Frida Kahlo: Now, there's a name to be reckoned with. More than just a painter, a global phenomenon, a superstar who died too young. And so coming to Tate Modern on June 25 we have Frida: The Making of an Icon , surely set to be one of the most in-demand tickets in London this year. It's not so much a show about Frida, though, as about the cult of Frida: More than 30 of her works are accompanied by some 200 by contemporaries and those from later generations whom she inspired, and then there are over 200 objects exploring "Fridamania". The show had good reviews when it was on at the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, and you've got until January 3 to catch it at the Tate. While we're on the subject of mid 20th-century female icons whose candle burned out long before their legend ever did.... Marilyn Monroe: A Portrait starts at the National Portrait Gallery on June 4. The Hollywood star would have been 100 years old this year, and this show, running until Sept...
Peter Paul Rubens' Rainbow Landscape -- that symbol of hope seems a fitting image to start with this month as the weather finally turns summery and the coronavirus pandemic looks to be on the wane, variants permitting. June 3 will see the painting brought together at London's Wallace Collection with its companion piece, A View of Het Steen in the Early Morning from the National Gallery, for the first time in 200 years. Het Steen was Rubens' country estate outside Antwerp, and these paintings appear to have been made for his own pleasure. Rubens: Reuniting the Great Landscapes is free of charge, though there's a suggested £5 donation, and it runs until August 15.
Yayoi Kusama: Infinity Mirror Rooms at Tate Modern is, in principle, meant to be open to the general public from June 14, but the Tate says all tickets up to October 24 are sold out and the next lot won't be released until September. So you can either mock up your own Kusama-inspired immersive installation of endless reflections at home over the summer, or maybe it's better to look forward to visiting somewhat nearer the closing date of June 12, 2022, when surely things should be back to something approaching normal.
The next show we've trailed twice before in vain, so let's hope it's third time lucky. Noël Coward: Art & Style at the Guildhall Art Gallery is finally scheduled to begin its run on June 14. The exhibition, including previously undisplayed material, is being staged to commemorate the centenary of Coward's West End debut as a 19-year-old playwright. The writer of Brief Encounter and Mad Dogs and Englishmen had a huge impact on fashion and culture in the mid-20th century, and his influence continues to this day. Until December 23.
The Netherlands has been extremely hesitant about reopening its museums, but they'll finally do so on June 5. Among the delayed exhibitions for which tickets are now going on sale is Fleeting -- Scents in Colour at the Mauritshuis in The Hague. Scent dispensers accompanying each painting provide your chance to capture the smell of the 17th century -- a grocer's shop or the bleaching fields, for example, but also the rather less pleasant odour of an Amsterdam canal. See and sniff until August 29.
Later in the month, on June 25, Mary Magdalen opens at the Catharijneconvent in Utrecht. Artists down the centuries have been fascinated by the mysteries surrounding the story of this follower of Jesus, with connotations for some of sex and sin. See some of the work she has inspired and perhaps unravel some of the puzzles surrounding her in a show that runs until January 9.
Gustave Caillebotte: He's not the best known of the Impressionists, but he was one of the most influential, partly because of his role in providing financial support for his more famous colleagues. A big exhibition with 90 canvases opens at the Fondation Giannada in Martigny in south-east Switzerland on June 18 and is scheduled to run until November 21. Among the works on show is perhaps Caillebotte's most distinctive painting, The Floor Scrapers, from the Musée d'Orsay in Paris.
Now, if these were normal times and we were able to travel over to Switzerland to take a look at Caillebotte, we'd be very likely to make the short but scenic train ride from Martigny to Lausanne to pop into the Hermitage to check out Hans Emmenegger (1866-1940), a Swiss painter you've possibly never heard of. A Google images search reveals a few of the beguilingly unusual landscapes he created. June 25 to October 31, if you can make it past the border guards....
Finally this month, the Bucerius Kunst Forum in Hamburg promises an exhibition the curators say is a first of its kind. Modern Times looks at how artists have tackled depictions of industry in both paint and photography over the past 175 years (though they could perhaps have gone back another half-century for Coalbrookdale by Night). The show, with around 30 paintings and 170 photographs, runs from June 26 to September 26.
Images
Peter Paul Rubens, The Rainbow Landscape, c. 1636. © Trustees of The Wallace Collection, London
Jan van der Heyden, View of the Oudezijds Voorburgwal with the Oude Kerk in Amsterdam, c. 1670, Mauritshuis, The Hague
Francesco Bianchi Buonavita, Mary Magdalene with the Ointment Jar (The Myrrh-Bearer), 1st half of 17th century, Benjamin Proust Fine Art Ltd, London
Francesco Bianchi Buonavita, Mary Magdalene with the Ointment Jar (The Myrrh-Bearer), 1st half of 17th century, Benjamin Proust Fine Art Ltd, London
Hans Emmenegger, Interior of a Wood, 1933, Collection Pictet, Switzerland. Photo all rights reserved
Wonderful blog & good post on art gallery. Its really helpful for me, awaiting for more new post. Keep Blogging!
ReplyDelete