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 ...
There's no denying the attraction of the light and warmth of the south. Just look at Pierre Bonnard at Tate Modern: all those gorgeous yellows and oranges and ochres. Granted, the weather's rather less congenial in northern Europe, but when the sun or the moon is right, or there's snow on the ground, that northern light can be just as bright and fascinating for the artist, just as seductive, as the Mediterranean. Not convinced? Get down to Dulwich Picture Gallery and discover Harald Sohlberg: Painting Norway . Because Norwegian painting isn't just The Scream . Edvard Munch's world-famous image isn't the painting that defines the nation. That picture is by Sohlberg; it's called Winter Night in the Mountains , and it forms the climax of this superb exhibition in south-east London. There won't have been many Britons who will have known anything at all about Sohlberg before learning of this show. After all, who in continental Europe knows about LS Lowry...