The Easel

7th July 2026

Frida Kahlo: Tate Mistakes the Icon for the Artist

Emily Steer | Frieze | 26th June 2026

A writer comments that Kahlo has been “flattened” by mythologizing. Her self-portraits were psychologically revealing and varied, leading to multiple interpretations – her connections with surrealism and with Mexican culture, her challenge to gender expectations. But, with relatively few of her paintings in a London show, which interpretation best captures Kahlo? Forget her iconic images, her true legacy are the works that communicate the “bold examination of the self,” A backgrounder is here.

Waldmüller: Landscapes – a cool Alpine antidote to London heatwaves

Lucy Davies | Financial Times | 3rd July 2026

Why is Waldmüller, prominent in 19th century Austria, being given a London show? Noted in his day for landscapes and portraits (he painted Beethoven) he fell out with the art establishment over his rejection of “academic” landscape painting. Did his realist landscape painting “awaken” possibilities later seized on by the Impressionists? Unlikely – they knew nothing of him. His radical landscapes were an important idea but, not being in the right place at the right time, came to nothing.

30th June 2026

Adored Image

Marina Warner | London Review of Books | 9th June 2026

A profile of the British artist Celia Paul. Much of Paul’s art portrays her mother and sisters in intense, focused images that offer little other than the subject. They seem to reflect Paul’s disciplined personality and ascetic work habits. Indeed, are they portraits or rather a kind of self-portraiture –the “depth and mystery” she finds in her subjects becoming a form of self-exploration? Paul’s most recent work has a lighter mood, indicating “she holds to the value of what she chose and the way she has continued to live”.

MC Escher, the wizard of weirdness who inspired Pink Floyd — and me

Waldemar Januszczak | Waldemar.tv | 25th June 2026

How do we classify Escher’s work? He started out with architectural and townscape drawings until, in 1936, he visited the Alhambra. That changed everything, starting a life-long interest in tessellated patterns and visual parados. Despite his popularity the fine art world remained indifferent, seeing his work as more mathematical than lyrical. Maybe so, but he had his own way of seeing – “Escher didn’t just think outside the envelope, he could not accept the existence of envelopes”.

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