents think the museum’s collection should provide context for items on display. An aggravation – the new plan diminishes gallery display space. The writer’s view: the plan is “a very expensive betrayal of the public trust”.

Gregory Crewdson’s photos reveal melancholy and mystery in small-town America

Jacqui Palumbo | CNN | 30th September 2020

Crewdson specializes in constructed images – photographs where he creates many aspects of the image. This practice may sound like contemporary movie-making but actually has a history in photography going back to Victorian times. His current work, set in a “dreary post-industrial town”, exudes a sense of malaise.  Says one writer, his are “half-stories, with no prelude and no denouement”.

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