Last updated on September 13th, 2018The English weren’t as partial to the chopping of a royal head as the French were, but the story of this exhibition starts with the trial of Charles I, the ill-fated king whose head was to be severed from his body on the 30 January 1649. Fast forward to 1660…
London Art & Exhibition
London art and exhibition: Discover the latest exhibitions in London and explore museums and art galleries in the capital.
Art Review – Modigliani at Tate Modern
Last updated on April 22nd, 2018I am doing something remarkable. I am a voyeur in an artist’s studio in Paris – in Montparnasse to be exact – for a full six and a half minutes. But, I am actually in London. I am gazing out of Amedeo Modigliani’s studio window, towards the smoky chimney tops…
Soutine’s Culinary Artistry
Last updated on April 22nd, 2018Monsieur Soutine had a knack for finding good staff. And he certainly liked a man in uniform. Bellboys, waiters, valets, pastry cooks and the occasional maid, would make their way from the grand hotels and restaurants of Paris’s Roaring Twenties onto his fiery canvases. London hasn’t seen a Soutine show…
Potty for Harry at the British Library
Last updated on March 6th, 2019Can you believe it’s been 20 years since ‘Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone’ was first published? And just in time for Halloween, there’s an enchanting exhibition opening at the British Library. Harry Potter: A History of Magic is a treasure trove of rare books, manuscripts, magical objects and illustrations that will…
Egypt Uncovered at the Soane Museum
Last updated on March 14th, 2018As if you needed an excuse to go and visit one of London’s best-loved museums, but I’m about to give you one. Over at the Soane Museum in Holborn, you can meet an Italian circus strongman turned Egyptologist, and discover tales of robbed tombs and a celebrity Pharaoh. Add to…
Dancing with Degas
Last updated on March 14th, 2018Hilaire-Germain-Edgar Degas liked to draw women. He dabbled with horses as well, but really, it was the women that grabbed his voyeuristic attention, often of the dancing or bathing variety. These ethereal damsels are the subject of an exhibition opening on the 20th September at the National Gallery, a collection…
Art Review: Echoes Across the Century
Last updated on July 25th, 2020The Guildhall Art Gallery has been on my cultural radar for a long time. After all, it’s home to some very impressive pre-Raphaelite paintings, and its belly houses the remains of a Roman amphitheatre no less, discovered in 1988 when the gallery was carrying out renovation works. But my reason…
Art Review: The Royal Canalettos
Last updated on January 28th, 2020If ever there was an exhibition to make you swoon, it’s this one: over 200 paintings, drawings and prints from the Royal Collection, on display in the majestic Queen’s Gallery in Canaletto and the Art of Venice. The Italian master is in excellent company, surrounded by his contemporaries Francesco Zuccarelli,…
Art Review: Queer British Art
Last updated on March 14th, 2018The word queer sounds well, a bit queer these days, but it’s used in the title of the new exhibition at Tate Britain which opens today. Queer British Art 1861-1967 is a show dedicated to LGBT art, and it’s the first of its kind. It celebrates the 50th anniversary of…
Art Review: Selfies at the Saatchi
Last updated on March 14th, 2018I wonder how Van Gogh, Kahlo and Rembrandt would feel about sharing an art gallery with Tracey Emin, Kim Kardashian, the Queen and a macaque monkey? For the next two months, they are in bed together in the Saatchi Gallery’s new exhibition: From Selfie to Self-Expression. I admit that I…