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The Fabric of Faith

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...
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Opening and Closing in August

Jean-François Millet -- one of the most influential artists of the 19th century with his depictions of toiling country folk -- is the subject of a free exhibition in just one room at London's National Gallery that opens on August 7. Millet: Life on the Land mainly features work from British museums, but has a star attraction in the shape of L’Angélus from the Musée d'Orsay. On until October 19. 
In eastern Germany, Chemnitz is one of this year's European capitals of culture, and one of the major exhibitions on their programme starts on August 10. Edvard Munch -- Angst in the Kunstsammlungen am Theaterplatz will recall, in part, a visit by Munch to Chemnitz 120 years ago. And, of course, there'll be a version of The Scream. Until November 2. 

On the other side of the country, a rather different offering at the Bundeskunsthalle in Bonn: an exhibition devoted to the German filmmaker Wim Wenders, creator of Wings of Desire and Paris, Texas, and marking his 80th birthday. W.I.M. -- The Art of Seeing runs from August 1 to January 11, and another version of the show will be on at the DFF Film Museum in Frankfurt from March. 

The American painter Lois Dodd has been going even longer than Wenders; she's still working at 98 and will have her first European retrospective at the Kunstmuseum in The Hague from August 30. You can see her observational pictures of her surroundings in Lois Dodd: Framing the Ephemeral until January 4. 

Last chance to see....

You only have until August 3 to catch perhaps the greatest of the old mistresses, Artemisia Gentileschi, at the Musée Jacquemart-André in Paris. It's a show full of Baroque drama, squeezed into a terribly cramped exhibition space. Last few tickets still available as this preview was published.  

Closing at the National Gallery in London on August 17 is José María Velasco: A View of Mexico, a chance to see this chronicler of the Mexican 19th-century landscape whose work is little-known here. Fascinating, if a little overpriced. 

The intimate paintings of Norway's greatest woman artist of the 19th century, Harriet Backer, have been on a European tour, and the last leg winds up at Kode in Bergen on August 24. We saw the show at the Musée d'Orsay last year.
An exhibition that's been immensely popular in London this year is Flowers -- Flora in Contemporary Art & Culture at the Saatchi Gallery in Chelsea; so much so they brought it back for a second run that ends on August 31. There's a lot to enjoy; advance booking advisable. 

Images

Jean-François Millet (1814-1875), L’Angélus, 1857-59, Musée d'Orsay, Paris. © Musée d'Orsay, Dist. Grand Palais Rmn/Patrice Schmidt
Lois Dodd (b. 1927), Sun in Hallway, 1978. © Lois Dodd, Courtesy Alexandre Gallery, New York
Harriet Backer (1845-1932), Evening, Interior, 1896, Nasjonalmuseet for kunst, arkitektur og design, Oslo. Photo: Nasjonalmuseet/Børre Høstland
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