The Easel

1st March 2022

MoMA celebrates South Asian architecture in the postcolonial era

Pei-Ru Keh | Wallpaper | 20th February 2022

South Asian art is starved of coverage, as is its architecture. An exhibition of this architecture after the British Raj shows how it expressed not just new optimism but also a “new political reality”. Concrete, ideal for adapting a modernist architectural idiom to local conditions, features everywhere – the sustainability designs of India’s Balkrishna Doshi through to the houses of Sri Lanka’s Minette de Silva. Sighs one critic “it’s a joy to see so many projects that aren’t sealed glass boxes”.

Dan Graham on creating art through architecture

Elana Castle | Frame | 21st January 2022

“Conceptual artist” doesn’t give much of a clue to Graham’s work. His most acclaimed works are “pavilions” – sculptural/architectural structures of glass that allow viewers to look at others and be looked at themselves. Such works reflect Graham’s enduring interest in the relationship between performer and audience, a common thread of sorts with his other interests – writing, rock music, television and (he wished) fashion. A more comprehensive interview is here.

22nd February 2022

The Outlands

Mark Durden | Lensculture | 15th February 2022

A “watershed” show in 1976 of Eggleston’s photographs marked the art world’s acceptance of colour photography. His images, taken around his hometown of Memphis, are studies of the mundane – shops, cars, houses, gas stations – “seemingly without judgement and certainly without commentary”.  While now showing signs of age, this body of work comprises “one of the most intensive and concentrated responses to place in the history of photography.”

Anatomy of an artwork: American People Series #20: Die, 1967 by Faith Ringgold

Editors | artspace | 4th February 2022

Ringgold’s art is activist art. Being a figurative painter at a time when abstraction was ascendant meant her early career was a struggle. Still, those civil rights era works about America’s poor treatment of blacks and women include some enduring images. Ringgold painted Die in 1967 after seeing Picasso’s Guernica. Despite its sombre subject matter, it has an underlying optimism – reform, not revolution. Indeed, she went on to write 17 children’s books. More images are here.

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