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Symphonies and Nocturnes on Canvas

The  James McNeill Whistler  exhibition at Tate Britain is big, probably a bit too big, but it's packed with beautiful pictures and it's not in the least bit boring.  That's not surprising as Whistler led a colourful life, never shying from controversy and confrontation -- notably pursuing a high-profile libel case against John Ruskin  -- and he produced art that was groundbreaking, hugely influential and enormously atmospheric. Including, of course, probably one of the most recognisable paintings in art history, that of his mother in profile, dressed in black. It's in this show, and we'll be taking a look at it shortly.  But we start in Whistler's studio, where the artist has painted himself at work, palette and brush in his hands, and looking out directly at us, the viewers. This is the first picture you see in the show, and we're told that for Whistler, the studio was a place for public performance, as well as making art. So here he is, making a statemen...
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Opening and Closing in August

Let's start off this month with Hockney and Piero: A Longer Look at the National Gallery in London. This free one-room show, running from August 8, brings together two David Hockney paintings with a picture from the gallery, Piero della Francesca's The Baptism of Christ, that is depicted in both works. On until October 27.
The Ashmolean Museum in Oxford's new exhibition is Money Talks: Art, Society & Power, starting on August 9. This show aims to look at art on currency, and currency in art, bringing together notes and coins from history as well as work by artists from Rembrandt to Andy Warhol and Grayson Perry. It runs until January 5. 

Starting on August 24 is the last of the major exhibitions around Germany marking the 250th anniversary of the birth of Caspar David Friedrich. This one is on at the Albertinum and the Royal Palace in Dresden, where Friedrich lived and worked for more than 40 years. Caspar David Friedrich: Where It All Started is on until January 5. 
Heading north to Copenhagen now, for a show at the SMK, Denmark's national gallery, with the rather convoluted title Against All Odds -- Historical Women and New Algorithms. This exhibition, on from August 31 to December 8, looks at 24 women artists from 1870 to 1910 who left the Nordic countries to pursue their ambitions elsewhere in Europe. The Finn Helene Schjerfbeck is among the best known. And if you're attracted by that show, you'll also want to take the short stroll across the park to the Hirschsprung Collection for Women Visualising the Modern: Danish Art 1880-1910. That one is open from August 28 to January 12. 

Last chance to see....

You have until August 26 to get to Rottingdean, on the eastern edge of Brighton, for Prydie: The Life and Art of Mabel Pryde Nicholson 1871-1918. It's the first exhibition in over a century of the work of the wife of William Nicholson and the father of Ben Nicholson, in their former home, and entry is free. 
The new football season is just starting, but September 1 is the final day of Football: Designing the Beautiful Game at Wolverhampton Art Gallery. We saw the original version of the show at London's Design Museum in 2022. 

Images

David Hockney (born 1937), My Parents, 1977, Tate. © David Hockney; Photo: Tate, London
Caspar David Friedrich (1774-1840), Wanderer above the Sea of Fog, around 1817, Hamburger Kunsthalle. © SHK/Hamburger Kunsthalle/bpk; Photo: Elke Walford
Mabel Pryde Nicholson (1871-1918), The Grange, c. 1911, Scottish National Gallery

 

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