2024 - Issue 127 - Museum shows
Two recommendations, two to avoid and two where I’ll leave it up to you to decide. With links to three other worthy shows, at the same venues, that I’ve already reviewed. (PS — yes, I know that Hayward is a Gallery and not a Museum!)
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Recommended
Don’t miss these two. Book now!
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This exhibition of 61 works from the final two years of Vincent van Gogh’s life, when he was both highly productive and highly depressed, proves how exceptional, but also how ordinary, he could be. I spent most of my time studying works I’d never seen and not just to avoid the queues of people lining up to take blurry photos of Sunflowers. (Honestly, what’s the deal with the sunflowers?) The inclusion of a room of expertly made drawings on paper is fascinating as they contain so few of the visual flourishes that he is known for, which only heightens the thrill of seeing his distinct style applied to a wide range of subjects, from a close-up of a single blooming iris to many variations of people enjoying the gardens of Arles. There’s also a Starry Night that’s just as jaw-dropping as the one you are probably now picturing in your head, The Starry Night. Shows like this are a rare privilege to attend.
‘Poets & Lovers’ at The National Gallery (@NationalGallery) until 19 Jan 2025
Tickets from £24 / discounts available
NB: I paid £13, receiving 50% off via my Art Pass
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Francis Bacon aimed to infuse the portraits he painted with “a sense of real human presence… a memory trace of past events”. Visually that means smashed and mangled faces that look like someone just stepped out of a boxing ring after going ten rounds with the heavyweight champion. His ‘brutality of fact’ approach was almost uniformly applied to the many friends and lovers that “sat” for him (in reality he mostly painted from photos and memory) and the result is that all the faces kinda look the same. Were it not for the wall texts I couldn’t tell you who’s who and I suppose the curators recognise that issue, because the show is filled with tons of photo archives and information about the people in the frame as well as the man who painted them. They’ve even hung the actual Rembrandt that inspired him, even though Bacon himself only ever saw a reproduction. As a result, the show is a fantastic primer about Bacon and his social circle of friends and lovers that were major influences on his work.
‘Human Presence’ at National Portrait Gallery (@nationalportraitgallery) until 19 Jan 2025
Tickets from £23 / discounts available
NB: I paid £11.50, receiving 50% off via my Art Pass
Mixed-Bag
These two each have their merits, but they’re not must-see exhibitions.
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Wellcome is known for putting on incredibly thorough investigations that set up an issue, then give you plenty of ways in which you can consider or engage with solutions. This show aims to examine ‘Work, Health and Rights’ but by focussing on slavery, sex work and domestic servitude — complex topics that each warrant their own museum quality exhibition — I found myself confused and unclear on the overall focus before I had even gotten halfway through. Highly nuanced concepts are presented via engaging moments, fascinating stories and interesting displays, but there’s simply far too much content crammed together. I felt like most sections ended just as soon as they began, pushing me through to the next idea a bit too quickly. A handful of areas inspired me to conduct my own research afterwards, but overall I left feeling more confused than when I entered.
‘Hard Graft’ at Wellcome Collection (@wellcomecollection) until 27 April 2025
Free
Also at Wellcome… ‘Jason and the Adventure of 254’. Read my full review.
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This retrospective of Korean artist Haegue Yang (b.1971) is confounding a lot of Western art viewers because the works tease and play with collage, minimalism and conceptual art without ever fully embracing their commonly accepted tropes or definitions. It also doesn’t help that Yang has a penchant for augmenting her work with decorative flourishes and elements of craft, two things frequently disparaged in “important” art. Too many pieces rely on flowers and fairy lights. They look like a bad TikTok interior decorating hack instead of a powerful artistic statement about the human condition. Which, by the way, is a claim made by many of the wall texts that could probably be shuffled and re-pinned without anyone noticing. Interestingly, Yang is clearly aware of the visual disconnect between her work and her intentions. At the opening she commented that the abstract language of her art is “not as emotional as the subject matter. It’s now yours to digest.”
‘Leap Year’ at Hayward Galley (@hayward.gallery) until 05 Jan 2025
Tickets from £19 / discounts available
NB: I attended for free, via a Press Preview invitation.
Nope
You can probably skip the following two shows.
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The opening work in this retrospective is a glass of water that, in 1973, the artist claimed was an oak tree. It’s accompanied by a Q&A that outlines his frustratingly absurd position, and that’s it. That’s the work. It sits in a room full of equally pretentious art that shows just how annoying Michael Craig Martin might have been had he not soon after stumbled onto the minimalist graphic style that has been boring critics for the past four decades. It might look good on the cover of a gift shop notebook, and printed directly onto the walls of the RA it’s certainly eye catching, but I’ve no idea what he’s saying by applying his neon palette to a set of drums or Manet’s Folies-Bergère. The works feel hollow and empty, just like this show was on the Saturday afternoon when I went. This one’s for the hardcore fans and beginner graphic designers.
‘Michael Craig Martin’ at Royal Academy of Arts (@royalacademyarts) until 10 Dec
Tickets from £22 / discounts available
NB: I attended for “free”, using my personal RA membership
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Most art is about the output. It’s a process to create something that should elicit emotion, any kind of emotion, regardless of whether or not the work is visually appealing. I’d never heard of American artist Mike Kelly (1954 - 2012) but I got the impression from this retrospective that the physical output of his artistic practice was secondary, and possibly even inconsequential to the process of being relentlessly inquisitive about the kinds of topics usually only deeply considered during 2am conversations most people stopped having after they moved out of the dorm. Many are explained in wall texts but it’s hard to see how they translate into the works displayed. Thankfully there’s a lot of audio and video documentation that brings the seemingly random displays to life, showing them in the context of their original performances or use, which was obstuse, loud, amusing, vague and often annoying.
‘Ghost and Spirit’ at Tate Modern (@tate) until 09 Mar
Tickets from £18 / discounts available
NB: I attended for “free”, using my personal Tate membership
Also at Tate Modern… Anthony McCall: Solid Light (details in Roundup Issue 114) and Zanele Muholi (details in Roundup Issue 115).
PLUS…
Check the What’s On page so you don’t miss any other great shows closing soon.
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