The Easel

16th December 2025

An Exhibition at the Met May Just Make Finnish Modernist Helene Schjerfbeck Your New Favorite Artist

Laird Borrelli-Persson | Vogue | 8th December 2025

From studying in Paris Schjerfbeck developed a realist style broadly consistent with emerging modernism. After returning home to Helsinki, this style started to change. Her interiors took on an “architectonic plainness”. A curator says her portraits focused on “light, space, volume—not the soul of the sitter”. Her self-portraits were without sentiment, “depicting her mortality with an almost Goya-like intensity”. Says one writer. The rarely exhibited Schjerfbeck “shaped modern portraiture from a distance”.

Jeff Koons with Joachim Pissarro

Joachim Pissarro | The Brooklyn Rail | 1st December 2025

Koons divides opinions, and his first New York show in years is no different. The linked piece describes a studio visit where Koons enthuses over 18th century porcelain figurine that have inspired him. Sounding a bit like a retailer, he highlights his personal involvement with his new works. One writer protests that these glossy works are “intentionally stealing from the past. Poor [Koons]. He has no idea that no one will be thinking about this forgettable show by this time next year”.

June Leaf: ‘Shooting From the Heart’: The Grey Art Museum Honors a Lifetime of Uncompromising Creation

Abigael Sidi | The Science Survey | 17th November 2025

Leaf had a long career but never enjoyed sustained acclaim. Perhaps she was overshadowed by her famous photographer husband. More simply, perhaps her art also was too difficult. In the 1950’s when abstraction was all the rage, she not only stuck with figuration but produced work in “every art medium imaginable”. One renowned painting left the writer “equally captivated and confused, sure of its brilliance but unsure of its message … constantly layering ideas on top of each other”.

9th December 2025

Frank Gehry, masterful architect who transformed L.A.’s urban landscape, dies at 96

Christopher Hawthorne | Yahoo news | 6th December 2025

Twentieth century architecture thought “less is more” but not Gehry. A childhood spent tinkering with appliances gave him an affection for “mechanisms that spill their guts for all the world to see”. Starting with his own house, Gehry pioneered a “more expressionistic architectural language”, inspiring his profession to move beyond the pristine modernist box. Sometimes criticised for “architectural sculpture”, his best work combines “balance and elegance” with “boisterous energy”. Images are here.

Five Ways of Looking at Wifredo Lam

Staff | MoMA Magazine | 18th November 2025

Lam’s work has long perplexed the art world. Born in Cuba, he moved to Spain in his early 20’s to study art. Eighteen years later he returned, wanting to blend cubism and surrealism with a Caribbean sensibility. La Jungla, his acknowledged masterpiece, does just that, placing figures amidst sugar cane and jungle foliage. Lam said the work was “an act of decolonisation … in a mental sense”. He gave “a mystical presence to [everyday] scenes”. Says a curator “There’s so much that remains to be [understood]”.

Tyler Mitchell: the photographer of the moment

Staff | The Economist | 4th December 2025

Mitchell shot his first Vogue cover – of Beyonce – at age 23, an indicator of his precocious talent. Now 30, he has a high-profile career that straddles fashion and fine art. His focus is on Black style and beauty, often featuring black figures in playful or leisurely moments that contrast with charged media imagery. Having grown up in the worlds of skateboarding and music, he is hyper-aware of image. “It becomes about how we present ourselves culturally. The clothes kind of become this other thing”.

Older links