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Tales of the Unexpected in Southampton

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...
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Opening and Closing in August

August is always one of the quietest months for new exhibitions, and this year is no different, but we do have one big event to alert you to, as well as two splendid shows that only have weeks to run. 

The one major opening is Gwen John: Strange Beauties at the National Galleries of Scotland in Edinburgh. Running from August 1 to January 4, this is a comprehensive retrospective of the work of the woman perhaps now seen as Wales's most significant artist, born 150 years ago this year. Maybe a little too comprehensive, according to some of the reviews of the show when it was on at the National Museum in Cardiff. The exhibition goes on to the Yale Center for British Art in New Haven, Connecticut, in February and then at the end of July next year to the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington DC. We saw a rather smaller Gwen John exhibition in Chichester in 2023. 

Last chance to see....

Ending on August 23 is the exhibition at the Lakenhal in Leiden called At Home with Jan Steen -- 400 Years of Merrymaking. Steen was born in the city 400 years ago, and this show presents a selection of his work highlighting his pictures of the Dutch enjoying themselves perhaps just a little too much. 
We're by no means big fans of religious painting, but we were wowed by the Francisco de Zurbarán exhibition at the National Gallery in London, in particular his sense of drama and skill in reproducing fabrics and textures. Its run also ends August 23, after which it moves to the Louvre in Paris in October and then to the Art Institute of Chicago at the end of February. 

Images

Gwen John (1876-1939), A Lady Reading, 1909-11, Tate
Jan Steen (1626-1679), The Merry Threesome, c. 1670-72, Private collection on long-term loan to Museum De Lakenhal, Leiden
Francisco de Zurbarán (1598-1664), Agnus Dei, 1635-40, Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid. © Photographic Archive Museo Nacional del Prado

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