The Easel

27th May 2025

The Splintered Beauty of Jack Whitten’s Paintings

zoe Hopkins | Frieze | 11th April 2025

Such was Whitten’s facility with manipulating paint that one writer wonders if some of his paintings are sculpture. Other works have a resemblance to photographs due to the “precision” of the images. And then there are paintings that are mosaics. Whitten was happy to “follow his materials over the edge to the not-yet-known,” the end result being abstractions of the highest order. Whether his works carry specific meaning is unclear. “He’s not asking us to make sense of it. Just dwell there”. A video (12 min) is here.

As the Met’s Gorgeous New John Singer Sargent Exhibition Proves, There’s Much More to Madame X Than That Scandalous Strap

Stephanie Sporn | Vogue | 24th April 2025

A favourite art world story. As an early career artist in Paris, Sargent was working hard to establish his reputation. An audacious portrait of “Madame X” for the 1884 Salon suited not only his career ambitions but also the desire of his subject to enhance her social position. These plans came unstuck with scandal erupting over the portrait’s supposed immodesty. Sargent soon left Paris for London where it quickly became evident that his career prospects were undimmed. A video (22 min) is here.

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