The Easel

15th April 2025

David Hockney 25 review: an absolutely enormous splash

Caroline Roux | The Art Newspaper | 9th April 2025

Hockney is probably Britain’s most beloved, and widely covered, living artist. What can be learned from a huge Paris retrospective? Renowned for his optimism, Hockney’s recent work is more introspective, pushing back on accusations he is a hedonist. He remains prolific. And, seeing Hockney at scale reminds (again) that he is “a fabulous painter”. Another agrees “Like Monet and his Haystacks, there are things from our time that Hockney has shown us how to see.” A review of some key works is here.

Suzanne Valadon

Beatrice Loayza | 4Columns | 11th April 2025

Valadon is usually considered a minor figure in fin de siècle Paris. A “stellar” retrospective indicates she is more than that. Entering the bohemian art world of Montmartre as a model, she somehow managed to become an artist herself. Not surprisingly, themes of motherhood and adolescent self-discovery appear often in her paintings. Her female figures are shown empathetically, as “subjects, not objects”. Although they are being scrutinised by the artist, “their secrets and obsessions are their own”.

What-ho, Watteau!

David Platzer | The New Criterion | 11th April 2025

As with Vermeer, we know little about Watteau. He came from modest Flemish circumstances and lived a “vagabond life”, mostly in and around Paris. An acute observer of life, his portraits and scenes of soldiers have nuance and emotional depth. His re-invention of the fêtes gallantes genre owed something to Flemish art traditions but more to imagination and an attentiveness to fashions of the day. Watteau is unsurpassed in “capturing feminine elegance” and communicating that “elegant pleasures are fleeting”.

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