If you’ve planned a weekend in London this spring, there are two exhibitions not to be missed.
The first is the exhibition Lucian Freud – Portraitsat the National Portrait Gallery. Until May 27, the famous London museum is exhibiting over 120 works from museums and private collections around the world. If the importance of this retrospective had to be stressed, beyond the fact that Lucian Freud is one of the most important artists of his generation, it could be added that some of these works, notably the last portraits the artist painted just before his death last year, have never before been shown to the general public. This is therefore a major event.
The exhibition focuses on particular periods and models to show the evolution of the artist’s style and technique. The portraits depict Lucian Freud’s loves, friends and family members, those he called “the people in my life”, and through these paintings we grasp both the terrible, raw sense of Freud’s observation, and the passion and sense of drama that inhabited him. Lucian Freud’s works can sometimes be shocking in their crudeness, a flesh that is certainly not sad but explodes before the eyes in all its slightest defects, sometimes flabby, wrinkled, couperose, but they exude such power, such a force of life, that they never leave one indifferent. And the Bridegroom, by Australian artist Leigh Bowery and his wife Nicola, is a perfect example.
In addition to portraits of those closest to Freud – his mother Lucie, the artists Francis Bacon and David Hockney, among others, and Sue Tilley, immortalized in a series of monumental paintings in the 1990s – the exhibition also shows the importance of the self-portrait in Freud’s work.
LUCIAN FREUD PORTRAITS
February 9 – May 27, 2012
National Portrait Gallery, London
TICKETS
www.npg.org.uk
Tate Britain also offers a major exhibition this spring, exploring Pablo Picasso’s various connections with Britain throughout his life. Picasso & British Modern Art examines the evolution of British criticism of the Catalan artist’s work, and the response of British artists to it.
Brilliantly structured around key periods over a period of almost 70 years, the exhibition alternates between iconic works by Picasso, as well as documents illustrating the evolution of collections and exhibitions of his work in Great Britain, and works by contemporary artists from these different periods, whom he profoundly influenced, such as Wyndham Lewis, Henry Moore, Francis Bacon and David Hockney.
Picasso’s works on show include Tête d’homme (1913), L’Homme à la clarinette (1911-12), Trois danseuses (1925), Femme nue dans un fauteuil rouge (1932), Nature morte à la mandoline (1924), and many others, mirrored by paintings or sculptures by the seven selected British artists. Picasso’s influence obviously extended far beyond these seven artists, but the idea here is to demonstrate the depth and diversity of that influence. On display, for example, are Crucifixions by Francis Bacon, several sculptures by Moore, and drawings or canvases by David Hockney in homage to Picasso.
An extremely rich exhibition of works – and important works at that – to be savoured without sulking!
PICASSO & BRITISH MODERN ART
February 15 – July 15 2012
Tate Britain, London
TICKETS
www.tate.org.uk
Laurie Guillem
Cette publication est également disponible en : Français (French)
