The Easel

5th May 2026

Francis Bacon: Reinventing realism

Sebastian Smee | Gagosian Quarterly | 10th May 2026

A backgrounder on three late Bacon paintings. Toward the end of his life Bacon lived for a decade in Paris finding its atmosphere “lighter” than London. That resonated with an awareness as he aged that “nine-tenths of everything is inessential.“ At the same time he was trying to simplify his art while still capturing the grandeur of form in Michelangelo’s nudes. Most of all, Bacon sought the same intensity he saw in Ingres’ portraits, “to combine beauty with that same level of urgency.”

Unfinished magic

David Platzer | The New Criterion | 30th April 2026

A show comparing the sculptures of Michelangelo and Rodin is, says one writer, a “conversation across the centuries.”. Michelangelo wanted to show both anatomy and how it was animated by the human spirit. Rodin concurred and inspired by Michelangelo, discarded the academic style of his day in favour of “fleshy naturalism”.  That included leaving parts of a sculpture incomplete, conveying a sense that the work was imperfect and “in flux”, qualities that are catnip for twentieth century viewers.

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