Spain And The Hispanic World
The Royal Academy of Arts
21 January – 10 April
What better way to kick off the year than with this brilliant and ambitious exhibition which charts the story of Spanish and Hispanic art and culture, from ancient times to the early 20th century, all through 150 works? Visitors can expect to see ceramics, lusterware, silk textiles and silverwork, all woven through with masterpieces from the likes of El Greco, Zurbarán, Velázquez and Goya. A beautiful way to walk through the history of a civilisation and culture. Book it.
Image: Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida, The Provinces of Spain: Castile (sketch), 1912-13, Gouache on kraft paper, 107 x 771 cm, On loan from The Hispanic Society of America, New York, NY
Ukraine: Photographs From The Frontline
Imperial War Museum
3 February – 8 May
The whole world has been rocked by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, long threatened and finally executed in 2022. This exhibition presents photographs from internationally renowned photojournalist Anastasia Taylor-Lind – taken between 2014 and June 2022 – which tell the story of the privations of daily life behind the headlines. Book it.
Action, Gesture, Paint: Women Artists And Global Abstraction 1940 – 70
Whitechapel Art Gallery
9 February – 7 May
If you have devoured Katie Hessel’s The Story of Art Without Men, then this exhibition is a must-visit. As they say, ‘Reaching beyond the predominantly white, male painters whose names are synonymous with the Abstract Expressionist movement, this exhibition celebrates the practices of the numerous international women artists working with gestural abstraction in the aftermath of the Second World War.’ Featuring the work of Lee Krasner, Helen Frankenthaler, Bertha Lopes, Wook-kyung Choi. Book it.
Image: Wook-kyung Choi, Untitled (detail), 1960s Acrylic on canvas, 101 x 86 cm © Wook-kyung Choi Estate and courtesy to Arte Collectum
Peter Doig
The Courtauld Gallery
10 February – 29 May
A major exhibition of one of the most important artists working today, this show charts Doig’s move from Trinidad to London, with some paintings having been begun there and finished here. Shown amongst these, too, are works created specifically for The Courtauld exhibition. Book it.
Donatello: Sculpting The Renaissance
V&A
11 February – 11m June
Renaissance master Donatello was, argues this exhibition, the greatest sculptor of all time. Looking at the impact that he had on subsequent generations, it promises a fresh new look at an Old Master. Book it.
Image: The Ascension with Christ giving the Keys to St Peter, relief, sculpted by Donatello, about 1428 – 1430, Florence, Italy. Museum no. 7629-1861. © Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Souls Grown Deep Like The Rivers: Black Artists From The American South
The Royal Academy of Arts
17 March – 18 June
Titled after the work of Langston Hughes, Souls Grown Deep Like The River brings together Black artists from across time and the American south, whose tradition and work confront and reflect America’s deeply troubled past. Slavery, Jim Crow era segregation, and the racism that has pervaded institutions are threaded throughout the work, which is chiefly made using local (and thus readily available) materials, such as clay, driftwood, roots, soil and recycled objects. Spanning the mid-20th century to today, the artists include Thornton Dial, Lonnie Holley, Ronald Lockett, Hawkins Bolden, Bessie Harvey, Charles Williams, Mary T. Smith, Purvis Young, Mose Tolliver, Nellie Mae Rowe and Mary Lee Bendolph. Book it.
Image: Joe Light, Blue River Mountain, 1988. Enamel on wood, 81.3 x 121.9 cm. Souls Grown Deep Foundation, Atlanta. © ARS, NY and DACS, London 2022. Photo: Stephen Pitkin/Pitkin Studio
After Impressionism: Inventing Modern Art
The National Gallery
25 March – 13 August
Following Paul Cezanne, Vincent Van Gogh and Paul Gauguin, three giants of the late 19th century and early 20th century, this exhibition examines how far their risk-taking and conscious break with tradition laid the foundation stone for the ensuing century. The show also shows the influence of these three titans on successive generations, looking at the work of Klimt and Kokoschka, Matisse and Picasso, and Mondrian and Kandinsky. Book it.
Image: Paul Gauguin, Vision of the Sermon (Jacob Wrestling with the Angel), 1888
Oil on canvas, 72.20 x 91.00 cm, © National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh
Berthe Morisot: Shaping Impressionism
31 March – 10 September
Dulwich Picture Gallery
Despite Impressionism’s enduring influence, relatively little is known about Berthe Morisot, despite that she was a founding member of the movement. She was selected for six successive Salons, before joining forces with Paul Cézanne, Edgar Degas, Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Alfred Sisley to hold their own exhibition of ‘rejected’ Impressionists. This fantastic exhibition sets to right her eclipsing by the male artists in her circle. Book it.
Image: Berthe Morisot,Eugène Manet on the Isle of Wight,1885 © Musée Marmottan Monet, Paris
Saint Francis of Assisi
The National Gallery
6 May – 30 July
From early medieval panels to the Marvel comics, Saint Francis of Assisi crops up again and again throughout the history of art, seemingly a muse for all ages. This exhibition delves into his appeal and the evolution of his portrayal by successive generations. Featuring works by Caravaggio, Josefa de Óbidos, Stanley Spencer, Antony Gormley, Giuseppe Penone, Andrea Büttner, and an exciting new commission from Richard Long. Book it.
Image: Sassetta San Sepolcro Altarpiece,
Saint Francis renounces his Earthly Father 1437-44. Egg tempera on poplar
87.5 × 52.4 cm, © The National Gallery, London
Marina Abramovic
The Royal Academy Of Arts
23 September – 10 December
Marina Abramovic is one of the most important performance artists in the world, her practice examining and exploring the limits of her endurance, both physically and mentally. (Rhythm (1974) saw her invite audiences to interact with her in whichever way they wished, resulting in her holding a loaded gun to her head.) Now, for her first exhibition in the UK, she will re-perform some of her seminal pieces and offer audiences the intensity of physical experience for which she is so celebrated. Book it.
Impressionists On Paper
The Royal Academy of Arts
25 November – 10 March 2024
The lesser-known works on paper – as opposed to the paintings – of Degas, Cezanne, Renoir and Van Gogh will be put under the spotlight in this gorgeous end-of-year exhibition. In late 19th-century France, these radicals were changing the direction of art – not least by elevating the status of works on paper from preparatory sketches to complete works of art in themselves and thus further shaking off the shackles of formality. Book it.
Image: Edgar Degas, Dancer Seen from Behind, 1873.
Essence on prepared pink paper. 28.4 x 32 cm. Collection of David Lachenmann.
By Nancy Alsop
January 2023
