The Easel

27th October 2020

Amy Sillman

Johanna Fateman | 4Columns | 23rd October 2020

Will the pandemic prove an enduring focus for new art? What surprises in Sillman’s new show is not the “characteristically turbulent abstractions” that have brought her acclaim. Rather, it’s the uncharacteristic works – still lifes of flowers – that she made during the lockdown. “Things don’t have to be topical to be timely … Sillman’s blossoms speak not only to springtime renewal but, especially given our context, to mortality and death.”

F is for fake

Chris O’Connell and Savannah Maher | Texas Observer | 21st October 2020

The art world is slowly waking up to indigenous art. As that happens, authentication becomes a priority. In the case of American indigenous art, forgery seems widespread. However, it’s difficult to be sure. A “careless chain of custody” doesn’t prove a work is a fake, and sometimes artists copied their own works. It’s an unwanted problem for communities who “remain marginalized by inaccurate representations, persistent cultural appropriation”.

20th October 2020

Corita Kent’s Politics of Printmaking

Carina Bukuts | Frieze | 27th August 2020

Becoming a nun didn’t deflect Kent from her interest in art. She was teaching printmaking when, in 1962, she saw a show of Warhol’s soup can images. It impacted her art which became a distinctive mix of text, colour and images, deployed to promote her political views. Being an activist ‘pop artist nun’ didn’t win many fans in her church but public acclaim was more emphatic and re-emerges sporadically, most recently in fashion.  A good backgrounder is here.

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