Category: Exhibitions
Spanish Art in Georgia
December 14 2020
Picture: Bob Jones University Museum & Gallery
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
It looks like the inhabitants of Athens, Georgia, are in for a treat with a new exhibition dedicated to Spanish Art. Power and Piety in 17th Century Spanish Art is opening within The University of Georgia's Museum of Art, and will include paintings by the likes of Francisco de Zurbarán, José Antolínez, Pedro Orrente, the workshop of Bartolomé Esteban Murillo and Francisco de Herrera the Elder. For those of you who can't make it, the museum are also putting on a few free Zoom talks to coincide with the exhibition.
Renaissance Watercolours at the V&A
December 9 2020
Picture: V&A
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
I'm very much looking forward to visiting the recently opened Renaissance Watercolours exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. This free exhibition brings together a beautiful selection of works on paper and vellum ranging from manuscripts to miniatures and designs for armour to delicate studies of fruit.
Coincidentally, the V&A has also announced that it will be closing two days a week until early 2021. It will now only be possible to visit between Wednesdays and Sundays until further notice. The museum managed to attract 15% of its pre-covid visitor numbers in August and it hopes that by 2021-2022 it will be back to around 50%.
The Queen's Paintings are On The Move
November 24 2020
Video: The Royal Collection Trust
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Royal Collection Trust have posted this rather fun time-lapse video of paintings being removed from the Picture Gallery at Buckingham Palace. Works by Rembrandt, Rubens, Canaletto and Van Dyck will be appearing in a special exhibition in the Queen's Gallery which opens next week.
Wright of Derby: Art & Science
November 24 2020
Picture: The National Gallery via. Uffizi Gallery
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
A reader has been in touch to point out that the Uffizi Gallery in Florence are preparing to reopen with this brilliant sounding exhibition Wright of Derby: Art & Science. This includes an important loan from the National Gallery in London of An Experiment on a Bird in an Air Pump (pictured). Other works by the likes of Dou, Cavarozzi and Crespi are included in the show.
The exhibition opened on 6th October 2020 is due to run until 24th January 2021. In case you can't visit Florence in person to see it, the museum have uploaded a 'virtual online visit' with slides via. the link above.
Lecture: Lost Treasures of Strawberry Hill
November 17 2020
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Strawberry Hill, the former home of the connoisseur Sir Horace Walpole, are broadcasting a lecture on Thursday evening (19th November 2020) on their brilliant 2018 exhibition The Lost Treasures of Strawberry Hill. The talk will be given by the exhibition's co-curator Silvia Davoli, and will surely feature many of the great paintings that were reunited in this marvellous neo-Gothic interior.
The lecture costs £8 for guests but is free for members and patrons of Strawberry Hill.
Exhibition Catalogue: Paintings on Stone
November 13 2020
Picture: Hirmer Verlag
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
I've spotted on Instagram (via. @bastianeclercy) that although the Saint Louis Art Museum's upcoming exhibition Paintings on Stone has been delayed till 2022, their 320 page exhibition catalogue is printed and available for purchase.
As the publisher's blurb describes:
Painting on Stone: Science and the Sacred 1530–1800
Paintings on Stone: Science and the Sacred examines a fascinating tradition long overlooked by art historians – stone surfaces used to create stunning portraits, mythological scenes, and sacred images. Written by an international team of scholars, the catalogue reveals the significance of these paintings, their complex meanings, and their technical virtuosity.
The catalogue is available to order through the publisher Hirmer Verlag.
The cover features a late sixteenth century painting on Lapis Lazuli by Giuseppe Cesari. The picture was acquired by the Saint Louis Museum of Art in 2000.
Frans Hals Portrait Exhibition at the Wallace Collection
October 15 2020
Picture: The Wallace Collection
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Wallace Collection in London has announced that it will be putting on an exhibition next year entitled Frans Hals: The Male Portrait.
As their website explains:
In the first ever show to focus solely on Hals’s portraits of men posing on their own, The Laughing Cavalier will be showcased alongside other great male portraits by Hals in order to explore his highly innovative approach to male portraiture in particular, from the beginning of his career in the 1610s until the end of his life in 1666.
This exhibition will bring together a careful selection of the artist’s best male portraits from Europe and North America. In doing so, the show will aim to demonstrate how, through pose and virtuosic painterly technique, Hals completely revolutionised the male portrait into something entirely new and fresh, capturing and revealing his sitters’ characters like no one else before him. It will also showcase the evolution of Hals’s style, which is especially evident in his male portraits, from finely painted works to those demonstrating increasingly free and loose handling in his later years.
This exhibition is made possible due to the recent overturning of Lady Wallace's bequest which expressly stated that the collection " shall always be kept together unmixed with other objects of arts...". It is exciting to see what loans will be secured for the show, which one images have been negotiated with reciprocal arrangements. I wonder when The Laughing Cavalier will make his first trip abroad in 155 years? It's only a matter of time I suppose.
The planned dates for the ticketed exhibition are 23rd September 2021 - 30th January 2022.
Albrecht Altdorfer at the Louvre
October 12 2020
Picture: Albertina, Vienna
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Louvre has recently opened its new exhibition on the sixteenth century German artist Albrecht Altdorfer (c.1480-1538). Around 200 works have been gathered for the show, the first of its kind in France.
As the Louvre's website explains:
Closely connected to humanist circles, Altdorfer was at once a highly original artist, prolifically inventive both in form and choice of subject, and thoroughly aware of the work of his German and Italian contemporaries. Arranged chronologically and by theme, the exhibition features sections devoted to major works commissioned by Emperor Maximilian, as well as to gold and silver smithery, and the two genres pioneered by the artist—landscape and architecture.
I've always found Altdorfer's landscapes incredibly haunting for some reason. I think it is because they are noticeably different from the many Italianate and Netherlandish landscapes we're very used to seeing from this period. Altdorfer's always feel rather jagged to me, which isn't a bad thing at all.
The exhibition will run until 4th January 2021.
Dreaming at Colnaghi
October 8 2020
Picture: Colnaghi
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The art dealers Colnaghi have just opened an exhibition in their London galleries entitled Dreamsongs: from Medicine to Demons to Artificial Intelligence. The show examines the way that artists have approached the subject of dreams from the antiquity to the present day.
Alongside the sort of 'Post-Freud' pictures you'd expect to see, there are earlier works on display too by the likes of Lucas Cranach the Elder, Salvator Rosa, William Blake, Jean-François Millet, John Martin, Samuel Palmer and Henri Fuseli (pictured).
The exhibition is curated by Bjorn Stern and runs until 23rd November 2020.
Artemisia Exhibition Tour
October 4 2020
Video: The National Gallery
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The National Gallery in London have uploaded this rather good video tour of their current exhibition on Artemisia Gentileschi onto their YouTube Channel. The tour is conducted by curator Letizia Treves and includes a welcome from the gallery's chairman of trustees and director.
Raphael in Woking
October 2 2020
Picture: Royal Collection Trust
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
On 3rd October 2020 a new exhibition is opening in The Lightbox Museum and Art Gallery in Woking. Entitled Raphael: Prince Albert's Passion, this exhibition will focus on the Prince's fondness for this Italian Renaissance Old Master. Several of Raphael's drawings have been loaned from the Royal Collection for the show which will run until 31st January 2021.
Furthermore, Martin Clayton (Head of Prints and Drawings for the Royal Collection Trust) is presenting a lecture on Raphael as a draughtsman in the gallery on 4th November 2020.
London Art Week: Art History in Focus
October 2 2020
Video: Philip Mould & Company
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
This October the London Art Week are hosting several events and exhibitions entitled Art History in Focus. They've not yet announced the full list of participants and events, but it seems much will focus on the subject of Women Artists.
In co-operation with the events dealers Philip Mould & Company will be staging a new exhibition entitled Pioneers: 500 Years of Women in British Art. It will run in their galleries on Pall Mall from 12th October - 27th November and also be accessible in an online format.
Constable Sketch Acquired by Fondation Custodia
September 28 2020
Picture: Fondation Custodia
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Here is some acquisition news that I missed earlier this year. The Fondation Custodia in Paris acquired the above plein air sketch in April by John Constable catalogued as View from the back of a terrace of houses in Hampstead, c.1821-22. The work was acquired through dealers Richard Green.
It will feature in a fabulous travelling exhibition which is due to open at the Fondation Custodia next February. Entitled True to Nature: Open-Air Painting in Europe 1780-1870, the exhibition will then travel to the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge opening in Summer 2021.
Holkham Hall Blog
September 20 2020
Picture: Holkham Hall
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Maria de Peverelli, Curator and Collections Manager at Holkham Hall, has penned a blog giving a curator's perspective on the covid crisis and what it has meant for loans and exhibitions.
Holkham, which is the ancestral home of the Earls of Leicester, is one of the great treasure houses of the fine and decorative arts that remains privately owned. Amongst the tales included within the piece, De Peverelli describes the story about a Claude that got stuck in Japan due to the crisis. It has since returned to the famous Landscape Room, thankfully!
Palazzo Grimani Acquires Ancestor
September 14 2020
Picture: Palazzo Grimani
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Museo di Palazzo Grimani in Venice has acquired a portrait of one of its most important ancestors. The painting of Giovanni Grimani, Patriarch of Aquileia, is attributed to Tintoretto. The Palazzo has been involved in a very interesting conservation project over the past few years, which has culminated in an exhibition celebrating the return of the Grimani family's classical statutes. The purchase was made by the Venetian Heritage Foundation with support from private donors.
Bellotto goes to Sunderland
September 8 2020
Picture: The National Gallery, London
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Sunderland Museum has just opened a free exhibition entitled Castles: Paintings from the National Gallery. Amongst the loans from the nation's art gallery in London include the fairly recently acquired Bellotto The Fortress of Königstein from the North (pictured). This work, alongside five other old masters on loan from the gallery, will hang with the Sunderland Museum's own views of castles by the likes of Lowry and Clarkson Stanfield.
The exhibition, in a different form, was in Cardiff earlier this year and will head to Norwich in November.
Chatsworth Drawings in Sheffield
September 4 2020
Picture: Chatsworth
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Millennium Gallery in Sheffield is reopening to the public on 12th September. This means that visitors will once again be able to visit their fabulous sounding free exhibition Lines of Beauty: Master Drawings from Chatsworth. As the title suggests, the Duke of Devonshire has loaned out 50 highlights from his family's old master drawings collection, including works by Claude (pictured), Rubens, Van Dyck, Poussin, Carpaccio and more.
The exhibition runs until 1st November 2020, and visiting hours are quite restricted, so visit this exhibition while you can!
Dealers, Museums and the Art Market - Free Lecture
September 2 2020
Picture: Bowes Museum
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Furniture History Society are hosting a free online lecture by Dr Mark Westgarth of Leeds University on the Bowes Museum's 2019 exhibition SOLD! Dealers, Museums, and the Art Market.
This exhibition examined the history of the antique trade in Britain through objects from leading public collections. The stories of how objects came into various collections can often be just as intriguing as the objects themselves.
The lecture will be streamed live on Zoom on Sunday 6th September at 19.00 (BST). It is free to attend but registration is required.
MET's European Masterpieces in Brisbane
September 1 2020
M
Video: Brisbane Gallery of Modern Art
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Exciting news for the inhabitants of Australia. The Brisbane Gallery of Modern Art have announced they will be hosting an exhibition of 65 European Masterpieces on loan from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. This exhibition will include many old masters, including the likes of Titian, Caravaggio, Fra Angelico, Rembrandt, alongside other celebrated impressionists. The loan coincides with major renovation works at the MET which has resulted in the idea to send many of its masterpieces out on loan.
Buckingham Palace Collection Displayed in Queen's Gallery
August 17 2020
Picture: RCT
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Royal Collection Trust has announced what it intends to do with Buckingham Palace's pictures during the imminent scheduled refurbishment project. A majority of the masterpieces usually kept in the Palace's Picture Gallery (pictured) will form part of an exhibition in the attached Queen's Gallery. This will includes paintings by the likes of Van Dyck, Rubens, Titian and Vermeer.
Many of the pictures have been loaned out to the RCT's exhibition space for individual shows, but this may be one of the first times they have been loan as a complete 'collection' of sorts. It will be interesting to see how the pictures are hung, as many are hung in a very stacked and vertical manner in the palace.
The exhibition will run from 4 December 2020 - January 2022.
