The Easel

28th October 2025

Dismantled or Not, Confederate Monuments Still Have Power. This New Landmark Exhibition Grapples With It.

Cat Dawson | Cultured | 23rd October 2025

Public statues that celebrate Confederacy leaders and white supremacist values have recently been removed in some US cities. A selection has gone on display in Los Angeles. Once placed at eye level in an art space, their “malignancy dissolves” and their scale “feels goofy and graceless”. The curator admits “it’s a very strange show … [decontextualising] takes away some of that power to harm”. Another writer calls it “thrilling … Nothing like it has ever been done before.”

5 Things to Know about the Friendship of Manet and Morisot

Staff | Fine Art Museums San Francisco | 9th October 2025

So, were the 19th century artists Manet and Morisot romantically linked? Probably not, although he painted her many times, they collected each other’s works and there is some suggestive correspondence. More consequentially, Morisot was far more than Manet’s student or muse. She embraced Impressionism early; later, his style also loosened.  She followed his idea of figures on a balcony while his work of a woman before a mirror closely resembled hers. Perhaps, says a writer, the key dynamic was “mutual regard”.

21st October 2025

Renoir’s drawings showcased in major exhibition, the first of its kind in over a century

Jane Levere | CNN Style | 17th October 2025

Berthe Morisot thought Renoir’s drawings were great, but Gauguin was less enthused. The difference might be because Renoir had a casual view of his drawings. Some were preparatory studies for a painting but others were spontaneous and more finished. They profile his evolution, from early drawings that show his “rigorous academic training “ to subsequent “brisk on-the-spot” sketches and finally softer, more intimate works.  A “distinguished collection” says one writer. A detailed view of ten drawings is here.

New York’s Biggest Monet Show in 25 Years Is a Revelation

Alex Greenberger | ARTnews | 10th October 2025

Brooklyn Museum has been castigated for its superficial exhibitions. A show of Monet’s paintings from a reluctant visit to Venice in 1908 gets a more positive reception. Monet, noticing the changing autumnal weather and shifted “closer to abstraction”. The real consequence of that was evident when, on returning to France, he resumed work on the Water Lilies series he had been unable to finish. Feeling renewed, his lilies became swirls of pink and red paint, ever “farther from legible figuration”. Critics were delighted.

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