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Critic's choice: Top 5 exhibitions
By Hephzibah Anderson, Evening Standard 26.10.06
David Hockney (right) showing John Moore his painting Peter Getting Out of the Pool in 1967.
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Over 150 David Hockney portraits are on show, an illuminating V&A exhibition peers beyond Italy's lavish Renaissance edifices and Velazquez is revealed to have had a very modern appetite for naturalism....
David Hockney Portraits
National Portrait Gallery, WC2
Made up of over 150 works spanning five decades, this mammoth survey more than confirms David Hockney's status as a national treasure. It's also a reminder of just how daring his early career was.
Back when Pop and Minimalism ruled, he devoted himself to realist painting, creating a solid body of full-figure portraits at once intimate and iconic, glamorous and poetic, and often incorporating openly gay themes.
Mr and Mrs Clark and Percy is among the famous highlights here, but images of Hockney's parents or Andy Warhol are equally striking. Though some of the later work doesn't quite live up to his own exacting standards, it's a bravura show. (020 7306 0055). Until Sun 21 Jan.
At Home in Renaissance Italy
Victoria & Albert Museum, SW7
This illuminating exhibition peers beyond Italy's lavish Renaissance edifices to suggest what the period might have meant to contemporaries wealthy enough to make the most of it. Focusing on the main rooms of an averagely affluent home, it brings together works by the likes Titian and Botticelli, together with an extraordinary selection of artefacts beautiful and sometimes bizarre.
Among the textiles, furniture and crockery are a steel corset, an ear cleaner and assorted gambling games. By repositioning these objects in their original domestic setting, this rich show offers a through-the-keyhole glimpse of Renaissance marriage, childhood and dining. (020 7942 2000). Until Sun 7 Jan.
Velazquez
National Gallery, W1
Born in 1599, the great Spanish artist Diego Rodriguez de Silva y Velazquez had a very modern appetite for naturalism. After becoming Philip IV's court painter in his early 20s, he lived surrounded by glamour and pomp, yet he continued to seek out tragedy and suffering, and his subjects number not only kings and courtiers, but also the crippled and the cripplingly poor.
His quest for physical and psychological realism led him to develop an economical style that would later inspire the Impressionists and Picasso. It's all revealed in this rich, career-spanning exhibition that charts Velazquez's development from his Seville beginnings to his move to Madrid and important trips to Italy, where he studied with the masters.
The National Gallery's own impressive holdings are enhanced by loans from the Museo del Prado, enabling almost half of his surviving paintings to be shown at once. (020 7747 2885). Until Sun 21 Jan.
Power and Taboo: Sacred Objects from the Eastern Pacific
British Museum, WC1
The word taboo made its way into the OED via Captain Cook, who borrowed it from the Polynesians. In English, it means forbidden, but in its original it stands for something far more nuanced, as this intriguing exhibition reveals. British Museum curators have raided their collection of Polynesian artefacts dating back to the 18th and 19th century, before the arrival of missionaries spelt the end of indigenous gods.
Wrapping sacred objects in barkcloth, feathers or coconut fibre was a trusted way of containing their capricious might, resulting in works that are as beautiful as they were once deemed potent. Unsurprisingly, they caught the eyes of modernists like Picasso and Henry Moore, and continue to inspire Polynesian artists today. (020 7323 8181). Until Sun 7 Jan.
Leonardo da Vinci: Experience, Experiment, Design
Victoria & Albert Museum, SW7
Whether dreaming up flying machines or pondering the anatomy of man, Leonardo jotted down his ideas in fluid, complex images, cramming page after page with ink and brownish red chalk. While his body of surviving work is scant, these questing, life-filled sketches - at once scientific and vibrant - confirm his genius.
Accompanying computer animations and large-scale models of his inventions are interesting but unnecessary; the drawings say all there is to say and more. (020 7942 2000). Until Sun 7 Jan.
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Reader views (2)
It is well known that Manet called him 'the painter's painter', and you can see why. Velazquez is a minimalist artist, yet you can sense emotions in his subjects. Much of his work has religious and mythological themes. If you are not aware of Velazquez you should visit this exhibition to meet and understand what Manet meant. Thank you. (10/10)
- Alan Woodstein, Epping UK
Viva Velazquez! Diego Rodriguez de Silva y Velázquez was one of the greatest artists in the world, and if you're in any doubt of his talent you should go to this exhibition. The rich skin tones of his subjects, his pronounced brush strones, and the deep, velevety dark hues of his backgrounds display the most awesome talent. I love Velazquez even if I can't say his name!
- Saffi, Chessington
