London 2017: Art Exhibitions (Jan-June)

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Vanessa Bell

Studland Beach, c.1912, Vanessa Bell (c) The Estate of Vanessa Bell

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Vanessa Bell
David Hockney
Revolution: Russian Art 1917-1932
Wolfgang Tillmans
America After The Fall: Painting In The 1930s
Queer British Art
Sargent: The Watercolours
Howard Hodgkin: Absent Friends
Matisse in the Studio
Terrains Of The Body: Photography From The National Museum Of Women In The Arts
Canaletto And The Art Of Venice
Richard Mosse: Incoming
Eduardo Paolozzi
Child's Play
 

 

With subjects such as David Hockney and Wolfgang Tillmans, there are some blockbuster art exhibitions in London this year. From watercolours to photography, LondonTown lists the best art exhibitions taking place in the capital throughout 2017.

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Anthony Green RA: The Life and Death of Miss Dupont

The RA celebrates the 40th anniversary of Anthony Green's election as a Royal Academician.

Royal Academy of Arts, Burlington House, London, W1J 0BD

Tube: Green Park Station , Piccadilly Circus Station

 

Dates: 18th January - 30th April 2017

 

Anthony Green RA has been a fixture in the annual Summer Exhibition for 50 years and now the Royal Academy celebrates the 40th anniversary of his election as a Royal Academician in 1977 with a new exhibition. Taking place in the Tennant Gallery, Anthony Green RA: The Life and Death of Miss Dupont focuses on a recently-completed work that will be shown for the very first time. Titled The Fur Coat, "focuses on a recently-completed work that will be shown for the very first time. Titled The Fur Coat, "Hazana", the work measures three metres in height and features a life-sized painted figure of Green's mother, Madeleine Dupont. The painting tells the story of his mother's second marriage through the eyes of her 13-year-old only child.

 
 
 

Terrains Of The Body: Photography From The National Museum Of Women In The Arts

This all-female show displays work by artists who embrace the female body as a medium for storytelling.

Whitechapel Gallery, 77-82 Whitechapel High Street, London, E1 7QX

Tube: Aldgate East Station , Aldgate East Underground Station, Aldgate Station

 

Dates: 18th January - 16th April 2017

 

The Whitechapel Gallery continues its support of female artists in 2017 with its all-female show, Terrains of the Body: Photography from the National Museum of Women in the Arts. The collection shows photography and video work by 17 contemporary artists from around the world who embrace the female body as a vital medium for storytelling. Artists displaying work include Marina Abramovic, Rineke Dijkstra, Anna Gaskell and Nan Goldin.

 
 
 

Vanessa Bell

This exhibition charts the acclaimed artist's move from refined Impressionism to a more experimental style.

Dulwich Picture Gallery, Gallery Road, Dulwich Village, London, SE21 7AD

Tube: Denmark Hill Station

 

Dates: 08th February - 04th June 2017

 

Works by the acclaimed artist Vanessa Bell, a central figure of the Bloomsbury Group, go on display at Dulwich Picture Gallery from February 2017. The exhibition charts her move from the refined Impressionism of her early training to a more radical, experimental style. Approximately 100 works, arranged thematically, reveal Bell's bold experiments with abstraction, colour and form. Through portraiture, still life and landscape oil paintings as well as ceramics, fabrics, works on paper, photographs and related archival material we can see how Bell became a pivotal figure in modernist painting.

 
 
 

David Hockney

Ahead of his 80th birthday, the artist is the subject of a major new exhibition.

Tate Britain, Millbank, London, SW1P 4RG

Tube: Pimlico Station

 

Dates: 09th February - 29th May 2017

 

As he approaches his 80th birthday, David Hockney is the subject of a major exhibition at Tate Britain in 2017. Gathering together an extensive selection of Hockney's most famous works, this exhibition celebrates his achievements in painting, drawing, print, photography and video across six decades. Presented as a chronological overview, the show highlights how he continues to change his style and ways of working, embracing new technologies as he goes. From his portraits and images of Los Angeles swimming pools, through to his drawings and photography, Yorkshire landscapes and recent success at the Royal Academy, this retrospective offers an insightful overview of Hockney's impressive career.

 
 
 

Works on Paper Fair

Eton College exhibits a rare collection of watercolours at this year's fair.

Royal Geographical Society, 1 Kensington Gore, London, SW7 2AR

Tube: South Kensington Station

 

Dates: 01st - 04th February 2018

 

Eton College will exhibit a rare collection of 18th and 19th Century British Watercolours at the 2017 Works on Paper fair, where drawings and prints, photographs and posters are presented each year. Pictures drawn by hand, in ink, pencil, crayon, chalk, pastel, gouache or charcoal can be seen at the fair which returns to the Royal Geographical Society this year. Ranging in price from the affordable (at £500 and less), to the majority on offer from £750 to £7,500, and plenty above £10,000, works include early, modern and contemporary art as well as museum quality pieces. Other highlights this year include works by Edward Lear, a large watercolour by Julius Caesar Ibbetson of figures skating on the Serpentine and a Paul Sandby watercoour of Windsor Bridge.

 
 
 
 

Revolution: Russian Art 1917-1932

This powerful new exhibition explores one of the most momentous periods in modern world history.

Royal Academy of Arts, Burlington House, London, W1J 0BD

Tube: Green Park Station , Piccadilly Circus Station

 

Dates: 11th February - 17th April 2017

 

Revolution: Russian Art 1917-1932 is a powerful new exhibition that explores one of the most momentous periods in modern world history, when centuries of Tsarist rule were overthrown and Communist Russia was born. Hosted by the Royal Academy of Arts, the exhibition looks through the lens of the period's groundbreaking art with works on display by avante-garde artists Kandinsky, Malevich, Chagall and Rodchenko, who all lived during the events and aftermath of the fall of the Tsar rule in Russia. With photography, sculpture, film and propaganda, this exhibition will mark the historic centenary by focusing on the 15-year period between 1917 and 1932, when Russian art flourished across every medium.

 
 
 

Wolfgang Tillmans

The German born photographer is the focus of a solo Tate Modern exhibition.

Tate Modern, Bankside Power Station, 25 Sumner Street, London, SE1 9TG

Tube: Blackfriars Underground Station

 

Dates: 15th February - 11th June 2017

 

He started out in the early 1990s photographing clubbers for i-D magazine, in 2000 he won the Turner prize in 2000, and now German born photographer Wolfgang Tillmans is the focus of a solo Tate Modern exhibition. Offering a new focus on his photographs, video, digital slide projections, publications, curatorial projects and recorded music, the exhibition reveals the work he has produced in the fourteen years since his 2003 Tate Britain show. In March, Tillmans will also take over Tate Modern'sSouth Tank for ten days with a commissioned installation featuring live music, fusing his two passions of art and clubbing.

 
 
 

Cagnacci's Repentant Magdalene

Cagnacci's Italian Baroque masterpiece goes on display in the UK for the first time in 30 years.

National Gallery, Trafalgar Square, London, WC2N 5DN

Tube: Charing Cross Station , Leicester Square Station, Embankment Underground Station, Piccadilly Circus Station, Covent Garden Station

 

Dates: 15th February - 21st May 2017

 

The National Gallery displays Cagnacci's Italian Baroque masterpiece, The Repentant Magdalene, this February - the first time the piece has been on display in the UK for 30 years. The work is widely regarded as Cagnacci's masterpiece, full of drama and sensuality as it depicts Mary Magdalene rejecting her life of sin and excess in favour of following Christ. Lavishing attention of her glittering costume, shoes and jewellery, as well as her naked body, the painting is unlike any other representation of the Magdalene. Loaned from the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena, this display offers visitors to The National Gallery a rare chance to see the painting first hand.

 
 
 

Child's Play

This series of powerful images shows children at play in diverse environments around the world.

The Foundling Museum, 40 Brunswick Square, London, WC1N 1AZ

Tube: Russell Square Station

 

Dates: 03rd February - 30th April 2017

 

Child's Play at the Foundling Museum brings together a series of powerful images by artist Mark Neville of children at play in diverse environments around the world. Taking place at a time when up to 13 million children have been displaced due to armed conflict, the exhibition comes as a reminder of our responsibility to ensure that all children across the world should have the opportunity to play safely. Photos of children in Scottish and English communities and the war zones of Afghanistan and Ukraine show beautiful moments of free, spontaneous play in the most unfavourable environments.

 
 
 

Richard Mosse: Incoming

The Deutsche Borse Photography Prize Winner presents a multi-channel video installation.

Barbican - Curve Gallery, Ground Level, Barbican Centre, Silk Street, London, EC2Y 8DS

Tube: Barbican Station , Moorgate Station

 

Dates: 15th February - 23rd April 2017

 

Conceptual documentary photographer and Deutsche Borse Photography Prize Winner Richard Mosse has created an immersive multi-channel video installation in the Barbican Curve. Incoming sees the experimental photographer collaborate with composer Ben Frost and cinematographer Trevor Tweeten to use surveillance technology in order to comment on the current refugee crisis in Europe. To create the piece, he used advanced new thermographic weapons and border imaging technology that can see beyond 30km to record footage off the coast of Libya, in Syria, the Sahara and the Persian Gulf.

 
 
 
 

Eduardo Paolozzi

A major exhibition on one of the most innovative and irreverent artists of the 20th century.

Whitechapel Gallery, 77-82 Whitechapel High Street, London, E1 7QX

Tube: Aldgate East Station , Aldgate East Underground Station, Aldgate Station

 

Dates: 16th February - 14th May 2017

 

The Whitechapel Gallery hosts an exhibition on Eduardo Paolozzi, one of the most innovative and irreverent artists of the 20th century. Known as the 'godfather of Pop Art', Paolazzi challenged the conventions of art with his collages, sculptures and prints from the 1950s through to the Swinging Sixties and advent of 'Cool Britannia' in the 1990s. This major exhibition spans five decades and showcases more than 250 works, with everything from the artist's post-War bronzes and revolutionary screen prints to his bold textiles and fashion designs.

 
 
 

America After The Fall: Painting In The 1930s

A look at how artists responded to the economic anxiety after the 1929 Wall Street Crash.

Royal Academy of Arts, Burlington House, London, W1J 0BD

Tube: Green Park Station , Piccadilly Circus Station

 

Dates: 25th February - 04th June 2017

 

The Royal Academy of Arts tells the story of a nation in flux with its new exhibition, America after the Fall: Painting in the 1930s. After the Wall Street Crash of 1929, America was in crisis, with a quarter of the population unemployed and homelessness, starvation, sickness and crime fast becoming widespread. This exhibition of 45 iconic works will show how artists responded to this rapid social change and the economic anxiety. The once-in-a-generation show will bring together works rarely seen together, including Grant Wood's American Gothic (1930) which has never before left the North American shores. Works by Jackson Pollock, Georgia O'Keeffe, Edward Hopper, Thomas Hart Benton and Philip Guston will also be on display.

 
 
 

Deutsche Borse Photography Prize

The winning and shortlisted images from this renowned competition go on display.

Photographers' Gallery, 16-18 Ramillies Street, Soho, London, W1F 7LW

Tube: Oxford Circus Station

 

Dates: 21st February - 07th June 2020

 

In spring each year The Photographers' Gallery in London shows an exhibition of work by the four artists shortlisted for the prestigious Deutsche Borse Photography Prize worth £30,000 to the winner. The 2017 exhibition - which marks the prize's 20-year anniversary - features images by Sophie Calle, Dana Lixenberg, Awoiska van der Molen, and Taiyo Onorato and Nico Krebs who together have been nominated for their exhibition EURASIA at Fotomuseum Winterthur. The winner will be announced during the run of the exhibition, rewarding the living photographer, of any nationality, who has made the most significant contribution to the medium of photography during the past year.

 
 
 

Gillian Wearing And Claude Cahun: Behind The Mask, Another Mask

An exploration of the parallels between artists Gillian Wearing and Claude Cahun.

National Portrait Gallery, St Martin's Place, London, WC2H 0HE

Tube: Leicester Square Station , Charing Cross Station, Piccadilly Circus Station, Embankment Underground Station, Covent Garden Station

 

Dates: 09th March - 29th May 2017

 

The National Portrait Gallery brings together the work of French surrealist Claude Cahun and British contemporary artist Gillian Wearing for the first time this March for its new exhibition, Gillian Wearing and Claude Cahun: Behind the mask, another mask. Despite being born 70 years apart and coming from contrasting backgrounds, remarkable parallels can be drawn between these two artists. Both share a fascination with the self-portrait and both use self-image, through the medium of photography, to explore the fluidity of identity and gender, often playing it out through masquerade and performances.

 
 
 

Michelangelo & Sebastiano

This major new exhibition focuses on the artistic relationship between two Renaissance masters.

National Gallery, Trafalgar Square, London, WC2N 5DN

Tube: Charing Cross Station , Leicester Square Station, Embankment Underground Station, Piccadilly Circus Station, Covent Garden Station

 

Dates: 15th March - 25th June 2017

 

This major exhibition at the National Gallery focuses on the artistic relationship between the two Renaissance masters, Sebastiano del Piombo and Michelangelo, who became friends as the latter was finishing the Sistine Chapel ceiling. They collaborated on several works, with Michelangelo providing the younger artist with drawings and ideas. The exhibition draws our attention to two of these collaborations in particular: the 'Pieta' for San Francesco in Viterbo, and the 'Raising of Lazarus', painted for the Cathedral of Narbonne. Alongside are works by each before they met, correspondence between the two and an examination of their allegedly acrimonious falling-out.

 
 
 
 

Howard Hodgkin: Absent Friends

The gallery hosts its first-ever exhibition of abstract portraits.

National Portrait Gallery, St Martin's Place, London, WC2H 0HE

Tube: Leicester Square Station , Charing Cross Station, Piccadilly Circus Station, Embankment Underground Station, Covent Garden Station

 

Dates: 23rd March - 18th June 2017

 

The National Portrait Gallery presents Howard Hodgkin: Absent Friends, the first exhibition of portraits by the leading British artist. Hodgkin's paintings are not related to what his subject looks like and instead focus on feelings, making it a landmark moment for the gallery as it will be the first time an exhibition of portraits hosted there will include paintings that are completely abstract. Characterised by colour, complex illusionistic space and sensuous brushwork, the principal concern of Hodgkin's art is to evoke a human presence. This exhibition will display portraits of Peter Blake, Gillian Wise, Patrick Caulfield, David Hockney, Philip King and R B Kitaj as well as more intimate portraits with lovers from the 1970s.

 
 
 

Queer British Art

The first major exhibition in Britian to focus on queer British art.

Tate Britain, Millbank, London, SW1P 4RG

Tube: Pimlico Station

 

Dates: 05th April - 01st September 2017

 

The year 2017 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the decriminalisation of male homosexuality in England and Wales, and Tate Britain isn't letting it go unnoticed. Putting on the first major exhibition in Britain to focus on queer British art, well known figures such as Oscar Wilde, and works by artists including John Singer Sargent, David Hockney and Francis Bacon, have been selected for Queer British Art. A combination of playful and political, erotic and domestic works, this exhibition explores how shifts in attitudes towards gender and sexuality found expression in the arts.

 
 
 

Chris Ofili: Weaving Magic

The Turner Prize-winning artists unveils a new work.

National Gallery, Trafalgar Square, London, WC2N 5DN

Tube: Charing Cross Station , Leicester Square Station, Embankment Underground Station, Piccadilly Circus Station, Covent Garden Station

 

Dates: 26th April - 28th August 2017

 

Chris Ofili, the artist who famously won the Turner Prize in 1998 using elephant dung on his paintings, unveils a new work, his first foray into the medium of tapestry, in a free exhibition at the National Gallery. Head to the Sunley Room to see the work before it goes on permanent display in the Clothworkers' Hall. The hand-woven tapestry uses imagery which reflects Ofili's ongoing interest in classical mythology and the stories, magic, and colour of the Trinidadian landscape he inhabits.

 
 
 

The London Original Print Fair

The world's longest running specialist fair dedicated to prints returns.

Royal Academy of Arts, Burlington House, Mayfair, London, W1J 0BD

Tube: Green Park Station , Piccadilly Circus Station

 

Dates: 25th - 28th April 2019

 

The London Original Print Fair, the world's longest running specialist fair dedicated to prints, returns to the Royal Academy of Arts for the 32nd time in 2017, gathering 50 of the world's leading print dealers together at the prestigious London art gallery. It's a chance to see exquisite etchings, engravings, linocuts and lithographs from all periods of printmaking, from the earliest woodcuts of Durer to the latest additions by contemporary masters. Prices start from £100 and rise to as high as £1,000,000.

 
 
 

Alberto Giacometti

Tate Modern has been given unparalleled access to the artist's collection and archive for this exhibition.

Tate Modern, Bankside Power Station, 25 Sumner Street, London, SE1 9TG

Tube: Blackfriars Underground Station

 

Dates: 10th May - 10th September 2017

 

Swiss artist Alberto Giacometti, "one of the most highly regarded and distinctive artists of the last century" (The Guardian) "wowed visitors" at an acclaimed exhibition of his portraits at the National Portrait Gallery in 2015. Two short years on, Tate Modern has been given unparalleled access to the Fondation Alberto et Annette Giacometti's collection and archive to create an exhibition which includes some plasters and drawings never seen by members of the public before. Alongside these are more familiar bronze sculptures and oil paintings showing his distinctive elongated figures. The Tate gallery believes, "Giacometti has rarely been explored this fully."

 
 
 
 

Canaletto And The Art Of Venice

A beautiful display of 18th-century Venetian art by the renowned Italian painter.

The Queen's Gallery, Buckingham Palace, Birdcage Walk, London, SW1A 1AA

Tube: Victoria Station

 

Dates: 19th May - 12th November 2017

 

Bought by George III in 1762, The Royal Collection has the world's finest group of paintings, drawings and prints by Venice's most famous view-painter, Canaletto. Canaletto and the Art of Venice showcases a spectacular selection of 18th-century Venetian art, displaying Canaletto's greatest works alongside paintings and works by Sebastiano and Marco Ricci, Francesco Zuccarelli, Rosalba Carriera and Giovanni Battista Piazzetta. Visitors will be treated to the delights of 18th-century Venice, including the Grand Canal and St Mark's Square as well as its festivals, theatre and masked carnival.

 
 
 

Fahrelnissa Zeid

Tate Modern puts the spotlight on the influential Turkish artist.

Tate Modern, Bankside Power Station, 25 Sumner Street, London, SE1 9TG

Tube: Blackfriars Underground Station

 

Dates: 13th June - 08th October 2017

 

One of the first female artists to exhibit at the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) in London in the late 1950s, influential Turkish artist Fahrelnissa Zeid, is best known for her large-scale abstract paintings. These works are shown with her figurative paintings at Tate Modern from June 2017, exploring her obsession with geometrical details. One of the few women to attend the Academy of Fine Arts in Istanbul in 1920, she also studied in Paris and her work was shown at almost 50 exhibitions in Europe, the United States and the Middle East in her own lifetime.

 
 
 

Grayson Perry: The Most Popular Art Exhibition Ever!

Grayson Perry touches on popularity, art and masculinity in this new exhibition.

Serpentine Gallery, Kensington Gardens, London, W2 3XA

Tube: Lancaster Gate Station

 

Dates: 08th June - 10th September 2017

 

As part of the gallery's popular summer season, the Serpentine Gallery presents Grayson Perry's The Most Popular Art Exhibition Ever!. An astute commentator on contemporary society and culture, Perry will touch on many themes in the show, including popularity, art, masculinity and the current cultural landscape. The exhibition will 'tackle how contemporary art can best address a diverse cross section of society, confronting subjects that are universally human'. Presenting new pieces, Perry will question what kind of art people like, what subject and why people like going to art galleries in the present day.

 
 
 

Royal Academy Summer Exhibition

The largest regular contemporary art exhibition returns.

Royal Academy of Arts, Burlington House, Mayfair, London, W1J 0BD

Tube: Green Park Station , Piccadilly Circus Station

 

Dates: 10th June - 12th August 2019

 

Anyone can submit to the Royal Academy's Summer Exhibition which gives it a wonderful element of surprise. Over 12,000 pieces are sifted through from relative unknowns to famous artists and members of the RA. The fun part for visitors is choosing a favourite and, with the majority of works on sale at varying price ranges, you can even buy one if you really fall in love with it. First held in 1769, the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition is the largest regular contemporary art exhibition in the world. It's an impressive show that gives an excellent cross-section of contemporary art every summer and each year, a prominent sculpture greets visitors to the exhibition as they walk through the Royal Academy's great courtyard.

 
 
 

Sargent: The Watercolours

The first major UK exhibition of watercolours by John Singer Sargent.

Dulwich Picture Gallery, Gallery Road, Dulwich Village, London, SE21 7AD

Tube: Denmark Hill Station

 

Dates: 21st June - 08th October 2017

 

This June, the Dulwich Picture Gallery hosts the first major UK exhibition of watercolours by John Singer Sargent. Sargent: The Watercolours brings together nearly 80 works from what is arguably the artist's greatest period of watercolour production, between 1900 and 1918. Renowned as the portraitist of his generation, Sargent mastered the medium of watercolour while on painting expeditions to Southern Europe and the Middle East, where he developed a unique way of seeing and composing. The exhibition will showcase 80 of his landscapes, architectural structures and figurative scenes from private and public collections, drawing attention to the most radical aspects of his work.

 
 
 
 

BP Portrait Award 2017

The popular annual competition returns to showcase the shortlisted and winning images.

National Portrait Gallery, St Martin's Place, London, WC2H 0HE

Tube: Leicester Square Station , Charing Cross Station, Piccadilly Circus Station, Embankment Underground Station, Covent Garden Station

 

Dates: 13th June - 20th October 2019

 

The increasingly popular BP Portrait Award returns for a 38th year at the National Portrait Gallery. The highly successful annual open competition, which attracted 2,557 entries from 80 countries last year, is one of the most prestigious prizes in the world for portrait painting. The three shortlisted portraits are shown alongside around 50 or so selected works in a free exhibition which returns to the National Portrait Gallery for three months this summer. Prizes include the BP Travel Award, BP Young Artist Award, open to 18 to 30 year-olds, and the £30,000 first prize. But this competition is not just about money, it's also about prestige; many previous winners have gone on to gain important commissions. Craig Wylie, for example, who won the award in 2008, was commissioned by the National Portrait Gallery to create a portrait of Dame Kelly Holmes.

 
 
 

Matisse in the Studio

A display of Matisse's treasured objects alongside the works they inspired.

Royal Academy of Arts, Burlington House, London, W1J 0BD

Tube: Green Park Station , Piccadilly Circus Station

 

Dates: 05th August - 12th November 2017

 

The Royal Academy of Arts invites you to step into the studio of Henri Matisse this summer, where you'll be able to witness objects that were treasured by the artist and played an important role in his work. Offering a rare glimpse into the artist's personal collection, Matisse in the Studio includes objects from the far corners of the world: Buddhist statuary from Thailand, furniture and textiles from North Africa and Bamana figures from Mali. Despite rarely being of material value, the objects were precious and appear in his work in different guises across multiple decades, each time being given a fresh reinvention. This exhibition will bring together the objects alongside the paintings, sculptures and drawings they inspired in order to reveal the stem of Matisse's masterful vision.

 
 
 
 
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