Vincent Van Gogh

This Week in London – Open House Festival; Van Gogh at The National Gallery; and, the London Design Festival…

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• The doors of buildings right across London’s 33 boroughs open to the public this weekend for the annual Open House Festival. The festival, which runs from the 14th to 22nd September, features a range of building drop-ins and tours, talks, workshops and family-based activities. Among those on offer – a walking tour of “Lost Aldwych”, family organ building workshops at the Union Chapel, and ‘drop-ins’ at everywhere from the Berwick Street Market to Abney Park Cemetery, the English National Ballet and the former “horse hospital” in Russell Square. For more, see https://programme.openhouse.org.uk

Vincent van Gogh, Sunflowers (1888) Oil on canvas, 92.1 × 73 cm © The National Gallery, London (NG3863)

• A major exhibition of the paintings of Vincent van Gogh opens at The National Gallery this Saturday. The gallery’s first ever exhibition of the artist’s work, Van Gogh: Poets and Lovers features more than 50 works and marks not only the 200th anniversary of the gallery but also the centenary of the gallery’s acquisition of Sunflowers (1888) and Van Gogh’s Chair (1888) in 1924. Other works on show include Starry Night (1888), The Poet (1888), The Lover (1888), A Wheatfield with Cypresses (1889) and Long Grass with Butterflies (1890). The display can be seen in Rooms 1 to 8 until 19th January. Admission charge applies. For more, see nationalgallery.org.uk/about-us/ng200-programme.

• The London Design Festival, which features more than 300 events held over nine days, also kicks off this Saturday. There are 11 designated ‘Design Districts’ as part of this year’s festival, each of which reflects the local community and will host a range of events include exhibitions, installations, workshops and talks. Highlights include Turkish designer and artist Melek Zeynep Bulut’s installation Duo in the Painted Hall at Greenwich, a Bankside ‘ghost signs’ walk, a Fitzrovia ‘design trail’, an exhibition in which artists imagine the currency of the future, and Sir Antony Gormley’s three storey high installation, ROOM at The Beaumont Mayfair. The festival runs until 22nd September. For more head to https://londondesignfestival.com.

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This Week in London – National Gallery works transformed into light and sound “experiences”

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• The National Gallery has unveiled a new project which sees some of its most famous works represented as 360 degree light and sound “experiences”. KIMA: Colour in 360, the work of the Analema Group, uses colour data to transforms the works which include Van Gogh’s A Wheatfield, with Cypresses, Monet’s Water-Lilies, Setting Sun. While the first two works can be viewed online, a third – based on van Eyck’s The Arnolfini Portrait – will come later. The work was commissioned by new digital studio National Gallery X (or NGX) and is part of a digital events programme which, on 16th June, will also see the first of a series of one-night immersive events being held in collaboration with London’s media art platform Art in Flux. ‘ART IN FLUX @ NGX’ will present cutting-edge artwork exploring the boundaries between art and technology and feature the work pf pioneering media artists, researchers and academics. To see the first two works and for more about the programme head to www.nationalgallery.org.uk/whats-on/analema-at-ngx. PICTURE: KIMA: Colour Van Gogh © Analema Group. 2020. 

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This Week in London – Van Gogh and Britain; miniature Elizabethan portraits; and, ‘Jews, Money, Myth’…

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At Eternity's Gate• The first exhibition to examine the work of Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh through his relationship with Britain has opened at Tate Britain this week. Van Gogh and Britain includes more than 40 works by the artist including L’Arlésienne (1890), Starry Night on the Rhone (1888), and Sunflowers (1888). The exhibition will also feature later works by Van Gogh including two he painted while in the Saint-Paul asylum – At Eternity’s Gate (1890 – pictured) and Prisoners Exercising (1890). The exhibition shows how Van Gogh, who lived in London between 1873 and 1876 working as a trainee art dealer, responded to works by artists like John Constable and John Everett Millais and his love of British writers like William Shakespeare, Christina Rossetti and, particularly, Charles Dickens (L’Arlésienne features one of Dickens’ favourite books in the foreground). The show runs until 11th August and is being accompanied by a series of talks and other events. Admission charge applies. For more, see www.tate.org.uk. PICTURE: Vincent van Gogh (1853 –1890), ‘Sorrowing old man (‘At Eternity’s Gate’)’ (1890), Collection Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo

• On Now – Elizabethan Treasures: Miniatures by Hilliard and Oliver. This exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery – which is focused on the work of Nicholas Hilliard (1547-1619) and Isaac Oliver (c1565-1617) – is the first major display of Tudor and Jacobean portrait miniatures to be held in the UK for more than 35 years and includes new discoveries as well as portraits on public display for the first time. A large section of the exhibition is devoted to portraits of Queen Elizabeth I as well as King James I, his wife Anne of Denmark and his three children – Henry, Elizabeth and Charles (later King Charles II). There are also miniatures of famous figures like Sir Walter Ralegh, Sir Francis Drake and a little known portrait of Shakespeare’s patron, the Earl of Southampton. Other highlights include a previously unknown portrait by Hilliard of King Henri III of France. Runs until 19th May. Admission charge applies. For more, see www.npg.org.uk.

• A major exhibition exploring the role of money in Jewish life has opened at the Jewish Museum London in Camden Town. Jews, Money, Myth looks at the “ideas, myths and stereotypes” that link money and Jews over two millennia. It features art works such as Rembrandt’s Judas Returning the Thirty Pieces of Silver as well as new commissions by Jeremy Deller and Doug Fishbone along with film, literature and cultural emphemera ranging from board games and cartoons to costumes and figurines. There are a series of related events. For more, see www.jewishmuseum.org.uk.

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LondonLife – Van Gogh-era papers found in his former London home…

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A cache of papers and items found in Vincent Van Gogh’s former south London home – and dating from 1873-74, the period he lodged there – have shed new light on his time in the city. The papers, which include insurance documents, a small pamphlet of prayers and hymns, and scraps of paper painted with watercolour flowers (probably not the work of Van Gogh), were found under the floorboards and between the attic timbers of the house at 87 Hackford Road in Stockwell. They were discovered during a renovation of the early Victorian terraced house in which Van Gogh lived in while working as an assistant for an art dealer in Covent Garden. During the period he stayed at the house, it has been suggested that the Dutch artist fell in love with Eugénie Loyer, the 19-year-old daughter of his landlord (although his love was apparently not reciprocated). He also apparently became devoutly Christian during his time there (perhaps explaining the prayer pamphlet). The home’s current owners Jian Wang, a former professional violinist who originally hails from China, and his wife Alice Childs have reportedly been renovating the property in order to use it as a base for visiting Chinese artists in collaboration with the nearby San Mei Gallery. For more on the house, see www.vangoghhouse.co.uk. A near life-size photograph of the facade of the Hackford Road house forms part of Tate Britain’s upcoming display The EY Exhibition: Van Gogh in Britain which opens later this month (more on that shortly). PICTURE: An English Heritage Blue Plaque adorning the house (Spudgun67 – licensed under CC BY 2.0).

This Week in London – Van Gogh’s Sunflowers reunited; Sir Leslie Constantine’s Blue Plaque; and, the ‘Anatomy of a Suit’…

by exploringlondon

• Two versions of Vincent van Gogh’s iconic Sunflowers have been reunited for the first time in 65 years in London at the National Gallery. The two paintings – one from the National Gallery and the other from the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam – come from a five-painting series the artist created in 1888 while staying in Arles. They were apparently painted while he was waiting for his friend Paul Gaugain to arrive and were to decorate the bedroom Gaugain would stay in as gift to him. The free display in Room 46 of the Trafalgar Square Gallery and will be shown until 27th April. Meanwhile, the gallery is celebrating the donation of another van Gogh – Head of a Peasant Woman, the first early work by the artist to enter its collection. It is one of a series of around 40 portraits of the peasants of the village of Nuenen, in The Netherlands, which were painted in late 1884/early 1885. For more, see www.nationalgallery.org.uk.

• West Indian cricketer and politician Sir Learie Constantine’s former home in Earl’s Court has been commemorated with an English Heritage Blue Plaque. Constantine, who played a significant role in securing the independence of Trinidad and Tobago and as an advocate for black people, was the first person of African descent to sit in the House of Lords. He lived at the property at 101 Lexham Gardens between 1949-1954. For more, see www.english-heritage.org.uk/discover/blue-plaques/.

• On Now: The Anatomy of a Suit. This free display at the Museum of London looks at  the technicalities of making a suit and the city’s influence on menswear globally. Exhibits include a double-breasted pinstripe jacket from about 1965, a morning jacket from about 1927 and a black dress suit from about 1933 – all of which was sourced by curator Timothy Long from markets including Brick Lane, Broadway and Portobello Road. Runs until June. For more, see www.museumoflondon.org.uk.

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