What's hot? This new monthly column from author and curator Francesca Gavin brings together exhibitions that somehow connect in terms of content, aesthetics or approach. Following on from her regular ‘In Five Words’ exhibition reviews on the gowithYAMO app, this monthly column dives deeper into the shows that are resonating in London’s galleries and museums.
Time doesn’t stop moving, but there is something incredible about pausing our turbulent now and looking backwards. These three exhibitions show that not everything was perfect in the past, but that skill, soul and creativity can affect us across the ages.
Petits Bijoux, Until May 8, Nahmad Projects, 2 Cork Street, W1S 3LB
In French, petits bijoux translates as small gifts or little gems. This exhibition of lesser-known, mini artworks by some of the greatest names in art history is brimming in surprises. The show of historic work is put together by Helly Nahmad Gallery at Nahmad Projects on Cork Street and has no aim to redefine the artistic canon. The names in this show, however, are jaw-dropping – Morandi, Corot, Matisse, Braque, de Chirico, Rauschenberg, Gustav Moreau. Clusters of pieces are presented in grouped salon hangs around the dark-walled space. Aside from the beautiful arrangements on the wall, the actual works are also fascinating. These intimate, sensitive pieces showcase the skill, concepts and aesthetic invention evident in every artists’ work. Ancient bronzes sit next to small oils, figurative nudes alongside the abstract compositions. Almost every work is ripe for slow examination. This is one of the most incredible shows you will see for free this year. Do not miss.
Leonora Carrington: The Symptomatic Surreal, Until June 28, Freud Museum, NW3 5SX
The darker personal side of surrealist artist Leonora Carrington is the subject of this one-room exhibition in North London’s Freud Museum. The focus is on her Santander sketchbooks, created when the British-born Mexican artist had a mental breakdown as she fled the Nazi’s in France and was hospitalised in Spain. Alongside texts describing her personal narrative, the exhibition presents her delicate pencil sketches of horses and visionary reality alongside Sigmund Freud’s own collection of antiquities devoted to the underworld. There is only one (admittedly very good) painting on show, created while Carrington was in hospital, depicting Bosch-like monsters. The show is in no way comprehensive, but if you need an excuse to come, the museum itself, devoted to the famous father of psychology, is a clear winner.
Lucian Freud: Drawing into Painting, Until May 4, National Portrait Gallery,
The first thing that hits you when you enter the latest blockbuster exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery is a quote by the artist Lucian Freud, “Everything is a portrait”. It roots this exhibition in the idea that all art reflects the artist’s mind, eyes and experience. All the subjects in this show attest to Freud’s deeply autobiographical personal approach to art. There are a lot of portraits – of ex-girlfriends and wives, fellow artists like Francis Bacon, his children, such as daughter Bella Freud, and numerous friends and models, such as queer icon Leigh Bowery. What ties everything together here is drawing. Freud is best known as a painter, but his use of pencil, charcoal, pen, ink and etching is up there with the best of the century. What is fascinating is watching his approach shift over time – from a very precise, linear style in the 1940s to a freer, almost angry approach to the fluidity of the body in his late work. There are also a bunch of paintings here – including the delicious portrait loaned by the Courtauld of his ex-girlfriend Kitty Epstein holding a rose.
