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Showing posts with label post-impressionists. Show all posts
Showing posts with label post-impressionists. Show all posts

Monday, 6 January 2025

Artlyst: January Art Diary

My January Art Diary for Artlyst is a review of upcoming exhibitions in 2025 which highlights the work of major ceramicists, major artists exploring the influence of Vincent Van Gogh (and Post-Impressionism more generally), plus exhibitions exploring themes of environment and identity:

" Viewing art, as with its making, involves paying attention. As Simone Weil once pointed out, paying attention equates to prayer. A new exhibition at Fitzrovia Chapel explores these themes. It is, therefore, a very appropriate beginning to a review of upcoming exhibitions in 2025, where each exhibition listed will reward the paying of sustained attention, enabling entry to a state of contemplation and even contemplative prayer."

For more on Mainie Jellett and Evie Hone (artists included in this diary) see here, here, here, here, and here.

My other pieces for ArtLyst are:

Interviews -
Monthly diary articles -
Articles/Reviews -
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Joy Oladokun - AM I?
Posted by Jonathan Evens at 17:10 0 comments
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Thursday, 17 August 2023

Artlyst: Jeremy Deller In Rennes And Brittany Post-Impressionism – August Diary

My August Art Diary for Artlyst is inspired by a recent trip to Brittany:

'Brittany played a significant role in developing Post-Impressionism and Pictorial Symbolism, with its Catholic culture a source of inspiration and Catholic artists among its pioneers. Several artists also contributed to reviving sacred art in Europe whilst offering or creating work for local churches. The visual arts remain significant for Brittany through collections of Post Impressionist work and contemporary exhibitions such as the current retrospective of the Turner Prize-winning British artist Jeremy Deller in Rennes.'

I told some of the story of Post-Impressionism and Pictorial Symbolism in my Artlyst review of 'After Impressionism' at the National Gallery - see here. For more on Émile Bernard see here. For more on Paul Sérusier see here. For more on Maurice Denis see here, here and here. For my Church Times review of 'Jeremy Deller: English Magic' see here.

My other pieces for Artlyst are:

Interviews -
Monthly diary articles -

Articles/Reviews -
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Medicine Head - His Guiding Hand.
Posted by Jonathan Evens at 17:47 0 comments
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Sunday, 26 March 2023

Artlyst: Religion and Spirituality in Post Impressionism - National Gallery

My latest review for Artlyst is on 'After Impressionism: Inventing Modern Art' at the National Gallery:

"The paintings and sculptures included illustrate the main themes in the development of the visual arts in Europe in this time period: the break with conventional representation of the external world and the forging of non-naturalist visual languages with an emphasis on the materiality of the art object expressed through line, colour, surface, texture and pattern. The move was principally towards simplification of form, patterned surfaces and an increasingly fractured, mosaic-like application of colour, while non-naturalism also alerted the spectator to the new subject matter of art, ideas and emotions.

What is under-appreciated generally, as also within this exhibition, is the extent to which the spirituality of the artists involved played a significant role in bringing about these developments. On the surface, these movements seem to be primarily about the materiality of the art objects themselves, but often below the surface of these developments are a complex of spiritual motivations and understandings ...

After Impressionism includes many of the most influential artworks and artists from this period; as such, it is a must-see blockbuster exhibition which, while highlighting many of the key strands in the story of how modern art was invented, nevertheless continues the critical downplaying of other strands, particularly the influence of religion and spirituality, without which the story of modern art cannot be fully understood."

See also my 'Airbrushed from Art History' series of posts - https://joninbetween.blogspot.com/2012/09/airbrushed-from-art-history-update.html.

My other pieces for Artlyst are:

Interviews -
Monthly diary articles -
Articles/Reviews -
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Posted by Jonathan Evens at 16:29 0 comments
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Thursday, 27 March 2014

The Greek of Toledo - The Time Gatherer

The commemoration of the 4th Centenary of the death of El Greco will be a landmark for the history of both the painter and the town of Toledo; the gathering of works by the artist programmed for 2014 will get together most of his artistic production, coming from all parts of the world. There will be three big exhibitions showing works by the artist, which are the centre of the wide programme of El Greco Year, set mainly in Toledo.

The Greek of Toledo exhibition will present the Cretan painter within his Toledan setting and milieu, as a leading figure in an artistic and cultural scene of trans-national and plural character, always seeking to explain his work within the context of the activities pursued by the artists who worked for Philip II and Philip III in Toledo or in Madrid.

The El Greco and Modern Art exhibition organised by El Prado Museum aims to highlight the important influence that El Greco's work had on the origins of the most radically modern painting approaches, beginning with Édouard Manet and Paul Cézanne. Of special importance is the analysis of El Greco's influence on Picasso and the origins of Cubism, as well as the decisive inspiration that the Cretan artist's work provided to the different Expressionist movements that emerged throughout the twentieth century in Europe and America.

Between Heaven and Earth aims to explore the way the influence of El Greco can be felt in the work of twelve contemporary artists that are currently creating and that are clear witnesses of the influence of his art, still alive in contemporay art.

Those that love El Greco's work are likely to also likely to appreciate The Time Gatherer by Patrick Pye, which is an extended meditation on the work of El Greco: "Here is a critic who can lead you to a deeper appreciation of El Greco precisely because he himself deeply practices what he writes about." "The essay's depth is enhanced by being written by a practising artist, himself, a man of faith who faces, though in a modern context, precisely the same questions that El Greco faced and an artist who has been admiring and pondering El Greco's work over many years."

The book "explores the way in which El Greco's faith and theological vision becomes real in the context of his painting. It is a beautiful essay, continually illuminating about how an artist resolves that fundamental issue of religious painting: how do I represent a reality, a mystery that ultimately transcends all representation? how do I point to, evoke that reality effectively in paint? how have others so resolved it and how can I?"

Pye writes of El Greco's influence on modern art: "The rediscovery of El Greco did not come from Christians, but from the Romantics, the last people who tried to hold sense and sensibility together. Then he was discovered by the Post-impressionists, who were trying to create a new visual language. They saw in him the Old Master who had the greatest sensitivity to real problems of formal language as the artist understands them. It remains for our generation to place him squarely in the tradition of European Christian art."

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Vangelis - El Greco.
Posted by Jonathan Evens at 23:23 0 comments
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