The Easel

22nd November 2022

Meret Oppenheim Exhibition Is a Marvel about a Swiss Unicorn

Brian Allen | National Review | 19th November 2022

Oppenheim’s fur-covered teacup was so instantly famous that it makes her seem a ‘one hit wonder’. She wasn’t. After a lean two decades, her diverse and cerebral output– paintings, sculpture, assemblages, collage – reveals less an orthodox surrealist than someone able to put unlikely things together. States one critic “Oppenheim deserves a place in any modernist pantheon you can assemble.”

Maya Lin’s Vietnam memorial blazed a path in 1982, but no one followed

Philip Kennicott | Houston Chronicle | 16th November 2022

Washington’s Vietnam Veterans Memorial is “the most consequential monument of the 20th century”. Initially crticised by some as a “wall of shame”, its radical character is, forty years on, more easily seen. Lin wanted the memorial to be experienced as art – “open ended, ambiguous” – rather than a “curated sentimental experience”. Although now widely copied, no similar work “forces the visitor into the emotional space and isolated contemplation” of this memorial. An interview with Lin is here.

In Memoriam: Billy Al Bengston (1934–2022)

Editors | Unframed | 14th October 2022

At one time, Los Angeles was an art world “afterthought”. Its now loftier status owes something to Bengston. His early 1960’s minimalist works, often painted with gleaming auto lacquers, referenced biker culture and were early examples of consumer culture influencing fine art. This gave LA credibility with the New York-centric art world. Presumably it was less enthused by Bengston’s later comment that “both racing and art take tenacity, talent, hard work, knowledge and skill”.

The best female Old Master you’ve never heard of. Until now.

Malcolm Gay | The Boston Globe | 10th November 2022

A chance discovery in a Vienna museum in the 1990’s has uncovered Michaelina Wautier as a major Baroque-era artist. She was adept not just in the ‘female’ domain of still lifes and portraits but also complex history paintings and even male nudes. Art market valuations have skyrocketed leading to the emergence of further works – now numbering about 40 – including some previously attributed to male artists. Wonders a curator “how did we miss these things for so long?” More background is here.

15th November 2022

Still hot. Maurice Sendak’s ageless imagination

Nicole Rudick | Artforum | 31st October 2022

Believing children capable of pragmatic thinking, Sendak’s acclaimed illustrations combine “seriousness and play … and above all, truthfulness”. ‘To convey this complexity he frequently drew on art history. His art in Mr Rabbit and the Lovely Present, for example, seems to set the story in Monet’s gardens. Other work contains “a symphony of homages” to Titian, El Greco and Blake. All were used in “blending a child’s perspective with the visual vocabulary of “grown up” fine art”.

Hollow City

Jackson Arn | The Baffler | 2nd November 2022

The Whitney’s Hopper exhibition is different, it claims, because it highlights his focus on New York. Hopper’s paintings, though, are not exactly strong evidence. Where are the New York crowds, or New York’s looming skyscrapers? Are we back to Hopper’s theme of “quiet desperation”? Perhaps not – his New Yorkers don’t seem miserable but instead, seem to just “sit and wait”.  If Hopper’s pictures have a mood of despair, they also carry a “twinge of hope”. In this particular city, things can change.

Lee Bontecou, Artist of Delightfully Uncategorizable Sculptures, Dies at 91

Jasmine Liu | Hyperallergic | 9th November 2022

Recognition arrived quickly for Bontecou, on the strength of her unclassifiable sculptural reliefs – bulbous works with fabric stretched across a metal armature. Often, they featured a central black void-like structure. She didn’t help much by way of explanation, stating that these works were “too rich” for minimalism (obvious) but weren’t about “feminist issues”. Over the last decade there has been a revival of interest in her work. A video is here and detailed review here.

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