Entertainment For Lively Minds
Art in the Big Smoke?
Posted by katyg on 31 January 2011 - 8:07pm.
OK Massive. My pal Rachel and I are London-bound tomorrow for the Wilko Johnson extravaganza. We have just realised that we are both footloose and fancy-free from lunchtime, so we are going to head into town and have some fun before the gig. But what shall we do? We would like to go to a gallery and see something - paintings, installations, photos... Does anyone have any recommendations for good exhibitions we should go and see? Goes without saying that we "don't know much about Art, but we know what we like..." :)
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As usual...
The answer is Sir John Soane's House. Fabulous place, off the beaten track, free entry as far as I can recall.
yep no place like it
anywhere else.
Speaking of which the Museum of Everything up in Primrose hill is really good. It's curated by Sir Peter Blake and is a wonderfuly cabinet of curiosities: circus memorabilia, toy fair grounds, stuffed animals plus loads more it's amazing and willl close v soon.
http://www.museumofeverything.com/exhibition3.php#home
Same goes for
http://www.wallacecollection.org/
Really good and not as well known as it could be.
Seconded
The main room of the Wallace is the best single room for pictures in London. Nice café too.
There does not seem to any blockbuster shows on just now, so the permanent collections seem to be ones to go for. You can get lost in the National Gallery of course, but I am very fond of the Courtauld Institute too.
http://www.courtauld.ac.uk/gallery/index.shtml .
Finally, the National Portrait Gallery is often overlooked but I do like portraits so can spend hours there.
http://www.npg.org.uk/
National Gallery
Monet's 'Water Lily Pond'. Just stare. That's the afternoon taken care of!
Seconded.
I'm forever taking my daughters to the National. Never get tired of it.
Give me a shout next time
I keep meaning to take mine but never quite get round to it. Could do with a nudge (and I suspect our girls would get on splendidly)...
Yay!
Deffo. x
Seconded.
I'm forever taking my daughters to the National. Never get tired of it.
If I was in London
I'd go to the Whitechapel Art Gallery and see John Stezakar's new show, a retrospective of his career. He does strange things to vintage photographs, publicity stills, postcards etc - splicing images together into crazy juxtapositions. And there's a great caff at the gallery too, so it's a perfect place to get a coffee afterwards! You're also fairly close to Vyner Street in Bethnal Green if you fancy checking out some more grassroots galleries too.
I think there's a new Martin Creed show opening soon/open now - I like his stuff, it's funny, tends to question the creative process and the validity of a concept in a way that you can really get involved in.
If you love illustrations, I can thoroughly recommend
the Chris Beetles Gallery in Ryder Street in St James’s; he has the most amazing variety of stuff on show, as they have a big sale coming up soon.
You've just missed their Frank Hampson (Dan Dare) exhibition and sale by a few days!
Norman Rockwell retrospective at the Dulwich Picture Gallery
I hear it'svery good
Norman Rockwell
There's a good Norman Rockwell exhibition at the Dulwich Picture Gallery including all the covers, 300 or so, that he did for the Saturday Evening Post magazine. It's great. If you like that sort of thing. And Dulwich is a nice place to just pickle about.
http://www.dulwichpicturegallery.org.uk/exhibitions/now_on_show/norman_r...
I keep meaning to make a trip up to see this.
Have to make the effort. It's probably a once-in-a-lifetime chance.
The Wellcome Collection...
Curios from around the globe...
http://www.wellcomecollection.org/home-explore.aspx
Unfortunately for Rockwell ...
.. Dulwich is a few miles out of the centre of town. Always worth a mooch around the permanent collection of either of the Tates, although the Modern does have its share of pretentious conceptual bollocks.
It's only a handful
of stops further out from rotherhithe and it is the oldest public art gallery in the world so worth a visit if you've schlepped to London in the first place!!
The National Gallery
An obvious choice but a good one. And it's free. You could gawp at Monet's Lilly Pond as recommended by Vulpes above, but there are also many other incredible works from that period in that corner of the gallery alone (one of my favourites is below). And from there you can wander past The Hay Wain towards the wall of Turners (including "the nation's favourite", The Fighting Temeraire), dip in to the room of Canalettos and have your mind blown, stroll through the Rubens room towards the Rembrandts...
But actually I'd recommend not trying to take it all in at once. I was fortunate enough to work within walking distance of the National Gallery for a couple of years and spent many a lunch break there - and found that a lunchbreak was just long enough. Otherwise the paintings start to lose their impact and you start to get blase about yet another work of genius by a grand master. My recommendation would be to get an hour's quality viewing in at the National then move on to the Courtauld Institute (where you will see the inspiration for that Bow Wow Wow album cover).
Saachi Gallery
is always worth a go
Thank you all
So much to do, so little time... I think we are going to opt for Sir John Soane's Museum. They are re-opening the picture room today after a temporary closure, so I'll have to see if it is busy! All your suggestions are much appreciated, I'm going to plan a few more trips I think! Thank you.
Check this out...
http://www.googleartproject.com/?utm_source=Google&utm_medium=HPP&utm_ca...
I just noticed this on the Google home page this morning - apols if it's been mentioned before, but it's a new one on me.