Art
Art reviews and listings for London's best museum exhibitions and art galleries
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Yayoi Kusama
Yayoi Kusama is one of those artists whose mythology often overshadows her work. Now 87 years old, she has had a litany of avant-garde terms thrown her way over the years – conceptualist, feminist, minimalist – and was an indisputably huge influence on pop art giants including Andy Warhol. Having done her time on the 1960s’ New York scene, in the early 1970s Kusama returned to Tokyo, checked herself into a mental institution and has lived there willingly ever since – travelling to her nearby studio to work. Add to this personal history her colourful dress sense (with bright wigs and polka-dotted smocks, she is like one of her own patterned paintings come to life) and her record-breaking auction results, and, well, the myth builds itself. But now on to the artwork itself. This ambitious new exhibition of paintings, sculptures and installations across two sites – Victoria Miro galleries on Wharf Road in Old Street and on St George Street in Mayfair – is teeming with Kusama’s continuing preoccupations: pattern, repetition, mirrored ‘infinity rooms’ and huge, distended pumpkins. It’s not hard to believe her claim that she has experienced hallucinations since childhood. Or, by extension, to think that she harnesses such visions through the act of creation. Especially when standing in the ‘All the Eternal Love I Have for the Pumpkins’ room. Here, you’re surrounded by a sea of the artist’s signature dotted gourd-shape lanterns, which seem to undulate while their shadow selves stret
Cory Arcangel: currentmood
Not even Victoria Beckham would say that a massive framed picture of her was fine art. But American nerd-art wunderkind Cory Arcangel isn’t Victoria Beckham, he’s the guy who filled the Barbican Curve gallery with 14 different bowling video games, and he thinks Posh Spice is art. His show here features two rooms filled with big, bright digital images alongside stacks of speakers pounding out a pulsing repetitive static noise. The images veer between the mundane (cats, David Guetta, Adidas track suits, Posh Spice) and the artistic (shimmering digital puddles, Photoshop presets, video games caught mid-pause), all printed the same size. ‘How is this art?’ you may be thinking. ‘I could print out a massive picture of a fucking kitten too.’ But what Arcangel has done is create a sort of self-portrait in clickbait. This is the artist’s whole digital world laid bare. It’s his internet browsing history, his phone pictures, his artistic experiments. And it isn’t a million miles away from what Marcel Duchamp did with his famous urinal, pushing the idea of the ‘democracy of art’, encouraging viewers to see the beauty in everyday objects. Arcangel’s show is more like the democracy of the desktop. Most importantly, it all looks amazing. Arcangel has a great eye, and that pounding white noise soundtrack all makes you feel like you’ve been staring at a screen for way too long. The whole thing works so well because sweatpants, cat pics and headaches are part of our everyday lives. Somehow
Edward Barber
A foot in Jesus sandal protrudes from under a police van, while an officer looks smirkingly on. A man stands in Hyde Park: on his head is a paper bag printed with instructions on what to do in the event of a nuclear attack. One reads: ‘Kiss your loved ones goodbye.’ A demure woman sits in a folding chair beside a sign which reads ‘Hello, can you stop for a talk?’ She might be canvassing for a politician or manning a WI stall. In fact she’s picketing Greenham Common RAF base, home to Uncle Sam and his cruise missiles. Edward Barber’s stunning photos from the early 1980s pinpoint a moment in the history of protest in this country. In some ways they look back to the Suffragette era: a lot of those active in the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and these demonstrations were women (‘Take the toys away from the boys’ says one placard. Mrs Thatcher is an honorary boy, presumably). In others, they look forward to Occupy: ordinary people on the streets expressing their anger. Barber’s shots appeared at the time in newspapers and CND material. Now, in spanking new digital prints, they stand tightly packed, shoulder-to-shoulder like the 30,000 women who formed a nine-mile human chain around Greenham in 1982. The room is painted the canary yellow of the radiation warning symbol; benches are drilled with holes in the shape of the CND logo. These details continue a theme in the work: a very English kind of pre-internet homespun creativity, full of wit and folk art. In the same vein, Barb
Jeff Koons: Now
Jeff Koons is why people loathe modern art. According to the haters, the American superstar is a cynical artistic oligarch, using shock and pop culture to make his pile: he made porn-art, he ripped off comic books, he did balloon sculptures – and he’s become one of the most expensive living artists in the process. So it’s no surprise that Damien Hirst has a massive collection of Koons originals, which he is displaying here in his fancy gallery. Hirst and Koons, a match made in hell. But the thing is, that view of Koons as megalomaniacal art moneylord, it’s fun, but it’s wrong. Dig beneath the glitzy surface, and there’s an actual human heart in there somewhere. This show pulls together works from throughout Koons’s career. It’s not quite a proper retrospective, but it’s near enough. It starts with his early Hoover readymades and ad paintings before moving on to the big stuff: a giant balloon monkey, some soft-focus porn, a giant bowl of eggs, basketballs suspended in water, framed Nike posters, inflatable lobsters and a huge pile of Play-Doh. It’s what you expect from Koons: big, bold, glamorous and expensive-looking. But there’s a fear in Koons’s work, a deep insecurity. It’s like he’s trying to preserve everything for ever. He seals his readymades away, protecting them. He makes balloons and inflatables out of steel, he makes hardcore porn with his beautiful (ex-) wife, he preserves basketballs like scientific specimens. The inflatables are childhood made permanent in
Must-see art exhibitions in London
Paul Strand
Goodness: It’s a quality you probably appreciate in your mum. But in an artist? We’re taught from an early age to admire art’s bad boys and girls, from Caravaggio via Picasso to Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin. They have the coolest lives and make the best copy. But the photographer Paul Strand (1890-1976) was, unerringly, a good man. And his images, of New York City streets, remote rural communities, even crocuses in his back yard, are inseparable from his humanity. This extra moral dimension gives you something unusual to grapple with at the V&A’s staggeringly beautiful retrospective. Strand is responsible for some of the defining shots of America at the beginning of the twentieth century, and for helping to elevate photography to an art form. Homing in on the shadows on his porch, or fruit in a bowl, he made what are regarded as some of the first abstract photos of all time. Yet, especially in these fledgling works, you sense a tussle between Strand’s creative aspiration and his social conscience. It’s there in his iconic shot of Wall Street commuters, taken in 1915 (pictured above). Strand was trying to understand cubism and how to create a modern image for a modern world. However, with its anonymous proles dragging their long shadows in front the stark edifice of the JP Morgan building, the modern world he describes is one of subservience and alienation. He was no sentimentalist, though. A year later, in upstate Port Kent, he photographed a traditional white picket fence
Sunken Cities: Egypt’s Lost Worlds
Despite ancient texts being full of references to them, the Egyptian cities of Canopus and Thonis-Heracleion remained a lost mystery for years. It wasn’t until the 1990s that an archaeological team discovered their remains – not on dry land, but a few miles off the coast, beneath the Mediterranean. This spectacular show is the first time these pieces from the drowned cities have been seen in the UK. The exhibition tells a pretty chirpy story of how, for many hundreds of years, the mouth of the Nile – where Canopus and Thonis-Heracleion once stood – was a major trading hub between Egypt and its Greek, and later Roman, neighbours across the sea. We think of these ancient empires being clear-cut and distinct, but in reality goods, art and even religions changed hands. So although the Greek settlers thought worshipping birds and cats was all a bit weird, they recognised the Egyptian deities as ‘translations’ of their own, and in Canopus they founded a temple to Serapis: a one-size-fits-all god who doubled as Osiris-Apis. Not everything on display here has been pulled from the depths: the museum has trawled its own collection and got some stunning loan pieces from Egyptian museums to flesh out the story. But it’s the submerged stuff that’s by far the most interesting, in turns exquisite (golden jewellery from the Ptolemaic era), surreal (a bronze ladle encrusted with barnacles) and monumental (20-foot statues of Greek monarchs dressed in pharaoh gear). The Indiana Jones-style e
Strange and Familiar: Britain as Revealed by International Photographers
This is an exhibition for anyone who has ever queued for a bus, stared longingly into a cake shop window, blown bubbles just for the fun of it, picknicked in the car in the rain, been in love, worn a hat, walked down a high street… If you don’t recognise yourself in that list, or in the photographs in this show, then I’m calling you out, you droid. Selecting 23 photographers from overseas who have come to these shores armed with rampant curiosity and a killer eye for a great shot, ace photographer Martin Parr has put together one of the most involving and moving exhibitions of the year. It’s chock full of photography legends – ‘eye of the century’ Henri Cartier-Bresson, the staggeringly compassionate Robert Frank – and charts the rise of the medium from the 1930s to now. But, from the off, it’s about the man and woman on the street, about us. It’s remarkable how few famous, or even named, people appear. Cartier-Bresson first came to this country to photograph the coronation of George VI (our current queen’s stuttering papa) in 1937 but, mindful of the communist leanings of the magazine he was working for at the time, turned his back on the pomp to photograph the throng. Throughout, the only clues as to these forgotten lives are in titles such as ‘Headwaiter’ (by Evelyn Hofer) or ‘Homeless’ (Gian Butturini). Filling in the blanks is part of this show’s joy. Parr’s hands may be all over this selection, and you can immediately see what the master of revealing, offbeat moments
Painting with Light
Nineteenth Century British painting, let’s face it, wasn’t exactly the edgiest moment in art history. But this new Tate Britain considers the period afresh by examining how it responded to the arrival of photography. And guess what? It hit the ground running. Two Scotsmen are to thank for painting’s first dialogue with photography. David Octavius Hillwas commissioned to paint the ‘Disruption Portrait’ (1843-66), a document of the rebel assembly that founded the Free Church of Scotland. It was decided that to honour the historic event, each of the 450-odd people present had to be committed to canvas. So Hill enlisted the services of photographic pioneer Robert Adamson, who took a picture of every last assembly member for him to work from. The final 12-foot picture, a sea of scowling, mutton-chopped faces, is the painted equivalent of a dodgy Photoshop job. A photo of the occasion might have been more appropriate (and wouldn’t have taken 23 years either), but cameras weren’t up to it yet. In those early years, photography was seen more as a useful tool than an art form in itself. When landscape painter Thomas Seddon visited the Garden of Gethsemane outside Jerusalem in 1853, he camped there for 120 days to absorb the full holy vibe before returning to his studio. But he also made use of James Graham’s photographs of the same place: religious fervour can only do so much to help with remembering those pesky details. Similarly, Pre-Raphaelite Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s portraits
Emotional Supply Chains
Of the many incredible things the internet has given us – cat memes, transcontinental instantaneous video communication, limitless porn – maybe the most revolutionary is the ability to redefine ourselves. Between Facebook, Twitter, online gaming and countless other websites, you can basically be whatever the hell you want to be. It doesn’t matter who you are in real life – online, you can be anything. It’s no surprise that a lot of contemporary art is obsessed with this idea, so this show of work from around the world acts as a neat self-portrait of a generation of (mostly) digital natives. It opens with a series of recreations of Kim Dotcom’s seized possessions in an installation by New Zealand’s Simon Denny. Internet entrepreneur Dotcom is sort of the poster boy of this exhibition: a chubby German kid with a troubled background, he used the internet to change his name, move around the globe, become a celebrity, make his fortune and create his own downfall. It’s the ultimate internet transformation. A full-length portrait of Dotcom by Scottish artist Michael Fullerton hangs on an adjacent wall: the internet nerd as monarch. Identity can be a struggle. Art world wunderkind Korakrit Arunanondchai’s video installation finds the artist trying to make sense of a world where tradition meets modern life. It’s basically a long, glitzy music video with tons of drones and denim, but it’s a fun watch. In the rear gallery, English artist Ed Fornieles’s hectic video/interactive sculp
Upcoming art exhibitions in London
Bhupen Khakhar
The Tate showed Bhupen Khakhar as early as 1982, and again in 'Century City' in 2001, yet the Indian artist remains relatively unknown. This retrospective looks set to change that while also bringing a heartening dose of fantastical storytelling to the summer of art. Born in 1934 in Bombay, Khakhar depicted the ordinary lives of workers and tradesmen of modern India while revealing diverse art-historical influences, from Indian miniature to pop art. Marking his coming out as a gay man, his most famous work, 'You Can’t Please All' (1981) is also his most confessional; Khakhar was similarly forthright about his battle with cancerin paintings such as 'Idiot' (2003), painted the year he died.
Alex Katz: Quick Light
As he approaches his ninetieth year, legendary New York painter Alex Katz shows no sign of slowing down. ‘I don’t think of myself as an old man,’ he told us when we spoke to him last year. And he certainly doesn't paint like one – nailing his signature, stylish, stripped-back-to-the-essentials portraits and landscapes with extraordinary aplomb. Making reference to the Serpentine's parkland setting, this show includes an installation of landscapes from recent years shown alongside a selection of works from the past two decades. It'll be a summer highlight, for sure.
Mary Heilmann
Arriving like a heady blast of ozone comes this retrospective of the US artist who, for the past five decades, has dazzled with witty, exuberant, sensuous paintings. Heilmann, born in San Francisco in 1940, has forged a singular path, riffing on various styles of abstraction – hard-edge painting, expressionist brushwork, the dot, the splodge, the stripe, the dribble – in a deceptively casual manner. In one sense, she’s an avid recycler – a re-inventor of the modernist wheel, if you like. But it’s Heilmann’s insouciance and the apparent spontaneity of her art that elevates it and makes her such a unique voice in contemporary art. Of course, it takes immense skill and practice to appear so relaxed. Many commentators have been quick to align the athleticism of Heilmann’s art to her childhood training as a competitive diver. Whether or not that’s the case, it possibly explains the references to water – swimming pools, crashing waves – in her work. And, while she’s been a New York resident for decades, the sun-filled sensibility of her paintings gives them a distinctly West Coast vibe. The show will include ceramics and furniture, as well as paintings.
Winifred Knights (1899-1947)
Dulwich Picture Gallery's mission to bring to attention under-appreciated British modernists continues with this retrospective of Winifred Knights. In works such as her best-known painting 'The Deluge' (1920) in the Tate collection, Knights marries a love of early Renaissance frescoes with cubist-inspired exaggerations of form. They're solemn, classical. What's radical about Knights's art, however, are themes of women's rights and independence. Knights was recognised during her lifetime: at the insistence of John Singer Sargent, she became the first woman to win the Prix de Rome scholarship in Decorative Painting awarded by the British School at Rome. This show seeks to establish her as one of the most original artists of the first half of the twentieth century.
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Barbican Centre
The Barbican Centre, a vast concrete estate of 2,000 flats and a leading arts complex, is a prime example of brutalist architecture, softened a little by time and rectangular ponds of friendly resident ducks. The lakeside terrace and adjoining café are good spots to take a rest from visiting the art gallery, cinema, theatre, concert hall or library within the complex. The art gallery on the third floor stages exhibitions on design, architecture and pop culture, while on the ground floor, the Curve is a free exhibition space for specially commissioned works and contemporary art. At the core of the music roster, performing 90 concerts a year, is the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO). The annual BITE season (Barbican International Theatre Events) continues to cherry-pick exciting and eclectic theatre companies from around the globe. The Barbican regularly attracts and nurtures experimental dance, and the Pit Theatre is a perfectly intimate space.
National Gallery
Founded in 1824 to display a collection of just 36 paintings, today the National Gallery is home to more than 2,000 works. There are masterpieces from virtually every European school of art. The modern Sainsbury Wing extension contains the gallery’s earliest works: Italian paintings by early masters like Giotto and Piero della Francesca. The basement of the Sainsbury Wing is also the setting for temporary exhibitions. In the West Wing are Italian Renaissance masterpieces by Correggio, Titian and Raphael; in the North Wing, seventeenth-century Dutch, Flemish, Italian and Spanish Old Masters. In the East Wing (reached via the street-level entrance in Trafalgar Square) are some of the gallery’s most popular paintings: works by the French Impressionists and post-Impressionists, including on of Monet’s water lily paintings and one of Van Gogh’s sunflowers series. You can’t see everything in one visit to the National Gallery, but the free guided tours and audio guides will help you make the most of your time. There’s also a wonderfully atmospheric café stocked with Oliver Peyton goodies, and a fine-dining restaurant, the National Dining Rooms.
National Portrait Gallery
Portraits don't have to be stuffy. The National Portrait Gallery has everything from oil paintings of stiff-backed royals to photos of soccer stars and gloriously unflattering political caricatures. The portraits of musicians, scientists, artists, philanthropists and celebrities are arranged in chronological order from the top to the bottom of the building. At the top of the escalator up from the main foyer are the earliest works, portraits of Tudor and Stuart royals and notables. On the same floor, the eighteenth-century collection features Georgian writers and artists, with one room devoted to the influential Kit-Cat Club of Whig (leftish) intellectuals, Congreve and Dryden among them. More famous names here include Wren and Swift. The Duveen Extension contains Regency greats, military men such as Wellington and Nelson, as well as Byron, Wordsworth and other Romantics. The first floor is devoted to the Victorians (Dickens, Brunel, Darwin) and, in the Duveen Extension, the twentieth century. One of the NPG's most popular highlights is the annual BP Portrait Award where the best entrants for the prestigious prize are exhibited.
Tate Britain
Tate Modern gets all the attention, but the original Tate Gallery, founded by sugar magnate Sir Henry Tate, has a broader and more inclusive brief. Housed in a stately Portland stone building on the riverside, Tate Britain is second only to the National Gallery when it comes to British art. The historical collection includes work by Hogarth, Gainsborough, Reynolds, Constable (who gets three rooms to himself) and Turner (whose works are displayed in the grand Clore Gallery). Many contemporary works were shifted to Tate Modern when it opened in 2000, but Stanley Spencer, Lucian Freud, David Hockney and Francis Bacon are well represented here, and the Art Now installations showcase up-and-coming British artists. The gallery also hosts the controversy-courting Turner Prize exhibition (Oct-Jan). The gallery has a good restaurant and a well-stocked gift shop, and the handy Tate-to-Tate boat service zips along the Thames to Tate Modern.
Tate Modern
The permanent collection draws from the Tate’s collections of modern art (international works from 1900) and features heavy hitters such as Matisse, Rothko and Beuys – a genuinely world-class collection, expertly curated. There are vertiginous views down inside the building from outside the galleries, which group artworks according to movement (Surrealism, Minimalism, Post-war abstraction) rather than by theme.
Whitechapel Gallery
This East End stalwart reopened in 2009 following a major redesign and expansion that saw the Grade II listed building transformed into a vibrant, holistic centre of art complete with a research centre, archives room and café. Since 1901, Whitechapel Art Gallery has built on its reputation as a pioneering contemporary institution and is well remembered for premiering the talents of exhibitions by Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko and Frida Kahlo among others. Expect the rolling shows to be challenging and risqué.