The meaty essence of humanity – Soutine’s Portraits: Cooks, Waiters &...
Some critics think Soutine’s portraits of hospitality staff reflect a concern for others. This writer is unconvinced. Soutine was indifferent to anything outside his own emotions – “these people are...
View ArticleBody shock: the intense art and anguish of sculptor Alina Szapocznikow
An interesting bio piece. Having somehow survived both ghetto and concentration camp Szapocznikow abruptly trained as a sculptor. The works that eventuated focused on the “fragile and abject” human...
View ArticleEASEL ESSAY Alexander Calder and the Optimism of Modernism: Jed Perl in...
In the view of renowned US author and critic Jed Perl, Alexander Calder remains America’s greatest sculptor. Easel Contributing Editor Morgan Meis recently talked to Perl about his biography of Calder...
View ArticleThe time is right for an Erté revival – a new hero for our gender-anxious times
The Paris International Exposition of 1925, showcased art deco and the decorative arts. By then Erte was a global tastemaker, via his cover illustrations for Harper’s Bazaar. And art deco allowed him...
View ArticleRemembering the Playful, Hopeful, Pictures of Malick Sidibé
The story goes that Sidibé was invited to parties because his camera had a flash. 1960’s Mali was newly independent and looking to the future. This optimism is perfectly reflected in his dance party...
View ArticleMacron Promises To Return African Artefacts In French Museums: A New Era In...
A carefully worded offer by the French President to repatriate stolen cultural artifacts has highlighted African grievances on the topic. “Westerners are quick to argue that Africans have created...
View ArticleNotre Dame is an architectural nullity
Notre Dame cathedral is a “collage”, redesigned in the mid-nineteenth century by an “average architect”. Not much of today’s building is “authentic.” Use new architecture, argues the writer, rather...
View ArticleFraming Time: Guy Tillim’s African Street Photography
African photography is getting more attention, most recently in Paris. Tillim, perhaps Africa’s foremost contemporary photographer, has worked mostly in the post-apartheid era. Weary of images of war...
View ArticleNatalia Goncharova, Tate Modern review – a prodigious talent
Can an artist be too diverse? Goncharova’s vast output was surely, in part, a reflection of her life. Raised in not-quite-modern Russia she made folkloric-styled modernist paintings and books. Her...
View ArticleModernism’s Debt to Black Women
Museums have only recently shown real interest in black artists. Likewise, “rigid” art history has blatantly ignored black figures that appear in European paintings (see The Easel, January 22). “Even...
View ArticleShades of grey – the austere artistry of Vilhelm Hammershøi
Hammershøi is often compared to Vermeer because both painted interiors. From that point they diverge. Vermeer showed a moment’s stillness amidst daily activity. Hammershøi’s interiors are all quiet...
View ArticleHow posters became art
The role of posters is to persuade. They were perhaps the defining form of mass communication in Belle Époque Paris. Since then they have become more, a street view of culture. Not all critics approve...
View ArticleWe’re All in a Flutter About Rebecca Horn
An anxious childhood led to Horn’s interest in alchemy and absurdity. She has since produced extraordinary, unsettling works – performance art, films, machine sculptures. Some reflect on the solitary...
View ArticleAlways the Model, Never the Artist
A review angry at Morisot’s “erasure” from the Impressionist story. Besides being technically bold, Morisot uniquely celebrated feminine life and domesticity. “She killed the aesthetic in which women...
View ArticleAndré Kertész : Walking in the picture
Even ahead of Cartier-Bresson, Kertész was the pioneer of modern photography. His innovations included street photography, photo essays and photojournalism. After becoming prominent in Paris, a 1936...
View ArticlePierre Soulages: Beyond black
Soulages, a national treasure in France, is getting a rare solo exhibition at the Louvre. His paintings are abstract – exercises in colour, texture and mark making – and for decades done entirely in...
View ArticleMichel Laclotte with Joachim Pissarro
Some say the Louvre is the world’s most important museum. Laclotte, a former director, reflects on his experience and the dilemmas of museum management. Should curators or managers be in control? Why...
View ArticleChristian Boltanski
Even though Boltanski’s family dodged the Holocaust, death is central to his art. It bothers him that people die without recognition. He often works with the ephemera of life – recordings of...
View ArticleThe architectural tragedy of the 2019 Notre-Dame fire
An interesting update. A year ago this week, fire ravaged Paris’s Notre Dame cathedral. Work since has revealed how little of the structure is truly original. Does this change the dilemma facing the...
View ArticleWhat Alexander Calder Understood About Joy
Having moved to Paris, Calder started his art-making with some unusual pieces – miniature model circuses. Playful, yes, but not trivial. Calder’s biographer reasons that they were an “experiment in...
View Article
