There are some familiar names and familiar paintings in Art Then! British Painting, Sculpture and Drawing, 1910-1960 at Southampton City Art Gallery, but it's the unfamiliar that makes it especially worth the trip to a venue you might not normally consider for an exhibition. This show provides an excellent overview of art trends in this country in the first half of the 20th century. And it's free! Southampton has a very good collection, but we often get the feeling that a lot of interesting works are in store behind closed doors. Pleasant surprises await when they finally see the light of the day, in this case in combination with a selection from the extensive Ingram Collection of modern British art. In all, there are more than 100 works by over 100 artists, demonstrating how the British reacted to the latest developments in art on the Continent. So let's start with a couple of hidden gems from the Southampton treasure trove, first of all a Landscape that really stoppe...
As London's Courtauld Gallery closes for a makeover , some of its highlights are making the short trip up the Strand for a show at the National Gallery. Courtauld Impressionists , which runs from September 17 to January 20, brings together works purchased in the 1920s by the industrialist Samuel Courtauld for his own collection as well as Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings he helped acquire for the National Gallery. Manet, Renoir, Cézanne, Seurat and Bonnard are represented and tickets are a modestly priced £7.50. There are two new exhibitions at the Royal Academy. The first traces the career of Renzo Piano , architect of the Shard, and it's on from September 15 to January 20. The second, starting September 29 and running until December 10, looks at the indigenous art of Oceania , marking the 250th anniversary of Captain James Cook's first voyage to the Pacific. Huge canoes and stunning god images are promised among the 200 artefacts. Dulwich...