Museums

This Week in London – ‘Pirates’ at the National Maritime Museum; the ‘design of swimming’; and, José María Velasco explored…

by exploringlondon
PICTURE: Frames For Your Heart/Unsplash

• A major exhibition tracing the changing depictions of pirates through the ages and revealing their often brutal role in history opens at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich on Saturday. Pirates deconstructs some of the myths which have developed around buccaneers as it reveals the real-life stories of the likes of Edward ‘Blackbeard’ Teach, William Kidd, Anne Bonny and Mary Read. The exhibition features almost 200 objects ranging from the costume worn by Orlando Bloom in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, to copies of A General History of the Pyrates by Captain Charles Johnson (first published in 1724), a hanging believed to have been part of a shrine captured from a junk in the fleet of the mid-19th century Chinese pirate Shap Ng-tsai, and a silver centerpiece depicting the bombardment of Algiers, 1816, when a combined British Dutch force attacked Algiers in an attempt to resolve the longstanding issue of piracy on the North coast of Africa. Runs until 4th January. Admission charge applies. For more, see www.rmg.co.uk/pirates.

• The ‘design of swimming’ – covering everything from fashions to architecture – is the subject of a new exhibition opening at the Design Museum tomorrow. Splash! A Century of Swimming and Style is split across three sections focusing on three locations in which people swim – the pool, the lido and nature – and starts in the 1920s when beach holidays exploded in popularity. More than 200 objects are on display including Pamela Anderson’s Baywatch swimsuit, the first Olympic solo swimming gold medal won by a British woman, the banned ‘technical doping’ LZR Racer swimsuit, one of the earliest surviving examples of a bikini, and a detailed architectural model of the Zaha Hadid-designed London 2012 Aquatics Centre. Runs until 17th August. Admission charge applies. For more, see https://designmuseum.org.

José María Velasco, ‘Pirámides del sol y de la luna’, 1878, Oil on canvas, 18.5 x 26.3 cm, Colección Pérez Simón, Mexico © Oliver Santana

• Mexico’s most celebrated 19th century painter, José María Velasco (1840–1912), is the subject of a new exhibition opening at The National Gallery on Saturday. José María Velasco: A View of Mexico – which coincides with the 200th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the UK and Mexico, explores how he approached drawing and painting and how he explored the relationship between different cultures, Mexico’s mountainous terrain, flora and fauna, and the impact of industrialisation on the landscape. The display also considers the links between Velasco’s work and paintings in the gallery’s collection, in particular Édouard Manet’s The Execution of Maximilian (1867–8), which depicts the execution of the Austrian ruler imposed on Mexico. Runs until 17th August. Admission charge applies. For more, see nationalgallery.org.uk.

Send all items for inclusion to exploringlondon@gmail.com.

This Week in London – Michelangelo’s last decades; expressionists on show; and, Dinosaur rEvolution…

by exploringlondon
Michelangelo Buonarro (1475–1564) – study for the ‘Last Judgment’ (Black chalk on paper, about 1534–36); the fall of Phaeton (Black chalk, over stylus underdrawing, on paper, about 1533); and, Christ on the Cross between the Virgin and St John (Black chalk and white lead on paper, about 1555–64.) All images © The Trustees of the British Museum

• A landmark exhibition exploring the final three decades of the life of Renaissance master Michelangelo has opened at the British Museum. Michelangelo: the last decades focuses on how his art and faith evolved and centres on the two metre high Epifania (about 1550–53), which is being displayed for the first time since conservation work on it began in 2018. Showing alongside it is a painting made from it by Michelangelo’s biographer, Ascanio Condivi, as well as preparatory drawings from the Last Judgment, which chart how Michelangelo invented a fresh vision of how the human form would be refashioned at the end of the world, and works created as part of his correspondence with his friends Tommaso de’ Cavalieri and the poet Vittoria Colonna. The latter include The Punishment of Tityus (about 1532) showing an eagle tearing out the liver of a bound naked man which was gifted to Tommaso as moral guidance for the young man. Other highlights include a group of drawings of Christ’s crucifixion which he made during the last 10 years of his life and through which he explored his feelings about mortality, sacrifice, faith, and the prospect of redemption. Runs until 28th July in the Joseph Hotung Great Court Gallery. Admission charge applies. For more, see www.britishmuseum.org/michelangelo.

Wassily Kandinsky, ‘Riding Couple’, 1906-1907, Lenbachhaus Munich, Donation of Gabriele Münter, 1957

• A new exhibition has opened celebrating the expressionists’ radical experimentations with form, colour, sound and performance at the Tate Modern. Expressionists: Kandinsky, Münter and the Blue Rider features masterpieces from the Lenbachhaus in Munich and includes some works never previously seen in the UK. Among the artists whose work is on display are everyone from renowned artists like Wassily Kandinsky, Gabriele Münter, Franz Marc and Paul Klee, through to lesser known figures like Wladimir Burliuk and Maria Franck-Marc. Highlights include Marianne Werefkin’s Self-Portrait (c1910), Münter’s Listening (Portrait of Jawlensky) (1909), Erma Bossi’s Circus (1909), Kandinsky’s Impression III (Concert) (1911), Franz-Marc’s Deer in the Snow II (1911), Klee’s Legend of the Swamp (1919), and a selection of photographs from the Masterpieces of Muhammadan Art exhibition staged in Munich in 1910. Runs until 20th October. Admission charge applies. For more, see tate.org.uk.

• On Now – Dinosaur rEvolution. This exhibition at the Horniman Museum in Forest Hill highlights discoveries from recent decades which have changed the way we envisage dinosaurs – not all as scaly green reptiles but many with an array of colours, feathers, quills and spikes. At the centre of the display are five large animatronic dinosaur models – including a seven metre-long Tyrannosaurus rex – as well as well as artworks by artist and exhibition curator Luis V Rey. The exhibition also features fossil casts including the horned skull of a Diabloceratops, the claw of a Therizinosaurus, and skeletons of Velociraptor and Compsognathus – a chicken-sized, feathered dinosaur. Runs until 3rd November. Admission charge applies. For more, see www.horniman.ac.uk.

Send all inclusions to exploringlondon@gmail.com.