V&A

This Week in London – ‘Design and Disability’ at the V&A; Eid on the Square; and, James Brimble’s pictures of Epping Forest…

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Xbox Adaptive Controller, developed by Microsoft. PICTURE © Victoria and Albert Museum, London 

• The intersection between design and disability is at the focus of a new exhibition at the V&A which opens on Saturday. Design and Disability showcases the contributions of disabled, deaf and neurodivergent people to contemporary culture from the 1940s until now and spans the disciplines of design, art, architecture, fashion and photography. Highlights include: the world’s first commercially made adaptive Xbox controller by Microsoft; photographs by Simon Way which capture the work of Jaipur Foot as it makes free prosthetic legs, feet and arms for millions of people across India; the
McGonagle Reader – an audio-assisted voting device to help Blind and low vision people to vote independently; and, the Squeeze Chaise Longue, a red recliner developed by artist Wendy Jacobs, which embraces the sitter between two red mohair arms and provides comforting sensory feedback for those who appreciate deep pressure stimulation. The exhibition in The Porter Gallery at the South Kensington institution runs until 15th February. Admission charges apply. For more, see
vam.ac.uk/exhibitions/design-and-disability.

• Eid on the Square returns to Trafalgar Square this Sunday. The free, family-friendly festival, hosted by Deana Soni and Haroon Rashid, will feature traditional and contemporary performances by Nasheed artist Mesut Kurtis, Chand Ali Khan Qawwal & Group, the Indonesian Angklung Ensemble feat HE Dr Desra Percaya, and children’s entertainers Omar & Hana. Halal Tourism Britain are running guided walking tours and presenting a pop-up Muslim Museum of Britain, and there will be workshops including drumming, coconut leaf weaving, calligraphy and poetry at the WAW Creative Arts Family Zone, while Rumi’s Cave – Spearhead Creatives will hosts an interactive tent which blends comedy, music and creative writing. Market stalls will offer books, crafts and jewellery, and the chance to indulge in delicious dishes ranging from Uzbek and Afghan cuisine to Korean fried chicken, churros and much more. Runs from noon to 6pm. For more, see www.london.gov.uk/events/eid-square-2025.

• On Now – James Brimble’s Picture Archive. This free exhibition at the Epping Forest Visitor Centre in Chingford celebrates James Brimble’s 1950 book London’s Epping Forest and includes a range of restored images by James, most of which are previously unpublished, including framed prints and a digital display of around 100 images of Epping Forest and the surrounding areas from the 1950s, 60s and 70s. The display also contains some of the original copper printing plates from his book and supporting material depicting Brimble’s photographic legacy. Can be seen until 28th September. For more, see www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/things-to-do/green-spaces/epping-forest/where-to-go-in-epping-forest/chingford-visitor-centre.

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This Week in London – New V&A East Storehouse opens this weekend; novelist Barbara Pym honoured with a Blue Plaque; and, new children’s mudlarking trail at London Museum Docklands…

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Visitors in the central Weston Collections Hall at V&A East Storehouse, a working store and new visitor attraction from the V&A located in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford, London, opening this Saturday, 31st May. PICTURE: David Parry/PA Media Ass

• The V&A East Storehouse opens to the public for the first time in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park this Saturday. The venue features more than 100 mini-displays centred on the themes of ‘Collecting Stories’, ‘Sourcebook for Design’ and ‘The Working Museum’ and boasting more than 1,500 items from across the V&A’s collections with works by Hew Locke, Zaha Hadid, Daniel Liebskind and Thomas Heatherwick’s London 2012 Olympic cauldron model among those featured. A massive 11-metre-wide stage cloth designed by Pablo Picasso for the Ballets Russes’ 1924 production, Le Train Bleu, will be displayed for first time in more than 10 years while among large scale objects are a section of the now-demolished housing estate, Robin Hood Gardens, and Frank Lloyd Wright’s 1930s Kaufmann Office – the only Frank Lloyd Wright interior outside of the US. Anyone can book access to any object in the storehouse for free via the ‘Order an Object’ process and the venue is also hosting a series of live events including back2back: Archival Bodies, and new programming strand, A Life in the Work of Others – featuring Turner-Prize-winning artist, Jasleen Kaur. Admission to the Storehouse at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford, is free. For more, see www.vam.ac.uk/east.

Visitors looking at a two-storey section of Robin Hood Gardens, at V&A East Storehouse, a working store and new visitor attraction from the V&A located in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford, London, opening this Saturday, 31st May. PICTURE: David Parry/PA Media Assignme

• The home where novelist Barbara Pym began writing her celebrated 1952 novel Excellent Women has been given an English Heritage Blue Plaque. Pym lived at the second floor flat at 108 Cambridge Street in Pimlico with her sister Hilary between November 1945 to autumn 1949. It was from a corner room, overlooking Warwick Square and St Gabriel’s Church, that she meticulously recorded her observations, and laid the groundwork for her distinctive literary voice. Her work during this period also included revising the text for her first published novel, Some Tame Gazelle (1950). In March, three more Blue Plaques were unveiled commemorating women: Una Marson (1905–1965), the BBC’s first Black woman producer at The Mansions, Mill Lane in West Hampstead where she lived from at least 1939 to 1943; and, Rhoda Garrett (1841–1882) and Agnes Garrett (1845–1935), at 2 Gower Street in Bloomsbury where they founded Britain’s first female-run interior-decorating business. For more, see www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/blue-plaques/.

• A free family trail inspired by Jessie Burton’s new children’s book, Hidden Treasure, has launched at the London Museum Docklands. Inspired by the tale of two young mudlarks, the trail takes families on a journey around the museum’s galleries to learn more about centuries of life by the river. It’s aimed at children under 12-years-old, who also have free entry into the museum’s mudlarking exhibition, Secrets of the Thames. For more, see www.londonmuseum.org.uk.

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This Week in London – The glamour of the Edwardian Royals; tulips at Hampton Court; and, Cartier jewels at the V&A…

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Attributed to R. & S. Garrard, ‘Love Trophy’ Collar, 1901
Charles Baugniet, ‘After the Ball’: a Lady in a Ballgown Asleep on a Sofa, c1860–67

• The glamour and opulence of the Edwardian era – and the two royal couples that exemplified it – is the subject of a new exhibition opening at The King’s Gallery at Buckingham Palace tomorrow. The Edwardians: Age of Elegance takes an in-depth look at the lives of King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra, and King George V and Queen Mary, exploring not only their family interactions but their glittering social circles, travel adventures and, of course, the royal events they attended. More than 300 items are on display in the exhibition – almost half on show for the first time – with highlights including Queen Mary’s ‘Love Trophy’ Collar necklace which is on display for the first time, a Cartier crystal pencil case set with diamonds and rubies, and, a blue enamel Fabergé cigarette case featuring a diamond-encrusted snake biting its own tail which was given to King Edward VII in 1908 by his favourite mistress as a symbol of eternal love. There’s also a never-before-seen photograph of Edward wearing fancy-dress as a knight of the Order of Malta as he attended a ball celebrating Queen Victoria’s 1897 Diamond Jubilee, a previously unseen study of Sleeping Beauty by the Pre-Raphaelite artist Sir Edward Burne-Jones, and, Charles Baugniet’s After the Ball which is on show for the first time in more than a century. Runs until 23rd November. Admission charge applies. For more, see www.rct.uk.

• More than 100,000 tulip bulbs are springing to life at Hampton Court Palace for its annual Tulip Festival. The display includes an installation of 10,000 tulips in the palace’s Fountain Court, floating tulip bowls in the Great Fountain, a vintage horse cart spilling tulips in the Clock Court, free-style planting, inspired by the tulip fields of the Netherlands, in the Kitchen Garden and rare, historic and specialist varieties of tulips in the Lower Orangery. There will be daily “tulip talks” in the palace’s wine cellar exploring the history of the flower and how Queen Mary II introduced them to the palace. Runs from Friday until 5th May. Included in general admission. For more, see www.hrp.org.uk.

Rose clip brooch, Cartier London, 1938. Diamonds and platinum. Vincent Wulveryck, Collection Cartier © Cartier

• The first major exhibition in 30 years dedicated to Cartier jewels and watches opens at the V&A this Saturday. Cartier, which is being held in The Sainsbury Gallery, charts the rise of the globally recognised jewellery house and how it became known as “the jeweller of kings and the king of jewellers”. The display features more than 350 objects with highlights including the Williamson Diamond brooch which was commissioned by Queen Elizabeth II in 1953 and which features the rare 23.6 carat pink Williamson diamond; the Scroll Tiara commissioned in 1902 and worn to the coronation of Elizabeth II and later by Rihanna on the cover of W magazine in 2016; Grace Kelly’s engagement ring (1956) that she wore in her final film High Society; Mexican film star María Félix’s snake necklace (1968); and, a selection of Cartier timepieces that embody its pioneering approach to watchmaking, including the Crash wristwatch, designed by Cartier London (1967). The exhibition runs until 16th November. Admission charge applies. For more, see vam.ac.uk/exhibitions/cartier.

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This Week in London – The lives of Henry’s wives; West End Live; and, ‘NAOMI’ at the V&A…

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NPG L246. Katherine of Aragon (c 1520) by Unknown artist © National Portrait Gallery, London. By permission of the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Church Commissioners; on loan to the National Portrait Gallery, London.

• The first major exhibition to focus on the six wives of King Henry VIII opens at the National Portrait Gallery today. The first historical exhibition at the gallery since its reopening, Six Lives: The Stories of Henry VIII’s Queens features more than 140 works and includes everything from 16th century portraits by Hans Holbein the Younger through to costumes from SIX the Musical. The display will examine representation of the queens in chronological order starting with Katherine of Aragon before moving on to Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Anne of Cleves, Katherine Parr and Katherine Howard, and, as well as historic paintings, includes miniatures, drawings and some of the queen’s personal possessions such as letters and books. Highlights include a three-quarter length painted panel of Katherine Parr attributed to ‘Master John’, a portrait of Anne of Cleves by Edgar Degas and contemporary portraits by Hiroshi Sugimoto. Personal possessions on show include Katherine of Aragon’s writing box, Anne Boleyn’s inscribed Book of Hours with her signature deliberately erased, an illustrated Bible commissioned by Thomas Cromwell following the death of Jane Seymour, Anne of Cleve’s expense account book, a miniature portrait believed to be of Katherine Howard by Hans Holbein the Younger and a prayer book written by Katherine Howard. Admission charge applies. Runs until 8th September. For more, see www.npg.org.uk.

• West End Live takes place in Trafalgar Square this weekend with a line-up of more than 50 acts – from productions ranging from Disney’s Frozen to Mrs Doubtfire set to hit the stage. The unticketed free event, now in its ninth year, will also be streamed on Official London Theatre’s YouTube after the event. Gates will open at approximately 10.15am on Saturday and 11.15am on Sunday. Entry to all areas is managed on a first come, first served basis and queues are expected. Entry cannot be guaranteed. For more, head to the West End LIVE website.

A scene from the NAOMI exhibition. PICTURE: Courtesy of the V&A

• An exhibition exploring the 40 year career of leading British fashion model Naomi Campbell opens at the V&A on Saturday. NAOMI features around 100 looks from global high fashion and draws upon Campbell’s own extensive wardrobe of haute couture and leading ready-to-wear ensembles along with loans from designer archives and objects from V&A collection. Designers represented include everyone from Alexander McQueen, Chanel, and Dolce & Gabbana to Gianni and Donatella Versace, Jean Paul Gaultier, John Galliano, Karl Lagerfeld, Vivienne Westwood and Yves Saint Laurent. The display also includes photography by Nick Knight, Steven Meisel and Tim Walker. Runs until 6th April, 2025. Admission charge applies. For more, see www.vam.ac.uk.

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This Week in London – Royal portraits; Sir Elton’s photographic collection revealed; and, women artists…

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• Royal portrait photography, from the 1920s through to today, is the subject of a new exhibition opening at the King’s Gallery at Buckingham Palace on Friday. Royal Portraits: A Century of Photography features more than 50 photographic prints, proofs and documents from the Royal Collection and the Royal Archives. Among the royal photographers whose work is on show are everyone from Cecil Beaton and Dorothy Wilding to Annie Lebovitz and Rankin as well as Lord Snowdon (born Antony Armstrong-Jones). Highlights include Beaton’s 1939 shoot featuring Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother, in Buckingham Palace Gardens dressed in her “White Wardrobe” by Norman Hartnell, and his original coronation portraits of Queen Elizabeth II. Admission charge applies. Runs until 6th October. For more, head here.

Bruce Davidson, Black Americans. New York City. 1962 © Bruce Davidson Magnum Photos

• More than 300 prints from the private photographic collection of Sir Elton John and David Furnish got on display at the V&A from Saturday. Fragile Beauty: Photographs from the Sir Elton John and David Furnish Collection will showcase the work of more than 140 photographers and the V&A’s largest temporary exhibition of photography to date. Photographers include everyone from Robert Mapplethorpe, Cindy Sherman, and William Eggleston to Diane Arbus, Sally Mann, Zanele Muholi, Ai Weiwei and Carrie Mae Weems and the subjects explored include fashion, reportage, celebrity, the male body, and American photography. Portraits of Marilyn Monroe, Miles Davis, and Chet Baker are among the highlights. Runs until 5th January in The Sainsbury Gallery. Admission charge applies. For more, see www.vam.ac.uk.

Anna Airy, ‘Shop for Machining 15-inch Shells: Singer Manufacturing Company’, Clydebank, Glasgow, 1918. © Imperial War Museum

• An exhibition focusing on the path women have taken to being recognised as professional artists opens today at Tate Britain. Now You See Us: Women Artists in Britain 1520-1920 features more than 200 works, including oil painting, watercolour, pastel, sculpture, photography and ‘needlepainting’, created by more than 100 artists including Artemisia Gentileschi, Angelica Kauffman, Julia Margaret Cameron and Gwen John. Highlights include Tudor miniatures by Levina Teerlinc, Gentileschi’s Susanna and the Elders (1638-40), the work of 18th century needlewoman Mary Linwood, Elizabeth Butler (née Thompson)’sThe Roll Call (1874), and, the work of Laura Knight and Ethel Walker, who, on the 120th century achieved critical acclaim and membership of the Royal Academy. Runs until 13th October. Admission charge applies. Head to tate.org.uk.

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This Week in London – Women of the RNLI; ‘Tropical Modernism’ at the V&A; and, a new memorial to Sir Ernest Shackleton unveiled at Westminster Abbey…

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National Maritime Museum in Greenwich. PICTURE: Keith Murray (licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

• The role of women in the Royal National Lifeboat Institution is being celebrated in a new exhibition at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich. Women of the RNLI, which marks the bicentenary of the organisation, features a series of 42 photographs depicting women volunteers and the lifeboat stations’ slipways where they work. The images by photographer Jack Lowe are part of his ongoing ‘Lifeboat Station Project’, an attempt to photograph all 238 operational RNLI lifeboat stations and their crews.. Lowe uses a 12×10 inch (30×25cm) Thornton-Pickard field camera from about 1905 and develops the photos using a process called ‘wet collodion’, a technique invented in the mid-19th century. The display also features oral histories from some of the sitters. The display can be seen from Saturday until 1st December. For more, see www.rmg.co.uk.

• A new exhibition exploring the architectural style of Tropical Modernism in West Africa and India opens at the V&A on Saturday. Tropical Modernism: Architecture and Independence centres on the work of British architects Jane Drew and Maxwell Fry who developed Tropical Modernism in the 1940s, working primarily in Ghana and India. The style, which valued function over ornamentation, became a symbol of a post-colonial future. The exhibition includes models, drawings, letters, photographs, and archival ephemera as it documents the key figures and moments of the Tropical Modernist movement. There is also a half hour film installation displayed on three screens. Runs until 22nd September. Admission charge applies. For more, see vam.ac.uk.

• A new memorial stone dedicated to Antarctic explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton has been unveiled at Westminster Abbey. The triangular-shaped memorial, which can be found on a wall in the south cloister, was unveiled at a service earlier this month attended by Princess Anne and members of Shackleton’s family. Located close to tributes to pioneering sailors Captain James Cook, Sir Francis Chichester and Sir Francis Drake, it was designed and made by sculptor Will Davies and its shape reflects Shackleton’s preference to be at the apex of a triangle in group photographs. The memorial incorporates stones including Connemara marble and Kilkenny limestone in reflection of Shackleton’s Irish heritage, and the names of his expedition ships, Nimrod and Endurance, are inscribed upon it, along with the lifeboat The James Caird, and his family motto, ‘FORTITUDINE VINCIMUS’ (‘By Endurance We Conquer’). For more, see www.westminster-abbey.org.

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This Week in London – Greek architecture and the British Museum; and, ‘The Art of Menswear’ at the V&A…

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‘East front of the Parthenon; narrow walled street on r, with garden on l with three figures, beyond front of Parthenon with mosque behind’. 1765 Pen and grey ink and watercolour, with bodycolour, over graphite © The Trustees of the British Museum

• A new display celebrating the influence of the ancient Greek architectural influence on the British Museum building is open at the museum. The Asahi Shimbun Displays Greek Revival: simplicity and splendour centres on a 200-year-old drawing of the west side of the Parthenon in Athens by British architect Robert Smirke. Smirke drew the Parthenon – still surrounded by medieval and later structures – when he was just 23-years-old and would go on, in the 1820s, to design the British Museum, one of the largest and most famous Greek Revival buildings in the world. Alongside the display is a online visitor trail which features 11 stops around the museum including the south facade and its colonnade and portico of 44 Ionic columns and the opulent Enlightenment Gallery. The free exhibition can be seen until 8th May in Room 3. For more, see britishmuseum.org/exhibitions/greek-revival-simplicity-and-splendour; for more on the trail head to britishmuseum.org/visit/object-trails/greek-revival-architecture-simplicity-and- splendour.

• The first major exhibition to celebrate “the power, artistry and diversity” of masculine attire and appearance opens at the V&A’s Sainsbury Gallery on Saturday. Fashioning Masculinities: The Art of Menswear features around 100 looks and 100 artworks displayed across three galleries – Undressed, Overdressed, and Redressed – and includes both contemporary looks and historic treasures. Fashion designers Harris Reed, Gucci, Grace Wales Bonner and Raf Simons will be represented along with paintings by Sofonisba Anguissola and Joshua Reynolds, contemporary artworks by Robert Longo and Omar Victor Diop, and an extract from an all-male dance performance by Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures. Interspersed will be outfits worn by such famous faces as Harry Styles, Billy Porter, Sam Smith, David Bowie and Marlene Dietrich. Runs until 6th November. Admission charge applies. For more, see vam.ac.uk/masculinities.

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This Week in London – V&A reopens; institution reopenings; and, ZSL London Zoo looks for volunteers…

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• The V&A in South Kensington reopens its doors to visitors today in the first phase of a staged reopening strategy. All of the ground floor galleries are reopening including the Medieval & Renaissance Gallery, the Cast Courts, The Jameel Gallery of Islamic Art and Fashion Gallery, as well as the Europe 1600–1815 galleries on lower ground floor. The first and second floor collection galleries including The William and Judith Bollinger Jewellery Gallery, Theatre & Performance Galleries, and the Photography Centre as well as the museum’s Paintings, Tapestries and Silver Galleries are all scheduled to open on 27th August as well as the exhibition Kimono: Kyoto to Catwalk, which had closed just two weeks into its run.  For more, see www.vam.ac.uk. PICTURE: M.chohan (Public domain). 

• Other recent and upcoming reopenings include: the Horniman Museum, the Foundling Museum, the National History Museum, The Queen’s House in Greenwich (Monday, 10th August) and the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich (exhibitions only; galleries coming later).

• ZSL London Zoo is calling for volunteers to help assist visitors as they make their way around the zoo via three new one-way trails. The move, which follows a successful fundraising effort fronted by Sir David Attenborough, is aimed especially at people still furloughed and students forced to cancel gap year travel plans. Those interested in volunteering are asked to commit to a minimum of half a day each fortnight. For more, see  www.zsl.org/volunteering.

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This Week in London – UK treasure finds, and V&A acquires medieval brooch…

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While the closure of institutions due to the COVID-19 crisis has changed our coverage temporarily, we’ll still be using this space to report news as it comes to hand..

• A 1,100-year-old brooch, a coin from Roman Britain, an Iron Age drinking set and a solid gold Bronze Age arm ring were among finds unearthed by the general public in England, Wales and Ireland last year. The British Museum has revealed that preliminary figures show more than 1,300 treasure finds – generally defined as gold and silver objects that are over 300 years old, or groups of coins and prehistoric metalwork – were reported across the three countries in 2019. In total, some 81,602 archaeological finds were recorded with the British Museum’s Portable Antiquities Scheme last year with the most finds found in Norfolk, followed by Suffolk and Hampshire. PICTURE: Copper alloy fitting from bucket, in the shape of a human face, from Lenham, Kent. Iron Age c50BC (© Mat Honeysett 2019).

• Meanwhile, the V&A has announced it has acquired a rare jewelled late medieval cluster brooch which was uncovered in 2017 by a metal detectorist in a former royal hunting ground near Brigstock, Northamptonshire. The brooch, which dates from c. 1400- 1450, is believed to have been made in either France or Germany. It’s the only one of its kind to be found in the UK and one of only seven known examples in the world. The brooch is on display in V&A’s William and Judith Bollinger Jewellery Gallery (when the museum reopens).

 

This Week in London – Extinction Rebellion at the V&A; and, helping the homeless in the City of London…

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• Objects relating to climate change protest group Extinction Rebellion have gone on display at the V&A. The items, which can be seen in the V&A’s Rapid Response Collecting Gallery, range from the open source ‘Extinction Symbol’ created by street artist ESP in 2011 and adopted by the group, known as XR, in 2018 through to the first ‘Declaration of Rebellion’ pamphlet and flags carried during demonstrations. The objects – which also include a child’s high-vis jacket worn during a peaceful XR protest which has gone on display at the V&A Museum of Childhood in Bethnal Green – were given by the Extinction Rebellion Arts Group, a coalition of graphic designers, artists and activists responsible for XR’s design programme. The exhibition is free. For more, see www.vam.ac.uk. PICTURE: © V&A London

• The City of London has launched an alternative giving campaign aimed at helping the City’s homeless and rough sleepers, establishing four contactless card points where people can donate £3 a time. The contactless devices, which donate the money to homelessness charity Beam, are located at the City of London Information Centre in St Paul’s Churchyard, the Barbican Library, the Tower Bridge’s engine room and the Guildhall West Wing reception window. The campaign will run for three months.

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This Week in London – Beyond the ‘Great Wave’; Balenciaga’s fashions; British women cartoonists; and, The Royal Parks’ touring snail…

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• The later years of the life of Japan’s greatest artist, Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849), is the subject of a new exhibition at the British Museum. Hokusai: beyond the Great Wave features his iconic print, The Great Wave (c1831), along with works he created during the last 30 years of his life until his death at the age of 90. Around 110 works – major paintings, drawings, woodblock prints and illustrated books depicting everything from iconic land and seascapes, to deities, mythological creatures, flora and fauna, and beautiful women – will be on display with about half the artworks changed over midway through the exhibition due to conservation reasons. Alongside The Great Wave, other key works, which come from the British Museum’s own collection as well as loans from Japan, Europe and the US, include Hokusai’s print series, Thirty-Six Views of Mt Fuji (published around 1831-33), a depiction of Red Shoki (the demon queller) – borrowed from the Metropolitan Museum in New York, and his brush drawing manual Hokusai manga. The exhibition, which opens today, runs until 13th August in Room 35. Admission charge applies. For more, see www.britishmuseum.org. PICTURE: British Museum

• The fashions of Cristóbal Balenciaga are on show at the V&A in the first ever UK exhibition to explore his work and influence. Marking the centenary of the opening of Balenciaga’s first fashion house in San Sebastian and the 80th anniversary of the opening of his famous Paris house, Balenciaga: Shaping Fashion focuses on the latter part of his career in the 1950s and 1960s, a period during which he dressed some iconic figures and introduced revolutionary shapes such as the ‘baby doll’, the tunic and the sack. More than 100 garments and 20 hats are featured with highlights including ensembles made for Hollywood actress Ava Gardner, dresses and hats belonging to Sixties fashion icon Gloria Guinness and pieces worn by one of the world’s wealthiest women, Mona von Bismarck. Opens on Saturday and runs until 18th February. Admission charge applies. For more, see www.vam.ac.uk/balenciaga.

• British female cartoonists and comic artists are celebrated in an exhibition on now at the Cartoon Museum in Bloomsbury. The Inking Woman features the work of more than 80 artists as it traces the evolution of British women in their role as satirists, humorists and story-tellers. Among them are Mary Darly, 18th century print seller, artist and the author of the first book on the art of caricature, Principles of Caricatura (1762), Marie Duval, an early artist for the 19th century magazine Judy, Sally Arts, Grizela and Kathryn Lamb – cartoonists for mainstream publications like Punch and Private Eye, political and joke cartoonists, strip cartoonists and caricaturists and comic artists and graphic novelists. Runs until 23rd July. Admission charge applies. See www.cartoonmuseum.org.

• An eight foot high snail will be touring The Royal Parks from the end of the month as part of The Royal Park’s Mission: Invertebrate. Funded with £600,000 from the People’s Postcode Lottery, the project aims to inspire people with the “amazing story of nature’s unsung workforce” and help park managers gain better insight into the 4,100 invertebrates species which live in The Royal Parks’ 5,000 acres. The snail, which will be visiting the parks during the half-term break and summer holidays, will bring with it interactive story-telling and a range of free, creative activities. For a full itinerary of the snail’s wanderings, head to www.royalparks.org.uk/be-involved/mission-invertebrate/family-programme.

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LondonLife – Lost Beatrix Potter story found in V&A…

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V&A10A new tale written by Peter Rabbit creator Beatrix Potter will be published last this year following its discovery in the Potter archives at the Victoria & Albert Museum (pictured above).

The Tale of Kitty-In-Boots, which apparently tells the story of a black cat that leads a double life, was found two years ago by Penguin Random House Children’s publisher Jo Hanks. Its publication forms part of the celebrations surrounding the 150th anniversary of Ms Potter’s birth.

The story, which Ms Hanks unearthed in three separate manuscripts in the archive, was sent to Ms Potter’s publisher in 1914 and Ms Hanks told the BBC that Ms Potter had “fully intended” to publish it but, thanks to interruptions including World War I, her marriage and illness, she never went back to it.

Ms Hanks told the BBC that “the tale really is the best of Beatrix Potter”.

“It has double identities, colourful villains and a number of favourite characters from other tales. And, most excitingly, our treasured, mischievous Peter Rabbit makes an appearance – albeit older, slower and portlier!”

Artist Quentin Blake has been asked to illustrate the new book.

The V&A holds the world’s largest collection of Beatrix Potter’s drawings, literary manuscripts, correspondence, photographs and related materials.  For more, see www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/t/beatrix-potter-collections/.

This Week in London – Biggest ever Magna Carta exhibition; 200 years since Waterloo at the NPG; and, Alexander McQueen at the V&A…

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great-seal-king-john-eton-college-british-library-magna-carta-law-liberty-legacy• The largest ever exhibition related to the Magna Carta opens at the British Library in King’s Cross tomorrow to mark the 800th anniversary of the document’s sealing. Magna Carta: Law, Liberty, Legacy features two original Magna Carta manuscripts from 1215 as well as 1215 document, the Articles of the Barons (known as ‘draft’ of the Magna Carta), the Petition of Right (1628), the English Bill of Rights (1689), and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948). It will also display two of the most celebrated documents in American history – the Delaware copy of the Bill of Rights and Thomas Jefferson’s handwritten copy of the Declaration of Independence (both on loan from the US National Archives) –  along with UK cabinet papers from 1941 in which it was proposed an original Magna Carta manuscript from 1215 be given to the US in return for their support in World War II and artefacts including King John’s teeth, thumb bone and fragments of clothing taken from his tomb in 1797 as well as his will. The exhibition tells the story of the Magna Carta from its creation in 1215 through to its later use by people fighting for various rights and freedoms and its continuing impact on the world today. There’s also a series of interviews with politicians, historians and public figures including Burmese activist Aung San Suu Kyi, former US President Bill Clinton and William Hague. Runs until 1st September. Admission charge applies. For more – and a digitised gallery of artifacts – visit www.bl.uk/magna-carta-exhibition. PICTURE: Great Seal of King John, 1203 © Eton College Archives on display in Magna Carta: Law, Liberty, Legacy.

• The first gallery exhibition devoted to the Duke of Wellington opens at the National Portrait Gallery off Trafalgar Square today. Marking the 200th anniversary year of the Battle of Waterloo, Wellington: Triumphs, Politics, and Passions explores Wellington’s political and military career as well as his personal life. Highlights include Goya’s 1812 portrait of Wellington following his entry into Madrid (later modified to recognise further battle honours and awards), and Thomas Lawrence’s famous portrait painted in 1815, the same year as the Battle of Waterloo (the painting, which normally hangs in Apsley House, was used as the basis of the design of the £5 British note from 1971 to 1991). The exhibition of 59 portraits and other works also includes rarely seen works loaned by Wellington’s family include a John Hoppner portrait of the duke as a young soldier and a daguerreotype portrait taken by Antoine Claudet for Wellington’s 75th birthday in 1844. Runs until 7th June. Admission is free. For more, see www.npg.org.uk or for more on the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo, see www.waterloo200.org.

• An exhibition celebrating the works of the late fashion designer Alexander McQueen opens at the V&A in South Kensington on Saturday. Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty presents his works in 10 sections which focus on everything from McQueen’s roots in London, his “skilful subversion of traditional tailoring practices”, his fascination with the animal world and his longstanding interest in Eastern cultures. At the centre of the exhibition is The Cabinet of Curiosities, a display showcasing more than 100 garments and accessories and shown with film footage from his many catwalk presentations. The exhibition runs until 2nd August. Admission charge applies but you’ll have to be quick – the exhibition has already set the record for the most ever advance sales for an exhibition at the museum. For more, see www.vam.ac.uk/savagebeauty.

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This Week in London – Rarely seen Goya at the Courtauld; Wolsey Angels saved; and, A Victorian Obsession…

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He-can-no-longer-at-the• A “ground-breaking” exhibition of works of 18th and 19th century Spanish painter and printmaker Francisco Goya opens to the Courtauld Gallery at Somerset House today. Goya: The Witches and Old Women Album brings together the previously widely scattered pages of one of the artist’s most celebrated private albums in the first exhibition to ever recompile one of them. The album – which features themes of witchcraft, dreams and nightmares and has been reconstructed into its original sequence – is thought to have been made between 1819-23, a period during which Goya completed the murals known as the Black Paintings. Runs until 25th May. Admission charges applies. For more, see www.courtauld.ac.uk/goya. PICTURE: © The Courtauld Gallery (He can no longer at the age of 98, c. 1819-23, J. Paul Getty Museum).

• The ‘Wolsey Angels’ have been “saved for the nation” after a campaign to acquire them by the V&A. The museum has reported that more than £87,000 was raised in a national public appeal – around £33,000 of which was raised via donations and through the purchase of badges at the South Kensington premises – which, along with grants including a £2 million National Heritage Memorial Fund grant and a £500,000 Art Fund grant, will be used to acquire the four bronze angels which were originally designed for the tomb of Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, chief advisor to King Henry VIII. The four bronze angels, which have been in display at the V&A, will now undergo conservation treatment before going back on display. For more on the history of the angels, see our earlier post here. For more information on the V&A, see www.vam.ac.uk.

• Closing Soon – A Victorian Obsession: The Pérez Simón collection at Leighton House Museum. This exhibition at the former Holland Park of Lord Leighton presents more than 50 rarely exhibited paintings by leading Victorian artists including Albert Moore, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Edward Burne-Jones, John Everett Millais, John William Waterhouse, Edward Pointer, John Strudwick and John William Godward as well as six pictures by Leighton himself and the highlight, Lawrence Alma-Tadema’s The Roses of Heliogabalus. Runs until 29th March. Admission charge applies. See www.rbkc.gov.uk/subsites/museums/leightonhousemuseum/avictorianobsession.aspx for more.

This Week in London – ‘Disobedient objects’ at the V&A; war at the Westminster Abbey; and, ‘Stranger Than Fiction’ at the Science Museum…

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• The role of objects as tools of social change will be explored at a new exhibition opening at the V&A on Saturday. Disobedient Objects will feature everything from Chilean folk art textiles that document political violence and a graffiti-writing robot to defaced currency, giant inflatable cobblestones thrown during demonstrations in Barcelona and a video game about the making of mobile phones. Spanning the period from the 1970s to today, it aims to illustrate how political activism has driven creativity with most of the objects on display made by amateurs. Many of the exhibits have been loaned from activist groups around the world. The free exhibition runs at the South Kensington museum until 1st February. For more, see www.vam.ac.uk/disobedientobjects.

• A new exhibition of three large scale works in oil by artist Hughie O’Donoghue has opened in the Westminster Abbey Chapter House. The three works featured in The Measure of All Things exhibition are a reflection on both world wars and influenced by his father’s service in the British Army, his own visits to battlefields and a photo album he found in France depicting a young woman’s holidays in the north of that country in 1903-04. The exhibition, part of the abbey’s efforts to mark the centenary of the start of World War I, is open until 30th November. Admittance with general abbey admission. For more, see www.westminster-abbey.org.

• Reality and fiction come together in a new photographic exhibition which opened at the Science Museum in South Kensington this week. Stranger Than Fiction is the first major UK exhibition by Catalan artist Joan Fontcuberta and is a collaboration between the Science Museum and the National Media Museum in Bradford. The second show to be held in the Science Museum’s Media Space gallery, it features some of Fontcuberta’s best known works including photography, film, dioramas and scientific reports presented through six independent narratives which combine the real and imagined. Runs until 9th November after which it will move to the National Media Museum in Bradford. For more, see www.sciencemuseum.org.uk.

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This Week in London – Virginia Woolf celebrated at NPG; the City of London Festival; and, a new gallery at the V&A…

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• The life of literary icon Virginia Woolf is being celebrated in a new exhibition which opens at the National Portrait Gallery today. Virginia Woolf: Art, Life and Vision explores her life as novelist, intellectual, campaigner and public figure and features more than 100 works including portraits of Woolf by Bloomsbury Group contemporaries like her sister Vanessa Bell, Duncan Grant and Roger Fry as well as photographs by Beresford, Ray Man and Beck and McGregor who photographed the intellectual for Vogue. The display also includes works depicting her friends, family and literary peers and archival materials such as extracts from her personal diaries, books printed by Hogarth Press which she founded with husband Leonard Woolf and letters including one written to her sister shortly before her suicide in 1941. Runs until 26th October. Admission charge applies. For more, see www.npg.org.uk.

• The 52nd City of London Festival enters its final week today with numerous music, dance, spoken word and theatre events – many of them free – still on offer across the City. Events this week include a concert focusing on the history of the instrument known as the recorder and that of the office of Recorder of London (as St Sepulchre with Newgate tonight; tickets required), a showcase of musical talent from the Guildhall School of Music & Drama (at St Stephen Walbrook at 1.05pm next Tuesday; free), and, the Cart Marking Ceremony, in which vehicles process into Guildhall Yard where they are marked with a red hot iron by the Master Carmen and Lord Mayor (next Wednesday at 10.30am, free). For the full program of events, see www.colf.org. This year’s festival also features the placement of “street guitars” at 12 locations across the Square Mile where you can turn up and have a strum – for locations, see www.colf.org/streetguitars.

• A new gallery of items you might find in your own home has opened at the V&A. Gallery 74 now features items collected as a result of the museum’s “rapid response collecting” approach which sees them acquiring new objects relating to contemporary events and movements in architecture and design. Among the objects on display are a soft toy from IKEA, a pair of jeans from Primark (acquired soon after the Rana Plaza factory building in Dhaka, Bangladesh, in which 1129 workers were killed – the factory made clothes for a number of western brands including Primark), and the world’s first 3D printed gun, the Liberator, which was designed by Texas law student Cody Wilson. Entry is free. For more, see www.vam.ac.uk.

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This Week in London – UK’s largest ever exhibition on comics; wedding dresses at the V&A; ‘La Dolce Vita’ at the Estorick; and, architecture and the Italian renaissance…

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Jack-the-Ripper,-Illustrated-Police-News,-1888-(c)-British-Library-Board• The UK’s largest ever exhibition on comics opens at the British Library tomorrow. Comics Unmasked: Art and Anarchy in the UK examines the history of the comic book in the UK – from 19th century illustrated reports of Jack the Ripper to 1970s titles like 2000AD and Action and more recent works – and examines how they have been used to explore confronting subjects like violence, sexuality and drugs. Among the highlights is a specially commissioned work by Tank Girl and Gorillaz co-creator Jamie Hewlett and works by the likes of Neil Gaiman (Sandman), Alan Moore (Watchmen, V for Vendetta), Grant Morrison (Batman: Arkham Asylum) and Posy Simmonds (Tamara Drewe). Admission charge applies (and due to the graphic nature of some exhibits, the Library has issued a parental guidance warning for under 16s). Runs until 19th August. For more, see www.bl.uk/whatson/exhibitions/comics-unmasked/index.html. PICTURE: Jack the Ripper’s victims, Illustrated Police News, 1888 © British Library Board.

• The history of the white wedding dress goes under scrutiny at the V&A with its Wedding Dresses 1775-2014 exhibition opening on Saturday. The display includes more than 80 extravagant outfits from the museum’s collection – they include the Anna Valentine embroidered silk coat worn by The Duchess of Cornwall for the blessing of her marriage to The Prince of Wales in 2005, a purple Vivienne Westwood dress chosen by Dita von Teese for her wedding in 2005 and Dior outfits worn by Gwen Stefani and Gavin Rossdale on their wedding day in 2000. Some of the earliest examples in the chronological display including a silk satin court dress from 1775 and a ‘polonaise’ style brocade gown with straw bergere hat dating from 1780 lent by Chertsey Museum. The exhibition will also explore the growth of the wedding industry and the increasing media focus on wedding fashions. Admission charge applies. Runs until 15th March. For more, see www.vam.ac.uk.

• The golden era of Italian film during the 1950s and 1960s and the birth of celebrity culture – did you know the term paparazzi was coined in the 1960 Federico Fellini film La Dolce Vita? – are the subject of a new exhibition which opened at The Estorick Collection this week. The Years of La Dolce Vita features 80 photographs from the period depicting Italian movie stars and the Hollywood “royalty” like John Wayne, Charlton Heston, Lauren Bacall and Liz Taylor who were working in Italy at the time. Juxtaposed against Marcello Geppetti’s images of this “real-life dolce vita” are behind-the-scenes shots from the set of La Dolce Vita taken by cameraman Arturo Zavattini. Runs until 29th June. Admission charge applies. For more, see www.estorickcollection.com.

• The first British exhibition to explore the role of architecture in the Italian Renaissance opened at the National Gallery this week. Building the Picture: Architecture in Italian Renaissance Painting looks at the works of Italian masters such as Duccio, Botticelli and Crivelli with highlights including Sebastiano del Piombo’s The Judgment of Solomon – on display in London for the first time in 30 years – and Andrea del Verrochio’s The Ruskin Madonna. Five short films also form part of the display. Entry to the exhibition in the Sunley Room is free. Runs until September 21. For more information, see www.nationalgallery.org.uk.

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LondonLife – Celebrate Shakespeare with a cake…

by exploringlondon

Jane-Asher

Time is running out for your entry into Cakespeare – the V&A’s competition to find the best Shakespeare-themed cake as part of the institution’s celebration of the 450th anniversary of William Shakespeare’s birth. The competition, which closes on 4th May, was launched earlier this month with an almost 15 kilogram cake created by Jane Asher Party Cakes (actress Jane Asher and the cake are pictured). A fruitcake, it features the playwright at work with a writing table and feature quill made from icing while a scroll lists the 36 plays in Shakespeare’s First Folio (which is on show in the V&A’s Theatre and Performance Galleries). To enter the competition, design, bake and decorate your cake celebrating Shakespeare and then upload an image of it to social media, tagged #Cakespeare. Oh, and the winner – selected by Asher and Geoff Marsh, director or the V&A’s department of theatre and performance – will receive a weekend for two in Stratford-upon-Avon complete with tickets to see the Royal Shakespeare Company. The V&A’s Shakespeare Festival runs until 4th May. For more, see www.vam.ac.uk. So enjoy your Shakespeare – and your cake…might be a way to take your mind off London’s transport woes! PICTURE: Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

This Week in London – Meet King George I this Easter; celebrating Shakespeare’s 450th; and feasting with St George in Trafalgar Square…

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• Historic Royal Palaces are offering you the chance to meet King George I and explore the world in which he lived at his former real-life home of  Hampton Court Palace this Easter weekend. A re-enactment marking the 300th anniversary of his accession will have the new Hanoverian king arrive by royal barge on the River Thames and will also include courtiers taking part in a “stately dance”, the King’s troupe of Hanoverian horses performing a “horse ballet” and a Georgian Army encampment with soldiers involved in firing displays. Visitors to the palace will also be able to see a new re-presentation of the Queen’s State Apartments which explores who the Hanoverians were, how they came to rule and their many and bitter family feuds. Runs from tomorrow (18th April) to 21st April. Admission charge applies. For more, see www.hrp.org.uk/HamptonCourtPalace/.

• The 450th anniversary of Shakespeare’s birth is being celebrated with a week of events at the Guildhall Library next week. Kicking off on Tuesday, 22nd April, and running until Friday, 25th April, events include talks – with subjects including ‘Shakespeare’s London Theatreland’ and ‘Imaging Shakespeare’s Indoor Theatre’, and a six hour complete reading of Shakespeare’s sonnets with readers including actor Damian Lewis, author Alan Hollinghurst and Lord Mayor of City of London Fiona Woolf as well as Shakespeare-themed walks around the City and Southwark, and the free Shakespeare in Print exhibition at the Library. For more, see www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/things-to-do/visiting-the-city/archives-and-city-history/guildhall-library/Pages/default.aspx. Meanwhile, the V&A is also holding a Shakespeare Festival, kicking off next Monday and running until 4th May. Highlights of the festival include screenings of some of the best theatre productions of Shakespeare in the last 20 years, live performances by actors and musicians and a series of debates and talks including the “interactive lecture” Marchpane to Mutton – A Taste of Shakespeare’s Time by food historian and artists Tasha Marks. There’s also a competition – Cakespeare – in which the public are invited to design, bake and decorate a Shakespeare-themed cake and share an image of it on social media (#Cakespeare) by 4th May with the winner to receive a weekend for two to Stratford-upon-Avon and tickets to the Royal Shakespeare Company. The festival is being complemented by a display in the Theatre and Performance Galleries, Shakespeare: Greatest Living Playwright which features the First Folio as its centrepiece. Admission is free. See www.vam.ac.uk for more.

• It might be two days ahead of the official saint’s day, but the Feast of St George will be celebrated in Trafalgar Square this Bank Holiday Monday with a banquet and guests including a five metre high interactive dragon. The festivities, hosted by Mayor of London Boris Johnson, will also include an English Farmers’ Market featuring 20 stalls, a kid’s marquee and traditional wooden garden games, harlequins on stilts, swing boats and circus lessons for children, a bandstand located in front of Nelson’s Column and a 12 foot tall Maypole. Runs from noon to 6pm. For more, see www.london.gov.uk/feast.

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This Week in London – Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park opens fully this weekend; Shakespeare at the Guildhall Library; and, the V&A celebrates Italian fashion…

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QEOP• The UK’s tallest sculpture, the ArcelorMittal Orbit, will be open to the public in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park – described as the “biggest new park to open in Europe in 150 years” – in London’s east from this weekend. While the northern part of the 560 acre park, the Copper Box Arena, Lee Valley VeloPark and Aquatics Centre have been open to the public since July last year, from Saturday visitors will be able to visit the southern part of the park featuring the 114.5 metre high sculpture. Features in the southern part of the park include a new tree-lined promenade with giant globes, interactive water fountains, an adventure playground and four themed walking trails focusing on the 2012 Games, nature and biodiversity, education, and art and culture. Visitors who head to the top of ArcelorMittal Orbit will be able to view across 20 miles of London from a 76 or 80 metre high platform (admission charges apply – £15 adults/£7 children/£40 for a family of four – and, be warned, you may need to book) while at the base of the sculpture is a cafe and event space. The opening weekend will see a host of special events including a parade of children, an aerial acrobatic performance, choirs, bands, dancers, poets, circus performers and story tellers and ‘try out’ sports and fitness sessions. There’s more yet to come with the Lee Valley Hockey and Tennis Centre opening to the public in June and the Olympic Stadium reopening for the 2015 Rugby World Cup next year. For more on the park, see www.queenelizabetholympicpark.co.uk and for tickets to the ArcelorMittal Orbit, see http://arcelormittalorbit.com.

• The printed works of William Shakespeare are the focus of a new exhibition which opened at the Guildhall Library in the city this week. Shakespeare in Print explores the library’s Shakespearean works and looks at how they were produced. Among the treasures on display will be a First Folio, the first collected edition of his plays, contemporary writers quartos and later editions of the Bard’s plays and poetry. This free exhibition is running until 29th May. The library will be hosting a series of Shakespeare-related events in the week of 22nd to 25th April to mark the 450th anniversary of his birth. For more, head here.

• Italian fashion from 1945 until today is the subject of the V&A’s spring exhibition opening on Saturday. The Glamour of Italian Fashion 1945-2014 will feature 100 ensembles and accessories by leading Italian fashion houses including Dolce & Gabbana, Giorgio Armani, Gucci, Prada, Valentino and Versace as well as creations from the “next generation of talent” including Giambattista Valli and Fausto Puglisi and will also showcase the creativity of less well remembered figures such as Sorelle Fontana and Walter Albini. As well as charting the shifting international perception of Italian style, the display will also highlight techniques and materials used in the creation of Italian fashion with a digital map visualising the industry. Runs until 27th July. Admission charge applies. For more, see www.vam.ac.uk.

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