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 ...
April, and the weather is slowly getting warmer. The delights of the garden beckon. Perfect, then, for an exhibition such as Private & Public: Finding the Modern British Garden at the Garden Museum in London. We found quite a lot to like, much of it from artists we didn't know. Though strangely, a lot of the paintings that made the biggest impression didn't seem to have a massive amount to do with gardens, or gardening. The premise of this show is to look at how British artists in the period between the two World Wars depicted private and public spaces, but those places seem to be pretty loosely defined. There's also quite a bit of work from the 1940s and 50s. The exhibition area at the Garden Museum isn't that big, but they've crammed a lot in, and if you really take a shine to a picture, it may still be for sale, as this show is put on together with the dealers Liss Llewellyn . One of the largest and most strikingly attractive paintings hangs right opposit...