The Easel

24th August 2021

Shahzia Sikander – An Extraordinary Past in Present Time

Jennifer Musawwir | Daily Art Magazine | 21st July 2021

To the non-specialist, Indo-Persian miniature painting seems a world unto itself, unchanging. Well, not quite. Sikander trained in this artform but has since “blown it open” by bringing abstract elements into these finely detailed works. After her move to the US, Sikander’s work was initially greeted with the ‘rebel Muslim woman’ label. Now it is recognized as a study of womanhood and femininity where Mughal art is a reference point but not its focus.

A First-Rate Weathervane Show at the American Folk Art Museum

Brian Allen | National Review | 21st August 2021

When people walked everywhere, weathervanes were a building’s “exclamation point”. Besides providing weather information they also declared allegiance, or perhaps just local pride. As such they were a notable area of American craft and “at their finest, as much art as the best American silver and furniture.” At some point, though, when horse and buggies were common, their audience dwindled and weathervanes became merely quaint. More images are here.

Hiro, fashion photographer with an eye for the surreal, dies at 90

Harrison Smith | The Washington Post | 19th August 2021

Richard Avedon’s early mentoring of Hiro didn’t last long because Hiro’s talent was so abundant. He changed commercial photography using bold colours and precise, sometimes surreal juxtapositions. Said one critic “he introduced into fashion an extreme formalism that had everything to do with exploring the boundaries of photography and less to do with selling anything. In front of his best photographs we often ask, what are we seeing?”

17th August 2021

Can We Ever Look at Titian’s Paintings the Same Way Again?

Holland Cotter | The New York Times | 12th August 2021

In London, this show was praised to the heavens. Now in New York, there is more rhapsodizing about Titian – “an ingenious dramatist … one of history’s magician paint-movers”. However, there is an elephant in the room. These paintings feature sexual violence and use the female nude as an “erotic emblem”. Titian’s client was a world-conquering ruler, so demure was not an option. Understood – but should we simply ignore the clash of “aesthetics and ethics”?

Joseph Yoakum and adventurous facts

Sophie Varin | Conceptual Fine Arts | 26th July 2021

Born in 1891, Yoakum didn’t create an artwork until 1962. After that – a torrent, about 2000 “radiant” works up to his death in 1971. Many are landscapes, done with ballpoint pen and coloured pencils and often only vaguely resembling actual places. These works express a “spiritual vision”, with improbable mountains and swaying cliffs. But we are “never entirely mislead … you believe what you see as much as you see what you believe”.

Vanishing Point

Matthew Wilcox | Bonhams | 13th June 2021

Around 1900, Edward Curtis decided to photograph life in the 86 native American tribes. His near 30-year effort created a huge and unique record of indigenous life and culture. Some now think Curtis sanitized and exoticized tribal life, and it is true that Curtis did stage some images. Others, including some indigenous figures, think he was well motivated and created a cultural record that would otherwise not exist. “Truth [in photography] … is often not straightforward”.

Older links
Newer links