The Easel

11th March 2025

The Monumental Calligraphy of Tong Yang-Tze

Lesley Ma | Perspectives | 28th February 2025

Traditional calligraphy, written with ink and brushes, is under threat from the ball point pen and the computer screen. Tong fears that its demise will mean a loss of “the roots of a culture”. That has motivated an artistic career focused on a painterly approach to calligraphy. She writes monumental scrolls using outsized characters and “energizes” the scroll by “magnifying the movement and dynamism of the lines.” Two scrolls on display in New York comprise the most important show of calligraphy in recent memory.

The Past is Never Past: Anselm Kiefer — Early Works at the Ashmolean

Jon Malysiak | Medium | 17th February 2025

Distinguished he may be but there is a relentlessness to Kiefer’s later work. His paintings tend toward huge – sometimes grandiose – and are “grindingly earnest” in how they confront German military history. Is there any room for art? His early work, currently on show, doesn’t seem much lighter. It is direct, dense and “oppressive”. But then, admits the writer, he felt drawn, not by their beauty but by “an almost reluctant respect”. They “do not offer comfort, but they do offer reflection”.

Ricardo Scofidio dies at 89

Daniel Jones Roche | The Architects Newspaper | 7th March 2025

Scofidio made innovative designs from early in his career, but his broader impact only emerged after co-founding Diller, Scofidio+Renfro in 1979. The firm (that included his wife) won public and cultural commissions, most notably the 2009 conversion of an abandoned train track into New York’s High Line park. His work on both sides of the Atlantic helped “reshape the museum landscape” and secured his reputation as a “seminal” architect who “altered the way people see museums”. An interview is here.

A philanthropist’s art collection that shows how Goya anticipated Van Gogh, Gauguin and Cézanne

Mark Hudson | The Independant | 13th February 2025

Stellar collections of art have long drawn big crowds when they tour, especially if full of Impressionist paintings. The latest, a Swiss collection, has its share of star paintings yet the reviews are just a little ho-hum. Maybe that’s local one-upmanship (London’s Courtauld is bigger and better). More likely, Impressionism is simply over-exposed.  A Goya work, on its own, is “drop dead brilliant”. Yet, while the above writer is positive, another grouches that it is “a drearily grand exhibition”.

Nothing Lasts Forever: a long overdue retrospective on working-class Britain arrives in London

Diane Smyth | British Journal of Photography | 5th March 2025

Images of urban decay are sometimes called ‘ruin porn” and often feature grim images of poverty or class neglect. Not so from Mitchell who photographed northern England – particularly Leeds – in the 1970’s and later. His images show “utopian” social housing projects that end in failure (“dying buildings”) but also document those cities’ cohesive communities and the dignity of their residents. Mitchell is something of a “cult figure”, a “chaser of a disappearing world” with images that “exude warmth and empathy”.

Drawing is still flourishing. This exhibition proves it

Robert Chandler | Prospect | 5th March 2025

Not exactly a review and not exactly a personal narrative, this mostly is a declaration of faith in drawing. The “fundamental” art of drawing still flourishes, even though few institutions still teach it in depth. David Hockney points to its enduring appeal thus: “it helps you put your thoughts in order”. For other artists drawing is an aide during the ”hazardous way of getting to the depth of a memory”. And, in some cases, drawing is “the obstinate work of love without which [many] drawings might never be begun”.

Framing History: A Study of the Craftsmanship of Picture Frames

Marissa Lupkas | Art and Object | 7th March 2025

One might think the sole purpose of a frame is to protect the artwork. Not entirely – for most of art history frames have also performed real aesthetic work. Sometimes frames create a “border between the real and the imagined”. Sometimes they perform a decorative function. Perhaps most importantly, they can provide an “emotional and spiritual invitation” to the viewer to embrace the painted scene. But the golden rule remains: don’t compete with the painting.

4th March 2025

How Art Deco Shaped 100 Years of Forward-Thinking Design

Caroline Roux | artnet news | 27th February 2025

Since its coming out party at a 1925 Paris exposition, art deco has proven remarkably influential. Its parentage was various, borrowing the modern feel of Bauhaus design while adding ornamentation and luxe materials. Discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb in 1922 contributed both new motifs and the idea of repeating geometric shapes. Art deco’s features have been endlessly reworked, but its influence is evident whenever you see a room with elements that form a unified design.

Leigh Bowery, as Remembered by His Closest Friends and Collaborators

Hannah Lack | AnOther | 24th February 2025

Bowery was the “emperor” of London nightclubs in the 1980’s. Designer, performance artist but mostly an unclassifiable creative, his main creation was himself. Boy George described him as “modern art on legs”. Through Lucien Freud he started to gain the art world legitimacy he craved but then came an early death from AIDS. Bowery remains an enduring influence in fashion and on the dance floor. The last word is his – “dress as though your life depends on it, or don’t bother”.

The prince of Swedish nature

David Platzer | The New Criterion | 25th February 2025

As the biological sciences flourished in the 19th century, so did popular interest in wildlife. “Animal artists” responded as did newly emergent photography. Liljefors, Sweden’s “prince of animal artists” distinguished his work through exquisite composition. His flying swifts were set against a swathe of wildflowers with detail that photography could not match. But Liljefors, a hunter, was also a realist and his works showed the ‘kill or be killed’ aspect of nature. A “most exhilarating show”.

The Unending Sweetness of Painted Fruit

Amina Khan | ARTIC | 11th February 2025

A meditation on still life painting. Still lifes often featured game birds or fruit, items that for most were unattainable. Meat was expensive, perfect fruit rare and items like chillis unknown and exotic. Even though we now live amidst super abundance, we recognise in these paintings a message of impermanence, even precariousness. Things won’t always be this good. So, feed the eye with these luscious items now because “each one will eventually be transformed by a knife.”.

Goryeo Celadon: The Famed Ceramics of Medieval Korean Art

Daniella Romano | The Collector | 28th February 2025

During their long rule of Korea, the Goryeo dynasty (918-1392) heavily promoted celadon ceramics. The technique originated in China, but advanced further in Korean hands. Technical improvements such as the particular clay used, double glazing and kiln structure gave Korean celadon its distinctive jade colour. Just as important though, were conceptual changes such as inlay, a refined aesthetic and the use of floral patterns. The defining celadon piece is considered to be the maebeong shaped vase with high shoulders.

What Makes British Art ‘British’?

JJ Charlesworth | ArtReview | 20th February 2025

“Explaining” British art is complicated and as much a story about culture as about art. Over its long history it has been swayed by “invasion, migration and exchange”, as well as the “hatred of image making” during the Protestant Reformation. Local artists endured patrons with a long-standing preference for their continental European rivals. Once religious conflict subsided an authentically British art emerged around 1800 with the landscape painting of Constable and others.

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