The Art Exhibitions Blog

The first big exhibition of 2023 in London gets under way at the Royal Academy on January 21, and it features paintings by El Greco, Velázquez, Goya and  Joaquín Sorolla , as well as textiles, silverware and many other artworks from Spain and Latin America. There are more than 150 objects to discover from the  Hispanic Society of America  in New York, the most extensive collection of Spanish art outside its homeland. Spain and the Hispanic World: Treasures from the Hispanic Society Museum & Library  is on until April 10.  David Hockney has achieved the status of a British national treasure, and he's the opening attraction at a whizzy new venue in King's Cross, the Lightroom. From January 25 to April 23, the artist provides his own commentary for  David Hockney: Bigger & Closer (not smaller & further away) . In a cycle of six chapters, Hockney takes us through his career and constant experimentation with ways of seeing. The immersi...

Two museums in two countries collaborate on a big exhibition, to be shown in both, and you tend to assume that, apart from a few tweaks, you'll see much the same in each city. What we weren't quite expecting when we went along to the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam to see Rembrandt-Velázquez  this month was to find not only a completely different approach to the show we'd seen at the  Prado in Madrid  during the summer, but for the most part a completely different set of paintings.  The Prado exhibition bringing together the great Dutch and Spanish masters of the 17th century included some superlative pictures, but we were less than convinced by the curators' premise that, beneath the surface, there weren't really any national differences in the approach to art 400 years ago. It seemed a bit too much of an obvious pro-European political message and led to comparisons between paintings that we felt at times were rather contrived.  This show in Amsterdam, by con...

So, it's Spain against Holland in Madrid, for a much-anticipated meeting in the heat of the summer. And, from a rich pool of talent, there are some really big names on both sides. But it's not football we're here for, we've come to the Museo del Prado for 17th-century art, in the shape of an exhibition called  Velázquez, Rembrandt, Vermeer -- Parallel Visions . Is it any good? Well, the opening 25 minutes are fantastic and there's a real purple patch in the second half, but unfortunately they can't keep the pace up for the entire game. The idea of this show isn't so much a contest between the painters of opposing nations, it's to illustrate how similar their art was 350 years ago in the context of a united European culture (strong message here, one might say). National differences were overstated by art historians in the 19th and 20th centuries, the curators argue. Works by Spanish and Dutch masters hang side by side, for you to compare and contrast....

You don't really need an excuse for a Rembrandt exhibition, but 2019 provides a perfect diary date: it's the 350th anniversary of his death, and some of the Netherlands' biggest galleries (and the Dutch tourism authorities) are celebrating with a year-long programme of events. Let's start at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, where they have two big shows planned. The gallery, home to the Night Watch , has the world's biggest collection of Rembrandts, and from February 15 to June 10 it's planning to display 22 paintings, 60 drawings and the 300 best examples of his prints in All the Rembrandts of the Rijksmuseum . Towards the end of 2019, there's the mouth-watering prospect of a show comparing Rembrandt and his Spanish close contemporary Velazquez in what the Rijksmuseum says will be a comprehensive overview of paintings by the two great masters, with paintings hung in pairs. It's a collaboration with the Prado in Madrid, which is celebrating its 200th ...