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 ...
Perhaps you've seen the superb Johannes Vermeer exhibition at the Rijksmuseum or, more likely, you've been frustrated by failing to get tickets. Whichever it is, you know the pictures, but how much do you know about the painter himself and the world he lived in? You'll learn so much more if you head to the Museum Prinsenhof in his home city for their show Vermeer's Delft . It was a remarkably small world; Delft in the middle of the 17th century was a little town by our standards, with just over 20,000 inhabitants. But despite that, Delft was a hub for art and science in the remarkably sophisticated society of the Dutch Golden Age. This exhibition throws light on the life of Vermeer the man, who spent all his 43 years living either on Delft's main square, or just off it, and demonstrates the influences on Vermeer the painter through the artworks and objects that surrounded him. There are no Vermeer paintings in this show, but you'll see works by other artists...