August is always one of the quietest months for new exhibitions, and this year is no different, but we do have one big event to alert you to, as well as two splendid shows that only have weeks to run. The one major opening is Gwen John: Strange Beauties at the National Galleries of Scotland in Edinburgh. Running from August 1 to January 4, this is a comprehensive retrospective of the work of the woman perhaps now seen as Wales's most significant artist, born 150 years ago this year. Maybe a little too comprehensive, according to some of the reviews of the show when it was on at the National Museum in Cardiff. The exhibition goes on to the Yale Center for British Art in New Haven, Connecticut, in February and then at the end of July next year to the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington DC. We saw a rather smaller Gwen John exhibition in Chichester in 2023. Last chance to see.... Ending on August 23 is the exhibition at the Lakenhal in Leiden ...
A show of paintings by Indian artists for their English rulers during the 100 years or so that the East India Company ran the subcontinent in the late 18th and 19th century. Sounds quite interesting from a historical point of view, we thought, but maybe not that enthralling. Forgotten Masters at the Wallace Collection in London exceeded our expectations by a mile. It's an absolutely fascinating exhibition, entertainingly and beautifully presented (it's curated by William Dalrymple, the historian and author of many books on South Asia), and with some stunning works of art by painters you're unlikely ever to have heard of -- Bhawani Das, Sita Ram, Yellapah. Many of these pictures, it seems, were in albums locked away in drawers and cupboards for decades. They combine the Indian tradition of painting using stone-based pigments mixed in shells with scientific European innovation in areas such as natural history and architecture, and the use of Western watercolours. ...