We must confess that religious paintings are not our favourite subject, and we've tended to regard Spanish Catholic art as being, well, just a little too religious to cope with. So we approached the Francisco de Zurbarán exhibition at the National Gallery in London with a certain amount of trepidation. A degree of contrition is due.... Yes, there were monks, altarpieces and lots of saints, but we were blown away by Zurbarán's ability to depict textures and fabrics and to convey an intensity of feeling. It's an absolutely excellent exhibition, full of truly beautiful paintings. Such religious art was intended to bring the faithful closer to God, to bridge the gap between Heaven and Earth, in an age when many could not read. Zurbarán was a master at it. Let's start with a saint: Just take a look at the fabrics, trimmings and gems in this picture. And the garments are even more striking when you are stood in front of this nearly life-size figure. This is Casild...
So museums and galleries in Britain won't be welcoming art-lovers back for a while yet (not until mid-May in England, according to Boris Johnson's current timetable), but they're open in Austria, Belgium and Spain and will be unbolting their doors again in Switzerland from the start of March. That means we do have a few exhibitions to tell you about this month, and let's start in Switzerland, because the new show at the Kunstmuseum in Basel is scheduled to be making its way to London and New York before too long, assuming there are no more lockdowns.... Sophie Taeuber-Arp: Living Abstraction from March 20 to June 20 celebrates one of the most influential avant-garde artists of the 20th century. She's perhaps better-known in German-speaking countries (her face is on the Swiss 50-franc note ) for her geometric designs across a wide range of media, including textiles, sculpture and painting. The exhibition is due at Tate Modern in July and then MoMA in Novem...