The Easel

Archives: Wallpaper

23rd June 2026

Anish Kapoor disorientates, delights and disturbs at the Hayward Gallery

Kapoor likes his art big – think Chicago’s highly reflective “Bean” sculpture – and his new London show follows suit. One installation appears alarmingly like guts and there’s a monumental, “mysterious” upside-down mountain. Some objects are coated with non-reflective black that creates “a space full of what doesn’t exist”. This is vintage Kapoor, messing around with our perceptions. Says he, “Apollinaire’s notion was to take the viewers to the edge and push them over – and that remains fundamental.”

16th June 2026

In London, Hauser & Wirth offers a rare glimpse into Francis Picabia’s experimental world

Picabia ceaselessly reinvented himself, from early landscapes, through his “machine”/ Dada paintings to “radical” nudes and his final abstract paintings. Being wealthy allowed him to pursue such varied interests, where ideas from one period led on to other areas. Such diversity explains why he was never pigeonholed but is considered, ambiguously, as a “painter’s painter”. Perhaps he was closest in spirit to Dada – criticise the status quo but abandon new ideas as they become generally accepted.