Whether sacred, humorous, or merely thought-provoking, we pick this season’s best exhibitions
LONDON AND SOUTH EAST
Sacred
Magnificent exhibition of sacred texts from the three monotheistic religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam. The show places them, and their content, side by side, and the richly diverse selection of exhibits ranges from scraps of papyrus rescued from Egypt to a leaf from the Lindisfarne Gospels, with its fine calligraphy, and a Dead Sea Scroll fragment never before shown in this country.
British Library, London NW1 (020-7412 7332, www.bl.uk), until September 23
Antony Gormley – Blind Light
Surprisingly dark, with many fascinating works. The star is the main installation from which the show takes its name: a huge Perspex box filled with a white mist of steam which makes it impossible to see much farther than a couple of feet. It’s an exceptional experience, taking you far beyond your comfort zone – installation art at its best.
Hayward Gallery, Belvedere Road, London SE1 (0871 6632500, www.haywardgallery.org.uk), until August 27
Serpentine Gallery Pavilion
This year’s pavilion is designed by Olafur Eliasson, the Danish-Icelandic artist who was behind the successful Weather Project installation in the Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall in 2003, and Kjetil Thorsen, the Norwegian architect. At the time of printing it still isn’t finished, but it’s described as resembling a “spinning-top”. It ought to be worth seeing. Serpentine Gallery, Kensington Gardens, London W2 (020-7402 6075, www.serpentinegallery.org)
Zaha Hadid: Architecture and Design
After years in the wilderness, scorned as a “paper architect”, Hadid is suddenly everywhere. This show, the Design Museum’s biggest ever, is a primer in her spectacular vision. Models of her breathtaking buildings (built and not built) sit alongside paintings and design objects such as her Aqua Table for Established & Sons and a prototype car.
Design Museum, Shad Thames, London SE1 (0870 8339955, www.designmuseum.org), until October 28
DalÍ & Film
Fans of the moustachioed surrealist cannot afford to miss this witty look into the filmic influences in DalÍ’s work. His ill-fated collaboration with Walt Disney is well-documented, his films with Buñuel, especially the masterpiece Un Chien Andalou, famed throughout the world, but portraits of Jack Warner, the movie boss, clutching a fat contract and Laurence Olivier are less well-known. Brings out the insane humour of DalÍ.
Tate Modern, Bankside, London SE1 (020-7887 8888, www.tate.org.uk), until September 9
Dutch portraits: The age of Rembrandt and Frans Hals
The Dutch idea of bling in the 17th century was very different to ours, but they did like to show off. Rich (if black) silks and velvets and solid gold rings flash from these canvases. Thanks to the many wealthy merchants pictured, who commissioned paintings during a period of economic prosperity, masterpieces are the norm in this show. Frans Hals’s Portrait of Pieter van den Broecke is alive with twinkly laughter; Rembrandt’s The Anatomy Lesson of Dr Nicolaes Tulp is breathtaking.
National Gallery, Trafalgar Square, London WC2 (020-7747 2885, www.nationalgallery.org.uk), until September 16
How we are: Photographing Britain
How we are and how we were, from the beginnings of photography to today, how photographers have seen Britain. A (possibly too) vast show, with family snapshots, medical photographs and social documents as well as work by famous names such as David Bailey, William Henry Fox Talbot, Lewis Carroll and Julia Margaret Cameron. Tate Britain, Millbank, London SW1 (020-7887 8888, www.tate. org.uk), until September 2
Hockney on Turner Watercolours
About 150 of Turner’s watercolours including the Blue Rigi, recently saved for the nation, chosen by Tate curators and painter David Hockney, who has recently taken up the medium himself. This is a rare chance to see so many of Turner’s watercolours because of their fragility. Elsewhere in the gallery, see Hockney’s new series East Yorkshire Landscapes.
Tate Britain, Millbank, London SW1P (020-7887 8888, www.tate.org.uk), until February 3
Ice Station Antarctica
A taste, should you be mad (or young) enough to want it, of life in one of the world’s most challenging environments. Visitors can ride a snowmobile, try protective clothing and be cheerfully plunged into temperatures of minus 10C (14F). The perfect family exhibition.
Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London SW7 (020-7942 5000, www.nhm.ac.uk), until April 6
Eye-music: Kandinsky, Klee and all that Jazz
An investigation into the relationship between art and music at the beginning of the 20th century. The almost visual rhythms of jazz are expressed in work by Mondrian (who loved to dance), Stuart Davis, the American painter, and Bruce Nauman. Kandinsky’s splashes of colour are like trumpet blasts. An exhilarating show for more than just the eyes.
Pallant House, 9 North Pallant, Chichester, West Sussex (01243 774557, www.pallant.org.uk), until September 16
Stella Vine
When she emerged in 2004 in Charles Saatchi’s New Blood show, controversy snapped at Vine’s heels, because of her past as a stripper and for the edgy subjects of her paintings, such as Rachel Whitear, the overdose victim, and Diana, Princess of Wales. Now, in her first major show, she makes no attempt to shy away from it. We lap up the voyeurism of her paintings of celebrities – model Lily Cole, Pete Doherty – while remaining fascinated with the woman herself.
Modern Art Oxford, 30 Pembroke Street, Oxford (01865 813830, www.modernartoxford.org.uk), until September 23
SOUTH WEST AND WALES
If Everybody had an Ocean: Brian Wilson
Inspired by, and an homage to, the Beach Boys’ pop genius, this show avoids the many clichéd pitfalls its bizarre concept could have created. The Californian light shines through in work by Ed Ruscha and Joe Goode, but the darkness of Wilson’s descent into drug-induced hell is also there.
Tate St Ives, Porthmeor Beach, St Ives, Cornwall (01736 796226, www.tate.org.uk), until September 23
Industry to Impressionism: What two sisters did for Wales
The majority of the works in the National Museum of Wales’s important Impressionist collection were donated by two women. Gwendoline and Margaret Davies were unmarried sisters who lived in rural Montgomeryshire, inspired to become active in the arts by a religious upbringing and a social conscience. Treasures include Renoir’s Blue Lady.
National Museum of Wales, Cathay’s Park, Cardiff (029-2039 7951, www.museumwales.ac.uk), until January 6
NORTH Centre of the Creative Universe
The subtitle of this show is Liverpool and the Avant Garde. The 2008 Capital of Culture is full of confidence and this exhibition highlights the many leading artistic lights that have been drawn to it. Yoko Ono’s “happenings” at the Bluecoat Gallery feature alongside work by Martin Parr and Stewart Bale’s photographs of the devastated postwar city.
Tate Liverpool, Albert Dock, Liverpool (0151-702 7400, www.tate.org.uk), until September 9
Andy Goldsworthy
A mammoth retrospective of works by this underrated artist, who works with nature to create moving and beautiful pieces in sculpture and photography. The more monumental works are the less interesting, but the lyrical photographs and the installations Goldsworthy has created with sycamore stems and oak branches are magical.
Yorkshire Sculpture Park, West Bretton, Wakefield (01924 832631, www.ysp.co.uk), until January 6
The Dawn of Colour
A celebration of the centenary of the autochrome, invented by the Lumière brothers, and the birth of colour photography. Many images, from the likes of Lionel de Rothschild, Alvin Langdon Coburn and John Cimon Warburg, as well as many anonymous amateurs, seem timeless despite their age. The excitement of experimentation is palpable in photographs of tartan ribbons. A joy.
National Media Museum, Bradford, West Yorkshire (0870 7010200, www.national mediamuseum.org.uk), until September 23
SCOTLAND
The Naked Portrait
Does what it says on the tin but with sensitivity and panache. Nakedness, as opposed to “nudity”, is explored as a state of vulnerability or strength. Made up of about 150 works, the show includes pieces by Lucien Freud, and Robert Mapplethorpe, while sitters include Patti Smith, Ivan Massow and Linford Christie.
Scottish National Portrait Gallery, 1 Queen Street, Edinburgh (0131-624 6200, www.national galleries.org), until September 2
Andy Warhol: A Celebration of Life and Death
Vast, thematically organised show that, amazingly, sheds new light on the work of one of the most important artists of his generation. Themes include consumer products, war, death and religion and death and disaster. Exhibits include his Liza Minnelli painting.
National Gallery of Scotland, The Mound, Edinburgh (0131-624 6200, www.nationalgalleries.org), until October 7
Andy Warhol Posters
Organised in association with the National Gallery of Scotland, this exhibition complements the major Warhol show in Edinburgh with the posters produced by Warhol from the 1960s to the 1980s to publicise his exhibitions, projects and films, assisted by his background in the advertising industry. Includes some of his most iconic images as well as posters from Japan and Europe.
Gallery of Modern Art, Royal Exchange Square, Glasgow (0141-229 1996, www.glasgow museums.com), until September 2
Picasso on Paper
More than 120 works on paper, spanning more than 70 years. Picasso’s ceaseless creativity is thrillingly expressed in these works, some dashed off in minutes in charcoal, some created in lithography or linocut. Includes his Portrait of Dora Maar.
Dean Gallery, 75 Belford Road, Edinburgh (0131-624 6200, www.nationalgalleries.org), until September 23
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