SOON TO CLOSE

 

Closing in August or September

 

Closing in August



Nina Mankin: Identity and Dress. Nina Mankin is “mixed media artist, exploring a secret inner world of dreams, memories and stories. Working mainly with found and discarded materials that have a sense of history and past attached to them, I create one-off narrative based sculptures.” Her website is entrancing www.ninamankin.co.uk
Livingstone Studio, 36 New End Square, London NW3 1LS. Tel. +44 (0)20 7431 6311. (Open Tues – Sat) 26 June – 7 August.

Old and New South American Botanical Art. Exhibition of late 18th and early 19th century life size paintings of plants from the New Kingdom of Granada (present day Columbia) formed by José Celestino Mutis, Director of the Royal Botanical Expedition to the colony where he set up an art school to train local Creoles to record its findings. More than 6,500 works were eventually sent back to the Real Jardin Botánico in Madrid from where this selection has been made. Also on show are contemporary botanical works by South American artists from Dr Sherwood's own collection.
The Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art, The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, Surrey TW9 3AB. Tel. +44 (0)20 8332 5000. (Open daily) 8 May – 8 August.

Picasso: Peace and Freedom. Major exhibition of more than 150 paintings and drawings revealing Picasso's deep-held concerns for war and peace between 1944 and 1973. At its heart will be the artist's masterpiece The Charnel House 1944-45.
Supported by the European Regional Development Fund.
Tate Liverpool, Albert Dock, Liverpool L3 4BB. Tel. +44 (0)151 702 7400. (Open Tues – Sun) www.tate.org.uk 21 May – 31 August.

The Wyeth Family: Three Generations of American Art. Andrew Wyeth (1917 – 2009) is far and away the best known of the family; this exhibition of works from the Bank of America collection allows us to see examples of his work in the context of his father N. C. Wyeth (1882 – 1945) a successful illustrator, and Andrew's son, James Browning Wyeth, who continues his father's tradition. Also on show will be work by Andrew's sister Henrietta (1907 – 1997) and by her husband Peter Hurd (1904 – 1984) who was a long-term student of her father.
Made possible by the Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
Dulwich Picture Gallery, Gallery Road, London SE21 7AD. Tel. +44 (0)20 8693 5254. (Open Tues - Sun)
9 June - 22 August.

Haris Epaminonda. Solo exhibition, her first in a UK public gallery, of newly commissioned video work by Cypriot-born artist Haris Epaminonda who studied at the Royal College of Art in London and now lives and works in Berlin. (Tate Modern is showing on Level 2 another new work by her VOL VI, an installation, until 30 August.)
Site Gallery, 1 Brown Street, Sheffield S1 2BS. Tel. +44 (0)114 281 2077. (Open Tues to Sat) www.sitegallery.org 11 June – 21 August.

*Summer Exhibition 2010. The Royal Academy's 242nd annual open exhibition of contemporary art: this year attracting more than 11,000 entries of which a proportion has been selected for display including painting, sculpture, photography, printmaking, architecture and film. New works by Academicians and Honorary Academicians are also included, with an additional gallery in the Fine Rooms devoted to works by recently deceased members. This is an exhibition never to be missed.
Sponsored by Insight Investment.
Royal Academy of Arts, Burlington House, Piccadilly, London WIV 0DS. Tel. +44 (0)20 7300 8000. (Open daily; late Fri) www.royalacademy.org.uk 14 June – 22 August.

1:1 - Architects Build Small Spaces. Seven experimental architects from Norway, Japan, the United States, India and Brazil, have been commissioned by the V&A to create a series of “immersive” built structures across the museum.
Victoria and Albert Museum, Cromwell Road, London SW7 2RL. Tel. +44 (0)20 7942 2000. (Open daily; late Wed) www.vam.ac.uk 15 June – 30 August.

Wolfgang Tillmans. Major exhibition by the German-born photographer Wolfgang Tillmans, comprising both abstract and figurative work, all installed in response to this Gallery's spaces.
Serpentine Gallery, Kensington Gardens, London W2 3XA. Tel. +44 (0)20 7402 6075. (Open daily) 26 June – 29 August.

*Henry Moore. One of several important qualities of this exhibition is the fact that it has been prepared by a “new” generation, that is by a younger group of curators able to see the work of Henry Moore (1898 – 1986) afresh and to admire it for what it is, unswayed by the “old master” status he achieved in his later years. By concentrating on his earlier work from the 1920s until about the 1950s the exhibition reveals important long neglected elements in Moore's work: the effects of his experiences of the First World War and the later influences on his understanding of sexuality derived from primitive sculpture, surrealism and psychoanalytical theories. This exhibition thus regains for us an artist who was “in the forefront of progressive twentieth sculpture.”

Comprising some 150 “significant” works, only a few of which are large in size, the show includes stone sculptures, wood carvings, bronzes and drawings, that illustrate individually as well as collectively his underlying ideas. A handsome illustrated catalogue includes important and illuminating essays with some added spice in the form of modern-day artists's musings on Moore and his work. Infuriatingly there are no catalogue entries as such, merely a list of exhibited works. Especially worth buying is a slim volume: “Henry Moore. On being a Sculptor” which contains two of his own texts first published in the 1930s with a charming and informative forward by his daughter Mary. The exhibition itself culminates in a surprisingly serene coup de theatre: a gallery devoted entirely to half a dozen of Moore's monumental elm wood carvings.
Supported by The Henry Moore Foundation. Sponsored by British Land Company, Finsbury and Goldman Sachs.
Tate Britain, Millbank, London SW1P 4RG. Tel. +44 (0)20 7887 8888. (Open daily) www.tate.org.uk 24 February – 8 August.

*Henry Moore Deluxe: Books, Prints & Portfolios. This major exhibition devoted to Henry Moore's graphic work is a revelation not only for the range and variety of the prints but in particular for the way it shows that Moore was very serious indeed about his involvement with this form of work which he used to extend his ideas via a medium that complemented his sculpture, rather than as a convenient way of furthering his reputation. In other words print-making for Moore was an end in itself. This notion is confirmed by the numbers of preliminary proofs and not least by the finished results, etchings and lithographs, predominantly made for deluxe books or portfolios with specialist printers and publishers. One series of masterpieces of a subject especially dear to Moore is devoted to Stonehenge, rendered majestically yet sensitively in lithograph.

This exhibition has been curated by David Mitchinson who from the late 1960s to the artist's death in 1986, worked alongside Moore on the production of his prints, and marks the former's retirement as the Foundation's Head of Collections and Exhibitions. Mitchinson's accompanying book, Henry Moore: Prints and Portfolios is a scholarly illustrated masterpiece in its own right, beautifully designed and produced, and published by Patrick Cramer, Geneva, who with his late father Gérald was long associated with Moore's work as a printmaker.
The Henry Moore Foundation, Perry Green, Much Hadham, Hertfordshire SG10 6EE. Tel +44 (0)1279 843 333. (Open Tues - Sun. Advance booking only) www.henry-moore.org 30 March – 30 August.



Closing in September



Tatton Park Biennial 2010: Framing Identity. Another way of 'seeing' and experiencing a great early 19th century, Victorian and later, house, garden and estate through a series of installations by more than two dozen contemporary artists (and writers) specially commissioned by the National Trust.
Tatton Park, Knutsford, Cheshire. Tel. +44 (0)1625 374435. (Open daily) www.tattonparkbiennial.org 8 May – 26 September.

Lily van der Stokker: No Big Deal Thing and Object; Grid: Gesture. St Ives and the International Avant-garde. Summer exhibition programme.
Tate St. Ives, Porthmeor Beach, St Ives, Cornwall TR26 1TG. Tel. +44 (0)1736 796226. (Open daily) www.tate.org.uk 15 May – 26 September.

Willem de Pannenemaker. The Mercury Series. Willem de Pannemaker who worked from about 1535 – 1581 was the greatest tapestry-maker in Renaissance Brussels, a city of famous weavers, numbering Royalty including Charles I And Philip II of Spain among his clients as well as aristocrats such as the Dukes of Medicanelli. For the latter he created a series of eight mythological masterpieces: The Loves of Mercury and Herse. Now dispersed among the collections of important private and public institutions, the complete series is to be reunited for exhibition at the Prado.
Museo Nacional del Prado, Paseo del Prado, 28014, Madrid, Spain. Tel. +34 91 330 28 00 (Open Tues – Sun). www.museodelprado.es 1 June – 26 September.

Boxing Clever: A Case for the Collector. Summer selling exhibition mounted by the 30 specialists dealers working in the London Silver Vaults: examples include jewel caskets, nutmeg graters, vinaigrettes, snuff boxes, tea caddies and calling card cases dating from the 18th to the 19th century by a variety of makers, variously decorated.
The London Silver Vaults, Chancery Lane, corner of Southampton Buildings, WC2. Tel. +44 (0)208 373 0454 (Open Mon – Sat) 1 June – 30 September.

The Voyage of a Contemporary Italian Goldsmith in the Classical World: Golden Treasures by Akelo. First-ever museum exhibition devoted to the contemporary Italian goldsmith Andrea Cagnetti – who works under the name of 'Akelo' creating gold jewellery and precious objects inspired by fantastic craftsmanship of the ancient Etruscans, whose skills had been lost, until rediscovered after many years experiment by this jeweller.
Museum of Art and Archaeology, University of Missouri, 1 Pickard Hall, Columbia MO 65211 – 1420. Tel. +1 573 882 3591. (Open daily) 5 June – 26 September.

Rude Britannia: British Comic Art. Laughter is not only permitted but encouraged at this wide-ranging exhibition of painting, drawing, sculpture, film and photography of works from the seventeenth century to the present day: with work by contemporary cartoonists and comedy writers in radio, film and new media.
Tate Britain, Millbank, London SW1P 4RG. Tel. +44 (0)20 7887 8888. (Open daily) www.tate.org.uk 9 June – 5 September.

*The Surreal House. It would be hard to overstate the interest and importance of this exhibition - the first ever aiming to “throw light on the significance of surrealism for architecture.” It includes works by artists, architects and film-makers ranging from Salvador Dali to Buster Keaton to Rem Koolhaas to Louise Bourgeois. Seldom have the awkward expanses of this gallery looked so beautiful just as if the subject and the spaces have been made for each other. Perhaps this is because surrealism is “the opposite of modernism” as the exhibition's curator Jane Alison states? Perhaps it is because the installation by Carmody Groarke so perfectly allows “the architecture and the works within to speak for themselves?” Undoubtedly anyhow “this house is the irrational made real.” Go and see it whatever else you do.
Sponsored by IKEA.
Barbican Art Gallery, Silk Street, London EC2Y 8DS. Tel. +44 (0)845 120 7550. (Open late daily; except Tues & Wed) 10 June – 12 September.

Francis Alÿs: A Story of Deception. Exhibition of work by the Belgian born artist Francis Alÿs who brings a poetic and allegorical approach to contentious political and economic subjects.
Tate Modern, Bankside, London SE1 9TG. Tel. +44 (0)20 7887 8888. (Open daily; late Fri & Sat) www.tate.org.uk 15 June – 5 September.

The Scottish Summer Exhibition. First selling exhibition of contemporary art to be held in the London galleries of the Fleming Collection exclusively devoted as it is to Scottish art. Most of the 100 or so works on show will be paintings but prints and sculpture are also included; of the works some are by well-known artists others still to make their reputations: many are already represented in its permanent collection.
The Fleming Collection, 13 Berkeley Street, London W1. Tel. +44 (0)20 7409 5730. (Open Tues - Sat) 16 June – 4 September

The Courtauld Collects: 20 Years of Acquisitions. Exhibition celebrating the generosity of individual collectors and artists whose donations have materially enriched the Courtauld's collections in the last two decades.
The Courtauld Gallery, Somerset House, Strand, London WC2R 0RN. Tel. +44 (0)20 7848 2526. (Open daily) www.courtauld.ac.uk 17 June – 19 September.

*Surreal Friends: Leonora Carrington, Remedios Varo and Kati Horna. As often beautiful as it is touching and in total enthralling, this exhibition tells the stories and reveals the dreams of three women who, in 1943 separately found freedom and then intimate friendship following the Mexican President's inspired decision to open his country's borders to refugees from Nazi Europe. All were suspect for different reasons. The painter Leonora Carrington (still working at the age of 93) was British and the lover of the 'degenerate' artist Max Ernst; Remedios Varo (1908 - 1963) also a painter was a Republican during the Spanish Civil War and the lover of the left-wing writer and poet Benjamin Péret; while photographer and photo journalist Kati Horner (1912 – 2000) was a Hungarian Jew who documented this terrible war from the Republican side with her lifelong friend, the photographer Robert Capa.

The connection between the ancient cathedral city of Chichester, in the rural heart of England's West Sussex, and Surrealism in Mexico may not seem immediately obvious, yet hereabouts lived two major proponents of the style, the entrepreneurial painter Roland Penrose and the wealthy collector Edward James, crucial friend and patron of surrealist artists in Britain and in Mexico where he also had a home. This truly ground-breaking exhibition derives in part from this lingering tradition but principally from the drive and imagination of Stefan van Raay, Director of the Pallant House Gallery who freely admits to preferring exhibitions that tell a story, in this important instance working with co-curators: journalist and author Joanna Moorhead, and art historian Teresa Arcq, who is based in Mexico City.

The fruits of their work can be found throughout the 18th and 21st century rooms of this uniquely elegant gallery complemented by several displays - delightfully including art kites, 'papalotes' by the contemporary Mexican artist Francisco Toledo. The comprehensive illustrated catalogue is an exemplary accompaniment.
Pallant House Gallery, 9 North Pallant, Chichester, West Sussex PO19 1TJ. Tel. +44 (0)1243 774557. (Open Tues - Sun; late Thurs) www.pallant.org.uk 19 June – 12 September.

Ernesto Nero: The Edges of the World and The New Décor. Upstairs at the Hayward Gallery Brazilian Artist Ernesto Nero has created a series of ambitious site-specific installations; he is also included in the downstairs spaces which are given over to works by 36 artists from 22 countries for whom interior design offers the opportunity of “engaging with changes in contemporary culture.”
Both exhibitions form part of the Southbank's Festival Brazil sponsored by HSBC.
Hayward Gallery, South Bank Centre, Belvedere Road, London SE1 8XZ. Tel. +44 (0)871 663 2519. (Open daily; late Fri) 19 June – 5 September.

Turner and the Masters. Great exhibition of work by the English artist J. M. W. Turner seen in context with paintings by others such as Rembrandt, Rubens and Claude who he admired and/or sought to emulate. Already seen in London and Paris this version includes pictures not seen elsewhere by Watteau and van de Velde as well as several more by Turner himself.
Museo Nacional del Prado, Paseo del Prado, 28014, Madrid, Spain. Tel. +34 91 330 28 00 (Open Tues – Sun). www.museodelprado.es 22 June – 19 September.

*BP Portrait Award 2010. Very important annual exhibition now in its 31st year exclusively devoted to the art of portraiture, open, for the fourth successive year, to artists aged 18 or over. There were no less than 2,177 entrants for this prestigious award worth £25,000 to the winner, 1,496 from the UK and 681 from overseas. From these the judges have selected 58 for exhibition. Three artists were shortlisted: David Eichenberg, Michael Gaskell and Daphne Todd, the eventual winner for her astonishing and tender portrait of her dead mother. Also on exhibition will be a display of work by the artist chosen for last year's BP Travel Award: Isobel Peachey.
National Portrait Gallery, St. Martin's Place, London WC2H 0HE. Tel. +44 (0)20 7306 0055. (Open daily; late Thur & Fri) www.npg.org.uk 24 June – 19 September.

*Close Examination: Fakes, Mistakes and Discoveries. Works from the National Gallery's collection shown as never before. Co-curated by Marjorie Wieseman one of the Gallery's senior curators and Ashok Roy its Director of Scientific Research, this exhibition reveals the extent and importance of the collaboration between scientists, conservators and art historians when assessing and investigating the physical materials used in the making of the paintings. Forty pictures are presented in six sections: Deception and Deceit; Transformations and Modifications; Mistakes; Secrets and Conundrums; Being Botticelli; Redemption and Recovery.
Supported by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.
National Gallery, Trafalgar Square, London WC2N 5DN. Tel. +44 (0)20 7747 2885. (Open daily; late Fri) www.nationalgallery.org.uk 30 June – 12 September.

*Philip de László. Display of nine portraits dating from 1912 – 1925 by Philip de László (1869 – 1937) whose dazzling career and success belies his present, doubtless soon to be remedied, neglect. His sitters ranged from Royalty to writers and this exhibition marks the completion of the indexing of his extensive archive presented to the NPG in 2005.
National Portrait Gallery, St. Martin's Place, London WC2H 0HE. Tel. +44 (0)20 7306 0055. (Open daily; late Thur & Fri) www.npg.org.uk 27 March – 5 September.

Matisse to Malevich: Pioneers of Modern Art from the Hermitage. Exhibition of some 75 masterpieces of European modern art by Matisse, Picasso and their peers from the Hermitage, St Petersburg – an uniquely important assemblage which derives from the drive, energy and passion of two great Moscow collectors: Sergej Shchukin (1854 – 1936) and Ivan Morozov (1871 – 1921). During the October Revolution of 1917 both collections were confiscated by the State.
Hermitage Amsterdam, Amstel 51, 1017 AB Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Tel. + 31 20 530 87 51. (Open daily; late Wed) 6 March – 17 September.

*Magnificent Maps: Power, Propaganda and Art. Exhibition of rare wall-maps and other cartographic masterpieces including globes and atlases, many intended for public display and admiration. Culled, only in a manner of speaking, from the the vast four and a half million maps in the British Library's collection, this display of some 100 examples demonstrates not only the many purposes for which maps have been made, as the exhibition's title suggests, but shows beyond doubt why maps need to be “read.”
British Library, 96 Euston Road, London NW1 2DB. Tel. +44 (0)20 7412 7332. (Open daily; late Tues) 30 April – 19 September.

Grace Kelly: Style Icon. Loan exhibition of garments from Grace Kelly's wardrobe including film costumes, dresses she wore for the announcement of her engagement to Prince Rainier of Monaco, and finally in her role as Princess.
Sponsored by Van Cleef & Arpels.
Victoria and Albert Museum, Cromwell Road, London SW7 2RL. Tel. +44 (0)20 7942 2000. (Open daily; late Wed) www.vam.ac.uk 17 April – 26 September.

ATTITUDE. Exhibition curated by David Thorpe of painting and sculpture from Frank Cohen's Collection. The artists: Dan Colen, Gerald Davis, Gardar Eide Einarsson, Dirk Skreber and Bank Violette all show an “approach that might be considered anti-social or... fly in the face of conventional morality and good taste.”
Initial Access, Units 19 & 20, Calibre Industrial Park, Laches Close, off Enterprise Drive, Four Ashes, Wolverhampton WV10 7DZ. Tel. +44 (0)1902 790419. (Open Tues – Sat) www.initialaccess.co.uk 21 April – 25 September.



*especially recommended

 

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www.artnewsletter.com
August/September 2010