The Easel

6th February 2018

Philip Pearlstein: Paintings 1990 – 2017

His friendship with Warhol is marketing catnip but far from the most interesting thing about Pearlstein. He championed realism when it was not popular to do so. Further his paintings feature nudes which are posed, factual and remote – almost the opposite of the erotic pin-up. This is strange art leaving the viewer to wonder – focus on the bodies, the objects around them or the “rules” that give rise to such a deliberate tableau?

Down with blockbusters! James Bradburne on the art of running a museum

A reforming museum director bemoans the scarcity of passion about art and wants museums to change this. Excluding temporary exhibitions “permanent collections are, in fact, losing business. [Don’t] confuse an excellent collection with an excellent museum. We need a Copernican revolution in which you put the museum at the heart of the community and visitors at the centre of the museum.” (You may have to click on “Skip Survey” to bypass the FT paywall)