The Easel

21st July 2026

Lynette Yiadom-Boakye: Many A Moonlit Caveat

Killian Wright-Jackson | The Brooklyn Rail | 15th June 2026

A dreamy review of Yiadom-Boakye’s latest show. These works seem familiar – figures captured in mid-action, alone or in groups. They are not studies of actual people but imagined figures, placed in plain, neutral interiors. What accounts for their enigmatic pull? People are doing things but it is hard to know exactly what. Of one figure “He is dressed for himself. He is not performing for you. … His dignity persists, seriously and without your permission.”

Van Dyck, the European

JS Marcus | The Art Newspaper | 22nd June 2026

Van Dyck knew success from early on. Taught by Rubens he worked in Antwerp, Genoa and London, where the prosperous wanted portraits that declared, in a handsome way, their public persona. Van Dyck was alert to this but alongside their “serene opulence” he wanted also to show the private personality.  Stiff, straightforward portraiture in Stuart England and in Europe was changed forever. Says one writer, without van Dyck “there would have been no Reynolds, no Gainsborough and no Sargent”.

This Novel Traces Painter Richard Dadd’s Descent into Madness and Murder

Jemima Skala | AnOther | 13th July 2026

Dadd was a promising artist and “the toast of the town” after the Royal Academy in 1841. Soon after, a tour of the Mediterranean transformed his work but triggered psychosis and, on returning to London, he murdered his father. Confined to psychiatric hospitals from then on,  he produced according to one writer great art that has an “ethereal, profoundly sad beauty”. Dadd’s story is a tragedy that befell a talented person. His story also queries how day to day life and an artistic vision are linked, or not. Images are here.

Buckingham Palace’s Royal Picture Gallery Revives the Salon-Style Hang, Doubling the Number of Masterpieces on View

Christian Thorsberg | Smithsonian Magazine | 16th July 2026

King Charles’ art collection (the one held in trust for the nation) is stonking – Leonardo’s drawings, Vermeer, multiple Rembrandts. A re-hang happens only once every few decades, so the current one is a big deal. It’s not in the style of a white walled gallery but rather “salon” style with the collection’s “best bits” displayed in rows up the walls. Charles likes it this way, apparently. One critic, though, asks why the public are changed an entry fee, unlike “the [free] masterpieces down the road at the National Gallery”.

Who, Exactly, Were All Those Girls in Renoir’s Paintings?

Catherine Ostler | Literary Hub | 17th July 2026

The book from which this article is drawn tells the life story of two Jewish sisters featured in a famous Renoir painting. Commissioned by a patron, the painting shows the “elegance, comfort and prosperity” of wealthy Parisians. Tragic events in WW2 now make the work seem a “lie”. Critics of Renoir say he only ever painted feel-good images. Defenders will protest that Renoir cannot possibly  be blamed for later events. And flattering paintings – is that such a sin?

‘Get wild’: 10 things to know about Tom Wesselmann

Staff | Christie’s | 11th July 2026

A backgrounder. After trying his hand at cartooning, Wesselmann got interested in art, moved to New York and became an important Pop artist.  Steering away from abstract expressionism, his breakthrough came with Pop-styled nudes, both figures and body parts such as “seductive, ominous mouths”. He also had a long interest in collage, making still lifes with advertising material. The writer hastens to add that during the 1960’s sexual revolution “Wesselmann is able to toe the line very gracefully”.

14th July 2026

Through Graciela Iturbide’s Eyes: Ritual, Identity, and the Poetry of Mexico

Cornelia Feye | Vanguard Culture | 4th March 2026

Iturbide a prominent Mexican photographer, often portrays her country from the viewpoint of indigenous communities. Indigenous culture is, of course, very different to western culture. Myth and death, for example, are central elements of indigenous Mexican culture. How can they be shown authentically? For Iturbide, it requires slow photography that is an “act of attention … … allowing images to form through proximity rather than pursuit. Says one writer she produces “haunting and haunted visions”.

Ana Mendieta review – were she still alive she’d be at the forefront of art in this century

Jonathan Jones | The Guardian | 13th July 2026

Mendieta placed her art “in the tradition of a Neolithic art”. If she meant that art was part of the process of life, that would make sense. Her earth-body works, executed outdoors, were ephemeral and did indeed return to the natural world. Beyond her obvious focus on womanhood and environmental concerns, however, her work is hard to decipher. What Mendieta undoubtedly did have was an instinct for emotional, unforgettable images. “This artist is irresistible”.

Controversial Costumes at the Met’s Newest Galleries

Suzanne Stephens | Architectural Record | 13th May 2026

New York’s Met reasons that because the human body is everywhere in art, fashion deserves a place in the museum. Interspersing artworks among the 200 garments on show brings to life the curator’s view that “the dressed body becomes a prism through which we view [art]”. Some go along with the argument while others state the obvious – “fashion gets people through the doors”. And one writer bells the cat: “it isn’t about the body but about the clothes. It’s an infomercial for the fashion industry.” Images are here.

‘A distinct Canadian character’: The 1920s paintings that changed how the world saw Canada

Cath Pound | bbc.com | 6th July 2026

Canada’s Group of Seven artists emerged just after WW1 at a time when the Canadian wilderness was thought an uninteresting subject for art. Having seen highly coloured Scandinavian landscapes the Group set about using that style to articulate the “feel”, rather than the look, of the Canadian wilderness. Their work is now celebrated as helping define Canadian identity. But there is a qualification. Their depiction of “empty wilderness” erased Indigenous presence. Theirs is the art of “settlers coming and appreciating the land”.

Who gets to be an American artist?

Robert Rubsam | Apollo | 6th July 2026

Many American cultural traditions at the turn of the 20th century were embodied in ‘folk art’. Mostly created by “uncredentialled’ artists, it was soon swept aside by Europe-based modernism, relegated to a lesser class of vernacular or outsider art. Although some work shows the influence of immigrant groups, it collectively displays “distinctly American qualities” and tells half-forgotten stories, Says a curator “folk art is an equally essential facet of the American artistic tradition”.

From Hokusai to Hogarth, a landmark new book explores the history of printmaking

Maxwell | Maxwell Museums | 10th May 2026

Prints are an historic art form that appeared centuries before the Gutenberg bible of 1455. Yet printmaking is little understood, and its inherently collaborative processes means it is often deemed secondary to ‘fine art’. Still, Durer, Rembrandt, Hokusai, Picasso, Warhol were all “titans” of printmaking and the bonds between artists and master printers are “incredible”. Artists typically love prints because they can be a lifeline in a cash crisis.  This book is “a love letter to the craft”.

Clearly Fake: Zurbarán’s Uncanny Realism

Jackson Arn | The Paris Review | 8th July 2026

A recent review of Zurbarán’s London show was straight up and down. Not this one. “By the late 1620s, Zurbarán had become the leading religious painter of Seville. [Yet he] makes paintings that are at once exquisitely lifelike and completely implausible. [It is hard to name a first-rate Zurbarán without this faint wrongness. People are less rational than they’d like to pretend, which is why all truly haunting images … share a slight, nagging offness.”

More stories