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...
Olafur Eliasson is one of the biggest names in contemporary art, and Tate Modern in London is staging the most comprehensive British exhibition of the Icelander's work to date starting on July 11. Of the more than 30 works on show, from paintings and sculptures to large-scale installations, only one has been seen in the UK before. Olafur Eliasson: In Real Life runs until January 5.
Over at the Royal Academy, it's time to welcome another Nordic artist, but one you may never have heard of. The RA describes Helene Schjerfbeck (1862-1946) as one of Finland's best-kept secrets, and the show will trace a career that moved from early naturalism to highly abstracted late self-portraits. It's the first show about her in Britain and runs from July 20 to October 27.
The Moon is a popular exhibition subject this year, the 50th anniversary of the first manned landing on Earth's nearest neighbour. The new show at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich aims to chart the cultural and scientific story of our relationship with the Moon, including equipment used during the Apollo 11 mission. July 19 to January 5.
We saw a really fascinating show in Paris a couple of months ago on how (mostly) French artists who travelled to the Orient interpreted -- sometimes not very accurately -- what they saw. The new exhibition at the Watts Gallery in Compton near Guildford takes as its subject a British Orientalist painter who settled in Cairo for a decade in the mid-19th century. John Frederick Lewis: Facing Fame starts on July 9 and runs until November 3.
They ate and they drank -- and one momentous day they died. The Ashmolean Museum in Oxford will be examining what the remains of the city of Pompeii tell us about the Romans' love affair with food. Many of the exhibits have never left Italy before. Last Supper in Pompeii is the title of the exhibition. Dining begins on July 25; last orders are on January 12.
We loved the Harald Sohlberg exhibition at the Dulwich Picture Gallery this spring, so if you're in the Frankfurt am Main area over the next few months, we'd really recommend a trip to Museum Wiesbaden to see the work of the man who created Norway's most popular painting, Winter Night in the Mountains. Midsummer Night -- Harold Sohlberg: A Norwegian Landscape Painter is the first exhibition of the artist on the European mainland and runs from July 12 to October 27.
How about some more painters you're unlikely to know the slightest thing about? Stand by, Europe: The Canadian Impressionists are on their way! More than 30 artists, more than 100 paintings; Canada and Impressionism: New Horizons is on at the Kunsthalle in Munich from July 19 to November 17.
And in France, the Musée des Impressionismes in Giverny looks back at the career of an artist closely associated with the Nabis, Ker-Xavier Roussel (1867-1944), with a show containing about 100 works. Ker-Xavier Roussel: Private Garden, Dreamed Garden (a title that definitely works a lot better in French) is on from July 27 to November 11.
Finishing on July 14 is Magic Realism, the free exhibition at Tate Modern telling the story of German figurative painting from the end of World War I to the seizure of power by the Nazis in 1933, featuring artists such as Otto Dix and George Grosz.
Running at London's Garden Museum until July 15 is an exhibition focusing on the increasingly abstract flower paintings made by Ivon Hitchens at his studio deep in the West Sussex countryside. A much bigger Hitchens show has just opened at the Pallant House Gallery in Chichester.
Our favourite exhibition of the year so far? It has to be the hugely comprehensive survey of The Danish Golden Age at the National Museum in Stockholm, with a host of works by the greatest artist of the period, Christen Købke. It's still on until July 21 in Stockholm, but you can also catch it at the National Gallery in Copenhagen from August 24, and it's due at the Petit Palais in Paris early next year.
If you're in Paris this month, there are four really worthwhile shows that are in their final weeks. At the Musée d'Orsay, Black Models from Gericault to Matisse takes a fresh look at how black people have been represented in French painting (and at how those pictures have been exhibited) over the past two centuries, and it has some eye-opening stories to tell.
Over at the Musée Marmottan Monet, it's the last few weeks for the Oriental Visions show we mentioned earlier, looking at Western representations of the exotic and mysterious East, with Ingres and Vallotton among the painters represented.
Impressionist and post-Impressionist French painting make up the bulk of the works in the Zurich-based Emil Bührle Collection, whose highlights are currently on show at the Musée Maillol, with Degas, Manet, Van Gogh and more.
Those three exhibitions end on July 21, and closing a day later is the really excellent show at the Musée Jacquemart-André looking at the career of Vilhelm Hammershøi, the Master of Danish Painting, with his enigmatic, atmospheric interiors featuring prominently.
Helene Schjerfbeck, My Mother, 1909. Private collection. Photo: Finnish National Gallery/Yehia Eweis
Still-life wall-panel fresco showing a rabbit nibbling at figs, AD 40-79, Pompeii, Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli
William Blair Bruce, Landscape with Poppies, 1887, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto. Photo and © Art Gallery of Ontario
We saw a really fascinating show in Paris a couple of months ago on how (mostly) French artists who travelled to the Orient interpreted -- sometimes not very accurately -- what they saw. The new exhibition at the Watts Gallery in Compton near Guildford takes as its subject a British Orientalist painter who settled in Cairo for a decade in the mid-19th century. John Frederick Lewis: Facing Fame starts on July 9 and runs until November 3.
They ate and they drank -- and one momentous day they died. The Ashmolean Museum in Oxford will be examining what the remains of the city of Pompeii tell us about the Romans' love affair with food. Many of the exhibits have never left Italy before. Last Supper in Pompeii is the title of the exhibition. Dining begins on July 25; last orders are on January 12.
How about some more painters you're unlikely to know the slightest thing about? Stand by, Europe: The Canadian Impressionists are on their way! More than 30 artists, more than 100 paintings; Canada and Impressionism: New Horizons is on at the Kunsthalle in Munich from July 19 to November 17.
Last chance to see....
The heat- and sun-drenched canvases of Joaquín Sorolla have been a big hit at London's National Gallery, but you only have until July 7 to view them if you've so far failed to get to this largely very enjoyable show. The exhibition then moves on to the National Gallery of Ireland in Dublin from August 10.Finishing on July 14 is Magic Realism, the free exhibition at Tate Modern telling the story of German figurative painting from the end of World War I to the seizure of power by the Nazis in 1933, featuring artists such as Otto Dix and George Grosz.
Running at London's Garden Museum until July 15 is an exhibition focusing on the increasingly abstract flower paintings made by Ivon Hitchens at his studio deep in the West Sussex countryside. A much bigger Hitchens show has just opened at the Pallant House Gallery in Chichester.
Our favourite exhibition of the year so far? It has to be the hugely comprehensive survey of The Danish Golden Age at the National Museum in Stockholm, with a host of works by the greatest artist of the period, Christen Købke. It's still on until July 21 in Stockholm, but you can also catch it at the National Gallery in Copenhagen from August 24, and it's due at the Petit Palais in Paris early next year.
Over at the Musée Marmottan Monet, it's the last few weeks for the Oriental Visions show we mentioned earlier, looking at Western representations of the exotic and mysterious East, with Ingres and Vallotton among the painters represented.
Impressionist and post-Impressionist French painting make up the bulk of the works in the Zurich-based Emil Bührle Collection, whose highlights are currently on show at the Musée Maillol, with Degas, Manet, Van Gogh and more.
Those three exhibitions end on July 21, and closing a day later is the really excellent show at the Musée Jacquemart-André looking at the career of Vilhelm Hammershøi, the Master of Danish Painting, with his enigmatic, atmospheric interiors featuring prominently.
Images
Olafur Eliasson, Your Spiral View, 2002, Installation view at Fondation Beyeler, Basel, 2002, Boros Collection, Berlin. Photographer: Jens Ziehe, © 2002 Olafur EliassonHelene Schjerfbeck, My Mother, 1909. Private collection. Photo: Finnish National Gallery/Yehia Eweis
Still-life wall-panel fresco showing a rabbit nibbling at figs, AD 40-79, Pompeii, Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli
William Blair Bruce, Landscape with Poppies, 1887, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto. Photo and © Art Gallery of Ontario
Christen Købke, One of the Small Towers on Frederiksborg Castle, 1834-35, Designmuseum Denmark, Copenhagen. Photo: Pernille Klemp
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