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 ...
Flowers -- Flora in Contemporary Art & Culture at the Saatchi Gallery gets its statement of intent across to you right from the start: big, bold and bright. Sure, there are all sorts of flowers, large and small, of every conceivable hue in this expansive show, but remember, we're on the King's Road in Chelsea. This is no place for shy retiring wallflowers or shrinking violets. The tone is set by Sophie Mess's enormous and eye-catchingly vibrant Journey of Progress mural on the walls of the stairwell you ascend to the start of the show; an only slightly more modest work by her -- appropriately entitled Burst -- is the very first painting you encounter as you enter the nine galleries. It is stunning, but the big flower close-up is nothing new. A century ago Georgia O'Keeffe was producing canvas-filling paintings of irises, oriental poppies and Red Canna . The first room takes us on something of a magical history tour of flower painting. There's a ...