Andrew Lambirth on artistic delights and pleasures we can look forward to in 2010
The juggernaut of blockbusters at last shows signs of slowing down. In recent years, museums have deluged us with loan exhibitions of often very mixed quality in order to generate the increasingly large amounts of revenue necessary to fund their extended bureaucracies. Too many shows really, particularly when concocted by curators of boundless self-esteem with scant regard for the public. I long for fewer exhibitions chosen with greater discernment, and it seems that the crisis in international finance is finally helping to achieve this. World tours are being cancelled, ambitions checked, sponsorship withdrawn. Initially, this means that there are marginally fewer exhibitions running for longer. Wouldn’t it be marvellous if the Tate could be persuaded to display more of its permanent collection — so little of which is ever on view — perhaps selected by someone outside its blinkered administration? We can always hope.
There are still plenty of pleasures in the year ahead. For me, one of the chief anticipations is Paul Nash: The Elements at Dulwich Picture Gallery (10 February–9 May). The latest in a series of small but expertly chosen shows (past glories include Sickert, Graham Sutherland and John Piper), it demonstrates that Dulwich has taken over responsibility for a whole area of British art currently neglected by the Tate. Can we expect then to see there Modern British masters such as John Armstrong and John Craxton? I would like to think so, though Dulwich has limited resources. The Nash show, curated by David Fraser Jenkins and bringing together some 60 oils and watercolours from all periods of his career, promises much. Later in the year Dulwich presents three generations of a great American painting dynasty, the Wyeths (9 June–22 August), the best-known being Andrew Wyeth (1917–2009), a master realist of intriguing narratives.
The V&A offers a magnificent survey of quilts as its spring exhibition (20 March– 4 July), covering the period 1700 to now. In the autumn Diaghilev and the Golden Age of the Ballets Russes, 1909–1929 should be a spectacular worth waiting for, given the involvement of most of the leading artists of the day. Braque, Bakst, Matisse, Picasso — the wily impresario charmed them all into working for him, usually under the most stressful conditions. At the Royal Collection, a different kind of collaboration is the subject of Victoria and Albert: Art & Love (19 March–31 October). The exhibition focuses on the royal couple’s passion for collecting and will bring together a treasure chest of more than 400 objects.
Henry Moore (1898–1986) is somewhat out of fashion today, so the major Tate Britain show devoted to his work (24 February–8 August) should help to reinstate him as the inventive and avant-garde artist he was. Chris Ofili (born 1968), adept of elephant dung and the calligraphic line, gets a solo show (27 January–16 May), followed by British Comic Art (9 June– 5 September). Do not mix up these two exhibitions unless you wish to shine at cocktail parties. In the autumn, Tate Britain hosts Rachel Whiteread: Drawings and Eadweard Muybridge (the photographer who so inspired Francis Bacon), both 8 September–16 January 2011. At Tate Modern there’s an Arshile Gorky retrospective (10 February–3 May), and then a large Gauguin survey (30 September–16 January 2011). The Tate regional outposts have additional programmes. Highlights include Dexter Dalwood (23 January–3 May) and Peter Lanyon (9 October–8 January 2011) at Tate St Ives, and Picasso: Peace and Freedom (21 May–30 August) at Tate Liverpool.
‘The Execution of Lady Jane Grey’ by Paul Delaroche (1797-1856) is one of the most popular paintings in the National Gallery and will form the focus of the spring exhibition (24 February–23 May) examining Delaroche’s career. The NG’s autumn show Venice: Canaletto and his Rivals (13 October–16 January 2011) will no doubt prove even more of a crowd-pleaser. At the Royal Academy The Real van Gogh: The Artist and his Letters (23 January–18 April) begins the year strongly, to be followed by Paul Sandby: Picturing Britain (13 March– 13 June) and Sargent and the Sea (10 July– 26 September).
The National Portrait Gallery seems to be fast disappearing down the black hole of photography, but launches a potentially interesting show in the spring (11 March– 20 June) called The Indian Portrait 1560–1860. Curated by Kapil Jariwala and examining works from the Mughal and Rajput courts, it promises to be full of surprises. The Barbican kicks off with a major show of designer Ron Arad (18 February– 16 May), tracing his rise from post-Punk to high-tech sculpted metal furnishings. Its summer show is The Surreal House (10 June– 12 September), giving the darling old shock-mongers (Dalì, Duchamp, Magritte, et al.) yet another crack of the whip, intended to prove the house ‘a place of wonder, desire and foreboding’. Mission accomplished, I’d say. Meanwhile, it’s the Serpentine’s 40th anniversary year, and at the time of going to press only a survey of the work of Richard Hamilton (born 1922) has been confirmed. Entitled Modern Moral Matters, it will examine this distinguished artist’s use of multiples and photographic material in a political context.
There are many promising exhibitions among the smaller institutions. Jonathan Miller has been given a free hand at the Estorick, and has come up with On the Move: Visualising Action (13 January–18 April); should be provocative. Michelangelo’s Dream at the Courtauld (18 February– 16 May) presents some of that master’s finest drawings, while Walls Are Talking is an exploration of wallpaper, art and culture at the Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester (6 February–3 May). From 29 May, David Nash is being given a major retrospective at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park.
Despite the recession, there simply isn’t space to give more than a taste of the numerous museum exhibitions competing for our attention. As I’ve said before, there’s too little coverage of commercial galleries in the national press, though this column attempts in a small way to remedy that. One date for the diary is 3 February when an 80th birthday celebration of the abstract painter Gillian Ayres will open at Alan Cristea Gallery (31 & 34 Cork Street, W1, until 13 March). Ayres is a remarkable colourist, a lyrical and inventive shape-maker who paints with the joyous physicality and gusto of an artist a quarter of her age. Of course there should be a major museum show to honour her, but no sign of one yet. In the interim we must be content with her new paintings: sumptuous delights of complex patterns and colours, deeply satisfying and life-enhancing. Happy New Year viewing!
Comments