Home > The Magazine > Arts

Tuesday 2 December 2008

Dare to dream and make your ultimate trip a reality

The latest culture as recommended by our staff

Michael Henderson

Michael Henderson suggests

Email registration

Free weekly email update

Great products and special offers for Spectator readers

Click here for great value events

Click here for exclusive articles, offers, tasting notes and discussion

A look ahead to 2008

Andrew Lambirth

Wednesday, 12th December 2007

Dates for your diary

If that doesn’t stir you, try From Russia: French and Russian Master Paintings 1870–1925 from Moscow and St Petersburg, at the Royal Academy (26 January to 18 April). The word masterpiece is tired and overused but it actually fits some of the amazing modern paintings in Russian collections, particularly the Matisses commissioned by Sergei Shchukin. Along with top-quality work by such Russians as Levitan, Tatlin and Malevich, this show should prove a thumping success.

Following the Courtauld’s small but choice exhibition earlier this year, the Academy is putting together a more substantial Cranach show (8 March to 8 June) of some 70 works. Can’t wait — he’s been neglected for too long. The Summer Exhibition takes its usual and much-loved place, while the first major retrospective of the Danish artist Hammershoi, master of the enigmatic interior, will be held in the RA’s Sackler Galleries (28 June to 7 September). The Courtauld itself focuses on its own collection in a trio of exhibitions: Renoir at the Theatre: Looking at ‘La Loge’ (21 February to 25 May); The Courtauld Cézannes (26 June to 5 October); and Paths to Fame: Turner’s Watercolour Landscapes (30 October to 25 January 2009). The last includes Dorothy Scharf’s recent bequest of eight watercolours, which will be displayed together with the Courtauld’s existing holdings. Mouth-watering.

In 2008, the Hayward Gallery celebrates its 40th birthday. Highlights from its programme include Revolution in Photography (7 February to 27 April), prints and photomontages by one of the founding fathers of Constructivism Alexander Rodchenko (1891–1956), and Psycho Buildings: Architecture by Artists (22 May to 27 August). Is this as good as it gets at this once-great venue?

Previous page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 Next page

More articles from: Andrew Lambirth | this section

Print this article | Email to a friend | Permalink | Comment

Post this entry to: del.icio.us | Digg | Newsvine | NowPublic | Reddit

A perfect cadence

Stephen Pettitt

This year, on 11 December — and I wish more people knew about it than actually do — the American composer Elliott Carter celebrates his 100th birthday.

Forgotten wonders

Andrew Lambirth

Byzantium 330-1454
Royal Academy, until 22 March 2009

Out of the ordinary

Carolyn Bartholomew

Carolyn Bartholomew talks to Tilda Swinton, an actor who has made a career out of being unconventional

Life lessons

Kate Chisholm

Talking to my dentist, as one does, we discover a mutual enthusiasm for Radio Three’s Composer of the Week (Monday to Friday) and especially its presenter, Donald Macleod.