The Easel

11th November 2025

100 years of Calder’s circus

Kelsey Rose | Substack | 18th October 2025

Arriving in Paris in 1926, Calder wanted something to announce himself in art circles. He came up with a miniature circus, a work now enjoying a 100th anniversary show. Charm is not its only quality. It shows his interest in movement and his facility with wire, thus foreshadowing his sinuous wire portraits and mobiles. His circus has a whimsical quality much appreciated by art critics of the time. And, with performances that could go for two hours, “Cirque Calder predated performance art by forty years.”

This 17th-Century Female Artist Was Once a Bigger Star Than Rembrandt. Why Did History Forget About Johanna Koerten and Her Peers?

Meilan Solly | Smithsonian Magazine | 29th September 2025

Opportunities open to artistically inclined women in 17th century Holland were governed by class more than gender. With family support, they could become “art stars” and those that did sold work at Rembrandt-level prices, helping define the visual culture of that age.  However, female lace workers were poorly paid and anonymous despite lace being an expensive fabric. By the 19th century, art by men overshadowed everything and the preservation of works and reputations was prioritised accordingly.

4th November 2025

In the Shadow of Ruth Asawa

Lisa Yin Zhang | Hyperallergic | 17th October 2025

It seems this show will be as big a hit in New York as it was in San Francisco. Asawa’s early work was diverse – drawings, watercolours, folded paper, ceramics – but on a visit to Mexico she learned looped wire basketry. Her iconic sculptures soon emerged, in a wide variety of shapes that seemed “inside and outside at the same time”. Later, she tied bundles of wires to make fractal-like arrangements. Once thought “domestic” Asawa’s work “seems to make [the] continuity between all things tangible”.

Juliana Halpert Rates the Los Angeles Art Scene’s Tricks and Treats So Far This Fall

Juliana Halpert | Cultured | 15th October 2025

Made in LA is the seventh biennial celebration of art in that city. After spending a year choosing artists to feature, the curators decided not to have a unifying theme. Various critics mention a few artist they think deserve more recognition, but the whole thing seems flat. The curators “assembled a biennial so meatless that I’m wondering whether it’s even worth biting into. ‘Made in L.A.’ needs active curation like a novel needs a protagonist.”

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