The Easel

18th August 2026

Derrick Adams: View Master

Lee Ann Norman | The Brooklyn Rail | 1st July 2026

The challenge of a mid-career survey is to sum up an artist’s trajectory while it is still evolving. A case-in-point is Adams, whose colourful paintings of Black people at leisure convey “Black joy”. His figurative works are popular, but what is the enduring idea? One writer suggests it is identifying those banal moments “that make individual lives whole”. Or, says this critic, Adams shows how Black people can exist within a Eurocentric culture yet “create something else entirely”.

An Andrea della Robbia Masterpiece Is on View at The Met for the First Time in 70 Years

Rena Gross | Galerie | 14th August 2026

Andrea della Robbia trained as a goldsmith before developing a method of glazing terracotta sculptures and devotional bas reliefs. Not only was his glazing more durable than a painted surface, but colours like “della Robbia blue” gave sculptures “a lifelike presence and an ethereal force”. Even though their work became popular throughout Europe, the della Robbia’s kept their techniques a secret, so much so that when the family died out several generations later, those secrets died with them. A video (3 min) is here.

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