The June/July issue of Aeqai has just posted. We apologize for the delay this month; my pneumonia dragged on and on and I’ve had limited energy to work. But short though this issue is,we believe that it’s an important and stimulating one.
We review two museum shows and one major arts center in Cincinnati this month; Karen Chambers reviews the newly opened “Affichomania” show at The Taft Museum of Art. The title refers to the rage for posters in The Belle Epoque in Paris, an art form mirroring the popular culture of the era, created because of the new burgeoning middle class in Paris around 1880- 1900. Some of the most famous posters in the world, such as those by Toulouse-Lautrec, are in the show, and showcase stars of the cabaret scene, including Jane Avril, the club Le Chat Noir, and one of the actress Sarah Bernhardt. You’ll see the heavy influence of Art Nouveau in many of these posters.
Chris Carter sensitively and brilliantly reviews “When Species Meet” , at The Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati. I believe that this is the last show curated by Steven Matijcio, whose fine shows we’ll miss and we’ve much admired, as he’s moved to Houston. Cynthia Kukla gives a fascinating overview/review of the Egypt show at The Museum Center in Union Terminal.
Jonathan Kamholtz offers us his always engaging narrative thoughts on the “Magnificent Seven” show at Manifest Gallery; the works in this show are all of small scale. Manifest is widely known for the excellence of their shows. Ekin Erkan sends us two reviews from New York this month, one a brilliant review of the Swedish painter Hilna of Klint, an early, pre-Kandinsky, pre-Malevich abstractionist, now showing at The Guggenheim in New York. Erkan explicates upon the differences between The Sublime and The Beautiful, and shows how the artist’s work is highly spiritual in nature. Erkan also offers a review/essay on the films of Doris Wishman, whose heyday was the fifties and sixties; she worked with ideas regarding female sexual desire in films that walked that old pornography line at the time of their making, and are being reassessed today because of her early interest in the complexities of female identity and sexuality. Erkan examines the film “Bad Girls Go to Hell”, in particular, at Metrograph, part of Brooklyn’s Light Industry.
We’d hoped for a review of a painting show in Cincinnati by outstanding painter Yvonne van Eijden, one of our very best artists here, but complications interfered and the review couldn’t be written, so we asked the artist herself to provide us with photos of the show at a small gallery on Colerain Ave., near Wave Pool, and her bio and artist statement. Van Eijden’s paintings are evocative and haunting; her portraits iconic and totemic both, filled with emotion; she uses white like no other artist whose work I’ve ever seen, creating sometimes shimmering, sometimes painterly , surfaces for her amazing portrait heads, that sometimes look like Giacometti sculptures brought to life as paintings, and which are rich with references to art history as well.
Laura Hobson offers a feature of a new gallery, called Off Ludlow, in Clifton; she interviews the founders, tell us the gallery’s mission and goals, and of upcoming programs.
I offer three book reviews this month (having had extra reading time laid up at home), of new novels by Isabella Hammad; Ocean Yuong; and Nell Freudenberger.
We’ll return in August with our combined July/August summer issue, which will post around the third week in August, when our national correspondents will also be back with their reviews. We hope you find this issue engaging; go directly to www.aeqai.com/main to access the issue.
Daniel Brown
Editor, www.aeqai.com
