On Tintoretto III
This is the third part of my look at some of the Tintoretto works included in the Prado retrospective which just closed. Read part I, which includes an introduction and general remarks about the exhibition, here, and part II here.
On Tintoretto II
This is the second part of my look at some of the Tintoretto works included in the Prado retrospective which closes today. Read part I, which includes an introduction and general remarks about the exhibition here.
On Tintoretto I
All right, things have now gotten a little less crazy around here, and I finally see a window for getting some thoughts down on Tintoretto, inspired by the big retrospective in Madrid that I had the pleasure of seeing a few weeks back, and which closes on Sunday. So, over the next few days, I…
The Rain in Spain
Sorry about the string of no updates lately. We’re in Madrid where it’s raining cats and dogs. Doesn’t matter too much though – the city’s always great, and at this time we’re treated to a big Tintoretto show at the Prado – the first retrospective since 1937. It’s unfortunately slightly underwhelming, especially since in the…
Hogarth’s Chicken Fat
Last week, I finally got the time to check the Hogarth show at the Tate. A very egalitarian and attractive retrospective of his career and oeuvre with equal attention paid to the bourgeois and the burlesque, the benevolent and the biting. Almost all of his most important work is assembled there, and it is a…
Hype: Rytz & Ehlers
If you’re in Copenhagen on Monday, stop by the opening of the latest gallery show by Rytz & Ehlers, or, as they call their individual projects, Inkforest and Duudle. The opening is, at the same time, the grand opening of Gallery Doodletown. Rytz was, by the way, featured in our grand anthology BLÆK last year…
Post-Holiday Recap
Back in Cambridge after a pleasant stay in Boston that even left time for a (very) brief trip to New York. Though family business and socializing was the main objective and thus had first priority, I did manage to eat some culture. What follows are some random musings on holiday reading, viewing and consumption.
Hype: Toupet/Kriloff
If you’re in Paris, tomorrow’s the opening of my buddy, sculptor Paul Toupet’s latest gallery show at Galerie l’Art de rien in the 18th arr. He is exhibiting with painter Axel Kriloff. Go check it out: the opening is from 6-10 PM and the show runs till May 6. On April 20, there’s a special…
Prototype or Parallel?
One of the discontents of art historical connoisseurship is how we, the practitioners, have been trained to hunt for the prototype of any given invention. We are so used to seeing precedents everywhere, even when dealing with some of the most original and inventive artists ever, that we sometimes forget how unpredictable art, and creativity,…
High and Low II
Because I think at least bits of it are worth a second look, this is just to follow up on the discussion about modernism, high and low in art, and how all of this pertains to comics that Comics Journal critic Noah Berlatsky and I, amongst others, have conducted here and on the Comics Journal…
High and Low
Over on the TCJ message board, Noah Berlatsky replies to my criticism: “Hi Matthias. You raised some interesting points in your review. For myself, though, when I was six or seven I thought Peanuts was hysterically, fall-down-on-the-floor funny. Still do, for that matter. I didn’t talk more about Chris Ware in the Schulz essay in…
Paging Osama
My grandmother asks: DO YOU KNOW THIS IMAGE?
“I like Warhol better, so sue me”
Responding to the recent post about Lichtenstein, Metabunker-denizen Andreas Gregersen writes: “Cambell is right (no?): But yes, a lot of the anonymous stuff is probably more skilful. Was RL a greater “recontextualist” (cf. “the essence of the exercise” noted in Campbell’s piece) than Johns, Rauschenberg and/or Warhol? And: When the critics talk about the craft…
Transformations in Pop
Eddie Campbell is totally on point in a couple of posts (here and here) concerning Roy Lichtenstein’s use of comics imagery in his paintings, and does his best to rub out the old bugbear, fueled by the inferiority complex comics fans often habour on the behalf of their preferred medium, that Lichtenstein was a plagiarist.…