The Easel

24th March 2026

What Do We Really Think of the New New Museum?

Hrag Vartanian et al | Hyperallergic | 18th March 2026

New York’s New Museum has long been seen as scrappy and risk-taking, the city’s anti-MoMA. With its just-opened extension, is it gentrifying? Some of the opening show gets a bashing, because it is “tethered to Western European Modernist ideas of art”. Curatorial experimentation is largely absent. As one writer observed about an earlier expansion of the institution, “architecture is deterministic. A more corporate [building] envelope means a more corporate approach in general”.

17th March 2026

The People’s Treasures: Sharing Korea’s Cultural Heritage

Yeonsoo Chee | Art Institute Chicago | 10th March 2026

Korea’s Lee family, who founded Samsung, assembled an art collection so vast that it outshone the national collection. Much has now been transferred to public ownership and selected pieces are on show in Chicago. The oldest pieces are essentially Buddhist art, made for religious purposes. Later work – notably celadon ceramics – from the Josean dynasty (1392 – 1910) reflect Confucian beliefs. After the fall of the Josean dynasty, contemporary art has emerged in response to Western ideas. A video is here.

Older links
Newer links