The Easel

20th July 2021

Jennifer Packer and Hans Ulrich Obrist discuss the meaning and method of painting today

Hans Ulrich Obrist | Cultured | 14th June 2021

With a highly praised show in London, Packer seems a star in the making. In an artist interview that works better than most, she reflects on the Old Masters and her portraiture which has been described as “startlingly intimate”. “I saw Titian’s The Flaying of Marsyas where he’s strung upside down, and I was thinking about Titian painting this body and deciding how much care to give to Marsyas. I feel the same way: the idea of painting as an exercise in tenderness.”

Rubens: Reuniting the Great Landscapes at Wallace Collection review – Let’s keep them together

Melanie McDonough | London Evening Standard | 7th June 2021

When Rubens retired and was painting for his own pleasure, he produced not his signature fleshy figures but … rural views. Two such landscapes – painted as a pair – have been hung together for the first time in 200 years. Described as masterpieces and being entirely by Rubens, they reveal something about his mindset. They are “grand but also cosy” says one critic. Rubens’ saw his life as one of “autumnal plenty”.

13th July 2021

Paula Rego review – phenomenal paintings, shame about the decor

Jonathon Jones | The Guardian | 5th July 2021

Rego is one of the major artists of our age. Her highly imaginative works portray violence, the complexities of relationships, families, stories told in a hyper-realist style. One critic says “to describe this show as stunning would be an understatement”. Another gushes “no artist has more powerfully and persuasively mastered then subverted the language of male painterly tradition to express modern female interior experience”. Images are here.

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