The Easel

7th November 2023

The Land Carries Our Ancestors: Contemporary Art by Native Americans

Phoebe Farris | Cultural Survival | 4th October 2023

Washington’s National Gallery is having its first show of contemporary native American art in 70 years. So overdue! One challenge to appreciating this work is its radically different ideas of landscape. Says the curator, an acclaimed artist, “a sacred place is everything around us … all six directions. [These] works do not necessarily fit into the mainstream European definition of landscape, with a horizon line and a blue sky.” The linked piece is something of an explainer.

Robert Irwin, pioneer of Light and Space art who designed Getty’s Central Garden, dies at 95

Christopher Knight | LA Times | 25th October 2023

Irwin was a young Los Angeles artist when a study trip to Europe confirmed his lack of interest in art history. Subsequently deciding that “the pure subject of art is human perception”, he became the leading figure in California’s Light and Space movement. Using a wide variety of materials, he created “fastidious” and widely influential site-specific pieces intended to “get people to perceive how they perceive”. Irwin, says this writer “is an eminence of post-war American art.”

Judy Chicago Didn’t Stop at ‘The Dinner Party’

Jillian Steinhauer | Vulture | 17th October 2023

The art world is all the better for Chicago’s long career. Art in 1960’s LA was a man’s game and Chicago’s demands for access weren’t appreciated. Early minimalist works, glossy and in soft colours, were deemed “too feminine”. Now, they are “exhilarating”. However, perhaps her activism distracted her from her art, one critic noting that some works are “clumsy and crass”. The writer seems to agree – “not all of women’s work is about womanhood.”

3rd October 2023

In an unforgettable new show, Manet and Degas are much more than rivals

Sebastian Smee | The Washington Post | 21st October 2023

The best review by far of this “stupendous” show. The Monet-Degas friendship formed over a shared antipathy toward the “listless” art establishment. Degas was interested in “psychological interiority” while Manet focused on devastating painterly technique. Friends became frenemies as they strove to make “modern” imagery. In their relationship, “the dynamic of rivalry is never resolved. How much did they hate each other [becomes] how much did they love each other?”

The Art of the Great Depression

Alison Rudnick | Perspectives | 18th October 2023

Facing the Depression, the US government funded employment creation. This included “art for the millions” as a way to promote American cultural identity. Male images predominated with few female workers or workers of colour. Small town imagery, evocative of American values, was promoted as was photojournalism and modern design. The end result was a familiar melange: “consumerism and moderation, tradition and innovation, and imperialism and cultural tolerance”.

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