Skip to main content

Opening and Closing in May

Art history? No, we're starting this month with an exhibition that we'll be tagging #artherstory on social media. Now You See Us: Women Artists in Britain 1520-1920  opens at Tate Britain in London on May 16, with the aim of charting the path of women to being recognised as professional artists over the centuries. More than 100 will be represented: relatively widely known names such as Artemisia Gentileschi, Angelica Kauffman , Gwen John and Laura Knight , as well as the more obscure or neglected -- Levina Teerlinc, Mary Beale and Sarah Biffin . It's on till October 13, and as we've just seen a show in Germany focused on women artists over much the same timescale, we'll be keen to compare and contrast. Let's stick with a female theme. A short stroll up Millbank and across Lambeth Bridge, and you're at the Garden Museum, where from May 15 to September 29 you can see Gardening Bohemia: Bloomsbury Women Outdoors . The show takes you around the gardens of Vane
Post a Comment

Subscribe to updates

Opening in May

Shape of Light is the title of the new show that Tate Modern says aims to tell the intertwined stories of photography and abstract art for the first time. Man Ray and Alfred Stieglitz are among the pioneering photographers featured from May 2 to October 14.

At the Royal Academy, the third of Tacita Dean's three spring shows at major London museums opens on May 19. This one focuses on Landscape and runs to August 12. The two others -- Portrait at the National Portrait Gallery and Still Life at the National Gallery -- can be seen until May 28.

Edward Bawden, perhaps best known as an illustrator and graphic artist, is the subject of a wide-ranging retrospective at Dulwich Picture Gallery that's also intended to champion his work as a fine artist, including innovative watercolours in the 1930s. It's on from May 23 to September 9, following on from Dulwich's excellent David Milne show.
The Guildhall Art Gallery in the City of London focuses on William De Morgan, described as "the most intriguing and inventive ceramic designer of the late Victorian period". Sublime Symmetry, a free exhibition, runs from May 11 to October 28.

The Museum of London Docklands looks at how the Londoners of 2,000 years ago buried their loved ones, with a sarcophagus newly discovered in Southwark on display for the first time. Roman Dead starts on May 25 and is on till October 28, and there's again no charge to see it.

Bringing things bang up to date, the V&A looks at 100 projects shaping the world of tomorrow from smart appliances to satellites. The Future Starts Here starts there on May 12 and ends on November 4.

The Pallant in Chichester celebrates the work of female artists in a show inspired by the writings of Virginia Woolf that was well reviewed when it was first on at Tate St Ives at the beginning of this year. Barbara Hepworth, Gwen John, Vanessa Bell and Laura Knight are among the 80 women featured from May 26 to September 16. The exhibition then travels to the Fitzwilliam in Cambridge.
Prized Possessions is the title of the new exhibition at the Holburne Museum in Bath, featuring Dutch paintings from National Trust houses by artists including Rembrandt, Cuyp and ter Borch. Running from May 25 to September 16, this seems set to be a quality show, not least because it moves on to the Mauritshuis in The Hague later this year. There's another chance to see it at Petworth in spring 2019.
In Eastbourne, the Towner marks the 100th anniversary of the death of Edward Stott, "the poet-painter of the twilight". His atmospheric depictions of rural scenes are being brought together for the first time in more than four decades from May 26 to September 16.

Back in St Ives, the Tate's summer show is devoted to the vibrant abstract paintings of Patrick Heron in a retrospective spanning the second half of the 20th century that gets under way on May 19 and will be on till September 30.

One highlight on the Continent is a 130-work show in Denmark covering the career of Gabriele Münter, whose saturated-colour landscapes and portraits belie the Angst-ridden image of German Expressionism. It's on at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art north of Copenhagen from May 3 to August 19. You might not think the Danish capital the most obvious destination for art-lovers, but it's actually got a fantastic array of galleries to visit.

Images

Edward Bawden, Untitled Landscape with Sunset, 1927, Private Collection. (c) Estate of Edward Bawden
Dame Laura Knight, The Dark Pool, 1908-1918, Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle. (c) Reproduced with permission of the Estate of Dame Laura Knight DBE RA 2018. All rights reserved
Gerard ter Borch, An Officer Making His Bow to a Lady, c. 1662, Polesden Lacey, Surrey. (c) National Trust Images/John Hammond

Edwar
d Bawden,
Untitled landscape with
sunset
, 19
27
,
watercolour
on paper
, Private
Collection,
© Estate of Edward Bawden
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Opening and Closing in October

There's been a spate of exhibitions over the past few years aimed at redressing centuries of neglect of the work of women artists, and the Italian Baroque painter  Artemisia Gentileschi is the latest to come into focus, at the National Gallery in London, starting on October 3. Most of the works have never been seen in Britain before, and they cover a lengthy career that features strong female figures in Biblical and classical scenes, as well as self-portraits. Until January 24.  Also starting at the National on October 7 is a free exhibition that looks at Sin , as depicted by artists from Diego Velázquez and William Hogarth through to Tracey Emin, blurring the boundaries between the religious and the secular. This one runs until January 3.   Tate Britain shows this winter how JMW Turner embraced the rapid industrial and technological advances at the start of the 19th century and recorded them in his work. Turner's Modern World , starting on October 28, will include painting
Post a Comment
Read more

The Thrill of Pleasure: Bridget Riley

Prepare yourself for some sensory overload. Curves, stripes, zig-zags, wavy lines, dots, in black and white or colour. Look at many of the paintings of Bridget Riley and you're unable to escape the eerie sensation that the picture in front of you is in motion, has its own inner three-dimensional life, is not just inert paint on flat canvas, panel or plaster. It's by no means unusual to see selections of Riley's paintings on display, but a blockbuster exhibition at the Scottish National Gallery in Edinburgh brings together 70 years of her pictures in a dazzling extravaganza of abstraction, including a recreation of her only actual 3D work, which you walk into for a perspectival sensurround experience. It's "that thrill of pleasure which sight itself reveals," as Riley once said. It's a really terrific show, and the thrill of pleasure in the Scottish capital was enhanced by the unexpected lack of visitors on the day we went to see it, with huge empty sp
Post a Comment
Read more

What's On in 2024: Surreal Impressions

In 2024, we'll be marking the 150th anniversary of the first Impressionist exhibition and the 100th anniversary of the Surrealist Manifesto. There'll be lots more shows focused on women artists. It's 250 years since the birth of the great German Romantic, Caspar David Friedrich, and Roy Lichtenstein was born 100 years ago. We've picked out some of the exhibitions coming up over the next 12 months that have caught our eye, and here they are, in more or less chronological order.  February Let's start at Ordrupgaard on the outskirts of Copenhagen with Impressionism and Its Overlooked Women , described by the gallery as a "magnificent exhibition featuring works from across the world". The show focuses on five female artists, including Berthe Morisot , Mary Cassatt and Eva Gonzalès , as well as some of the models who featured in the most iconic Impressionist paintings. The exhibition is on in Denmark from February 9 to May 20, after which it transfers to the Na
Post a Comment
Read more