The Easel

4th August 2026

A rare and sublime collection of Shimizu Uichi’s work is presented on his centenary

Emma Crichton-Miller | The Design Edit | 9th June 2026

Shimizu, a Japanese ceramicist and Living National Treasure, was a “supreme technician” of glaze chemistry. Iron-rich glazes behave unpredictably when fired. The finest examples are miracles of artist and kiln and have a tradition separate from general ceramics. Unlike the wabi-sabi aesthetic of rustic Japanese ceramics, Shimizu’s pursued a modern style of great restraint where the glaze was his primary interest. But, it seems, he was not after perfection. If a piece is perfect, it “can lose its sense of life”.

No cherry blossom here — women show a different side of Japan

Waldemar Januszczak | Waldemar.tv | 27th July 2026

Japan’s most famous photographer are all men. Female photographers have had to battle for attention. Their work, the subject of a large show, is ”grittily different from the cherry blossom dreams”. Some unflattering male behaviours are recorded but there is little evidence of a consistent “female” style. Says the curator, highlighting these artists makes “the history of photography more truthful. … they also expand our understanding of Japan itself.”

28th July 2026

Flora Indica unearths botanical drawings. They were lost to colonialism for two centuries

Almin Khatoon | The Print | 9th March 2026

As the East India Company expanded in 19th century India, it funded local artists to document unknown plants. Huge quantities of this botanical art went back to Britain in the search for plants with commercial potential. This art was often intricate and displayed a “compositional sensibility rooted in [Indian] traditions”. In a long “bureaucratic afterlife” back in Britain the work fell into obscurity. Botanical classification became a “system of forgetting“. A review of a related book is here.

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