The Easel

1st September 2026

A Tribute to Yayoi Kusama

Julien Delagrange | Art Institute of Chicago | 28th September 2026

After a traumatic childhood, Kusama found that art helped with her mental health issues. Moving to the US in 1957, she created her famous art forms – phallic-shaped soft sculptures, infinity mirror rooms, pumpkin sculptures and fields of dots. Returning to Japan in 1973 she was seen as an embarrassment, but a later career revival brought huge fame. Her themes of infinity and self-obliteration reflected a desire to be “dissolved into the pattern.” Said she, “I am just another dot in the world.” Images are here.

25th August 2026

Fang sculpture stands taller than ever

Emma Crichton-Miller | Apollo | 20th August 2026

At first glance, this is a straightforward report on the market for African sculptures and masks. The huge prices indicate the immense aesthetic appeal of what one writer calls “masterpieces of premodern global art”. From there it gets complicated. Recent scholarship suggests Picasso, on first seeing these works in 1907, engaged in direct copying rather than painterly interpretation. And, as to how such objects can be shown in western museums, (assuming bulletproof provenance) that is still a matter of considerable debate,

The Grand Egyptian Museum

Geoffrey Lenox-Smith | The Past | 20th August 2026

Although the museum officially opened last November, its crowning glory – the full contents of Tutankhamun’s tomb – is only now on display. Included are his personal possessions such as a carved calcite boat intended as a dining table centrepiece, and six chariots. A ceremonial chair made of ebony would have needed “a pile of cushions”. His spectacular funerary mask contains 10kg of gold and inlays of glass, obsidian and lapis lazuli. “I spent three full days in the GEM and look forward to returning”.

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