A selection of 10 unmissable exhibitions taking place in the UK in December 2016. The pick of the bunch is probably Dulwich Picture Gallery’s exhibition of paintings and drawings by Adriaen van de Velde, whose 1658 painting ‘The Beach at Scheveningen’ is pictured above.
1) Towards Night
Reading the list of artists featured in this major new show at Towner Art Gallery, it’s hard not to imagine the curator, Tom Hammick, on a trolley-dash through the Gallery’s collection. The show features work by more than sixty artists. Starting with Constable, the Ancients and the Romantics, it continues through the twentieth century – via Gertrude Hermes, L.S. Lowry and Marc Chagall – to the contemporary (Doig and Bourgeois). Whether or not the show’s nocturnal theme can bring this eclectic selection together, a visit to ‘Towards Night’ will surely reward you with the sight of some stunning prints and paintings (one of which, Gertrude Hermes’ 1929 wood engraving ‘Through the Windscreen’, is pictured below).
Showing at Towner Art Gallery, Eastbourne, from 24 September 2016 to 22 January 2017.
Gertrude Hermes, ‘Through the Windscreen’ (wood engraving, 1929).
2) Night in the Museum: Ryan Gander Curates the Arts Council Collection
Arts Council England turned 70 this year, and we should all be thankful for the work that it does. There’s no better way to celebrate than to visit this exhibition of works from the Arts Council’s own collection, curated by the contemporary artist Ryan Gander and featuring heavy-hitters such as Jacob Epstein, Henry Moore and Ben Nicholson.
Showing in the Gas Hall, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, from 26 November 2016 to 12 February 2017.
Ryan Gander, ‘As Old As Time Itself, Slept Alone’ (2016).
3) William Hunter to Damien Hirst: The Dead Teach The Living
This exhibition at the Hunterian Art Gallery in Glasgow explores the intersections between art and the sciences. Expect to see all sorts of anatomical casts, specimens suspended in jars and old medical treatises, alongside work by Catherine Street and Damien Hirst. Arresting and profoundly unsettling for those of us who don’t work in the medical profession.
Showing at the Hunterian Art Gallery, Glasgow, from 25 March 2016 to 5 March 2017.
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4) Daphne Wright: Emotional Archaeology
‘Emotional Archaeology’ at the Arnolfini, Bristol, is a career retrospective of the Irish artist Daphne Wright, who has been producing sculptures, prints and works on paper in the city for nearly two decades.
Showing at the Arnolfini, Bristol, from the 30 September 2016 to the 31 December 2017.
Daphne Wright, ‘Still Life Plant’ (Wire and unfired clay, 2014), and ‘Stallion’ (Marble dust and resin, 2004).
5) Adriaen van de Velde: Dutch Master of Landscape
Adriaen van de Velde was a member of a prominent Seventeenth-century painting dynasty from the Netherlands. Unlike his father (Willem van de Velde the Elder) and his brother (the Younger), who both moved to London to work as maritime painters, Adriaen became a landscape painter and remained in his native country. This exhibition concentrates on van de Velde’s working methods, revealing the patient preparatory work which preceded the painting of his landscapes. For those unfamiliar (as I was) with the artists’ work, there are a couple of great video previews made by the Dulwich Picture Gallery here and here.
Showing at Dulwich Picture Gallery from 12 October 2016 to 15 January 2016.
Adriaen van de Velde, ‘The Beach at Scheveningen’ (1658, Oil on canvas).
6) Alan Kitching and Monotype: Celebrating Five Pioneers of the Poster
This exhibition represents a cooperation between two giants of nineteenth and twentieth century typography, Monotype (formerly the Monotype Corporation, makers of the first fully mechanical typesetting machine) and the typographer and graphic designer Alan Kitching. It pays tribute to five of the most influential graphic designers of the last century: Tom Eckersley, Abram Games, FHK Henrion, Josef Müller-Brockmann and Paul Rand.
Showing at Arts University Bournemouth from 31 October to 22 December 2016.
Type lying in cases at Alan Kitching’s Kennington workshop.
7) Victor Pasmore: Towards a New Reality
How does an artist move from figurative painting to total abstraction within only a few years? This exhibition of work by Victor Pasmore spans his conversion to non-representation painting and collage, and features works from the collection of the Tate as well as rarely-seen pieces from private collections.
Showing at Djanogy Gallery at Nottingham Lakeside Arts from 26 November 2016 to 19 February 2017.
Victor Pasmore, ‘Reclining Nude’ (1942), one of the earlier figurative paintings in the show.
8) Century: 100 Modern British Artists
There are plenty of big names in this exhibition – Hockney, Ravilious, Piper, Hepworth – which is remarkable, given that the works featured are all owned by the Jerwood and Ingram Foundations, whose collections were assembled by two private collectors, Alan Grieve (Director of the Jerwood Foundation) and Chris Ingram.
Showing at the Jerwood Gallery, Hastings, from 23 October 2016 to 8 January 2017.
9) Beyond Caravaggio
This exhibition places paintings by Caravaggio alongside others which show his influence. These ‘Caravaggesque’ paintings come from all over Western Europe. Their subjects are depicted at a moment of great physical exertion, and their bodies regularly fill the entire canvas. The faces of the figures are realistic rather than idealised. Most famously, these paintings make use of chiaroscuro: dramatic lighting, often from a single light source on the level of the figures, so that the shadows are almost totally black. They do not depict figures in a landscape and only vaguely indicate the place where the action is happening. Pretty unmissable, and certainly the biggest show of the winter.
Showing at the National Gallery from 12 October 2016 to 15 January 2017.
10. Portraits of Place: Works from Kettle’s Yard & Richard Long
More Twentieth Century British art here, this time in Cambridge. ‘Portraits of Place’ features works from Kettle’s Yard, the home of the collector and art historian Jim Ede, who gave it (and his art collection) to the University of Cambridge in 1966. There’s no pronounced theme to the show, but visitors will get to see a rarely-exhibited Constable from Downing College alongside modernist pieces from Kettle’s Yard, which is currently closed for a huge, Arts Council-funded extension.
Showing in the Heong Gallery, Downing College, Cambridge, from 5 November 2016 to 15 January 2017.
