The Easel

21st October 2025

Wayne Thiebaud’s slices of Americana

Thiebaud was never taken by “preachy” abstraction. He knew from working as an illustrator that his real love was the still life. That genre has a strong tradition in Europe leading this writer to emphasise that Thiebaud was addressing the classic still life problems – “lighting, colour, structure”.  Cezanne, one of his heroes, had declared that art should “treat nature in terms of the cylinder, the sphere and the cone”. Thiebaud, with his hot dogs, toffee apples and slices of cake, obliged.

Taking a dance through Cecil Beaton’s fashionable world

Photographers can achieve fame because of their images or their glamour subjects. Beaton did both as well as becoming a celebrity himself. A “neo-romantic”, he conjured the glamour of English aristos and Hollywood stars, influencing fashion, photography and design – usually through the pages of Vogue. Beaton’s narrow view of fashion makes him somewhat anachronistic today with one writer admitting that “the artificiality of it all [is] wearying”. A piece about the giddy thrill of what goes with what is here.

The Turner prize is the cockroach of art

For some, art is a vehicle for protesting about social ills or proclaiming on identity issues. Not this writer. The target of his ire, not for the first time, is Britain’s bewildering Turner Prize. Like some other writers he wearies of “political” art that it favours. One work, “a mess”, turns out to be the work of an autistic artist. “Who is right, the “critic judging the evidence …or the Turner judges showing compassion? Are we really here to choose the best artist or to be morally improved by … right-on social politics?”

A Night at Max’s Kansas City: Seeing and Being Seen in the 1970s NYC Art World

Montmartre was the art world’s epicentre in 1890, In the 1950’s it was Max’s Kansas City bar in New York. “You’d see handsome Bob Mapplethorpe with … Patti Smith. Their plans already incorporated the power shift we couldn’t quite feel taking place under our feet. [There was] acknowledgment: [Andy] had found this surprising and direct route to money. A moment when the wheels came off and the chassis sat there and you realized the art world was a small place bounded by compromise and disappointment.” 

Renoir’s drawings showcased in major exhibition, the first of its kind in over a century

Berthe Morisot thought Renoir’s drawings were great, but Gauguin was less enthused. The difference might be because Renoir had a casual view of his drawings. Some were preparatory studies for a painting but others were spontaneous and more finished. They profile his evolution, from early drawings that show his “rigorous academic training “ to subsequent “brisk on-the-spot” sketches and finally softer, more intimate works.  A “distinguished collection” says one writer. A detailed view of ten drawings is here.

New York’s Biggest Monet Show in 25 Years Is a Revelation

Brooklyn Museum has been castigated for its superficial exhibitions. A show of Monet’s paintings from a reluctant visit to Venice in 1908 gets a more positive reception. Monet, noticing the changing autumnal weather and shifted “closer to abstraction”. The real consequence of that was evident when, on returning to France, he resumed work on the Water Lilies series he had been unable to finish. Feeling renewed, his lilies became swirls of pink and red paint, ever “farther from legible figuration”. Critics were delighted.

British Museum starts fundraiser to save rare gold pendant of Henry VIII

Found in 2019, the “Tudor Heart” enamelled gold pendant commemorates Henry VIII’s first marriage. Its rarity owes much to its fine condition and the fact that many such objects were destroyed once the royal marriage foundered. Designed as a tournament prize, it was apparently intended to be worn by a woman and to project “magnificence”. The British Museum head – who wants to buy it – gushes “one of the most incredible pieces of English history to have ever been unearthed”.

14th October 2025

Peter Doig Turns Serpentine Into A Living Soundscape With ‘House Of Music’

Can you have an exhibition where music gets nearly equal billing to the art? Doig paints to music and in this museum show, he wants it to feature prominently. Some of his paintings are hung in warmly-lit rooms where huge vintage speakers play Doig favourites. These paintings have a mysticism that make them, says one writer, “assuredly musical … ambiguous”. Says another, the music “will change, in the best way possible, how and what you see,”

Nigerian Modernism in London: ‘A bold new language for art’

At last, a survey of modernist African art! This particular London show focuses on Nigeria, and it tells a complicated story. Independence created a sense of cultural “emancipation” but, in a country with 250 ethnic groups, the art that has emerged is hugely diverse. One critic thinks some of it is “folksy”, but perhaps that’s part of the story. It is a parochial story and should not, says the curator, be viewed through a “pan-African lens. It ought to be understood on its own terms”.

Calder Gardens, a Stunning New Tribute to Alexander Calder, Opens in Philadelphia

Calder Gardens, just opened in Philadelphia, apparently wants to be a museum without being a museum. It has been designed by a ‘starchitect’ but is a small, “camouflaged” structure that is mostly underground and “too small to fail”.  It will not have its own collection, relying instead on loans from the Calder Foundation that controls a “vast trove”. Integral to the design is the surrounding garden that will be popular with those who generated most of Calder’s copious fan mail – children.

The sublime and silly art of Sèvres

China had a monopoly on fine, durable porcelain until around 1710 when Meissen cracked its secrets. Sèvres was close behind. To secure Sèvres’ know-how, Louis XV made it a royal enterprise and it has since become a byword for refined taste. Curators regard its high-end pieces as sculpture – no surprise given that they were intended for the tables of imperial clients. These were items of exquisite taste as well as a projection of French state power. Eye candy of the highest order. More images are here.

Inside the V&A’s Marie Antionette Style with curator Dr Sarah Grant

A show about Marie Antionette’s legacy is probably more culture than art. Joining the French court aged 14, dress was one way for her to project “feminine power”. The few pieces of original fabric that survive, together with reconstructed dresses, signal that this was a life of performance. Muses one writer, what carries most impact is less the eye-popping jewellery than an appreciation of Antoinette’s very human dilemma. She was being set up, and we, “caught up in looking … [are unwittingly] a part of a mob.”

How Hans Ulrich Obrist Became the World’s Most Influential Curator

Obrist has a “terrifying” work ethic, networking, curating shows, appearing at art events, interviewing artists and/or posting to Instagram. Few curators can match his art world influence. His new memoir is busy with forthright views: nothing can replace one-to-one, in-person encounters; he wants to combine disciplines – certainly art and architecture, but also art and science; artists should be given jobs in government; art requires looking and looking and looking; he doesn’t cook.

Rauschenberg’s New York and the problem of seeing only surfaces

A spate of exhibitions mark Rauschenberg’s 100th anniversary. The fact there are so many shows is testimony to his diversity – painting, photography, collage, assemblage. Not all this work was of high quality, but it was always inventive. His photography, for example, was skilful but really stood out when incorporated into his complex, layered work. In that aspect, Rauschenberg was prescient, his fragmented urban imagery anticipating today’s “civic crisis”.