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Critic's choice: Top 5 exhibitions
By Nick Hackworth, Evening Standard 22.03.07
Canaletto's view of the City through Westmister Bridge, at Dulwich Picture Gallery
Look here too
The British Museum hosts a display of John White's watercolours, maverick designer Luigi Colani's pieces have a back-to-the-future feel and trinkets by architect James Stuart are on show at the V&A...
A New World: England's First View of America
British Museum, WC1
Though daintily executed, the watercolours of gentleman artist John White have mainly their subject matter to recommend them. In the 1580s, he crossed the Atlantic on some of the first English voyages to the New World, where he set about capturing all that they encountered, from the North Carolina Algonquin Indians to local flora and fauna. Not only do his paintings and sketches preserve our first glimpse of America, but they are also the sole surviving visual record of this particular period of American history. Having been hidden away in the British Museum's vaults for the past 40 years, they're now on show alongside assorted objects from the Elizabethan expeditions. (020 7323 8000). Until 17 June.
Luigi Colani: Translating Nature
Design Museum, SE1
There's something witty and uplifting about the work of this maverick designer. Over the past six decades, he's created biodynamic cars, planes and boats, along with more domestic objects such as chairs, cameras and headphones. There's a back-to-the-future feel to many of his pieces, which combine biomorphic beauty with organic sculptural qualities, borrowing shapes from sharks, for instance, in a quest to evolve ever-more streamlined objects. (0870 833 9955). Until 17 June.
James "Athenian" Stuart
V&A, SW7
This influential architect and designer won his nickname for pioneering Neo-Classicism in England back in the 18th century. As a poor young man, he set off on his first visit to the Continent on foot, later producing a study of Classical Greek architecture that became a well-thumbed source book for fellow architects and designers. Back in England, he found wealthy patrons vying for his services. He embellished townhouses with pillars and decorative ceilings, and filled them with specially designed furniture and metalware. A hoard of some 200 items, including sketchbooks, trinkets and designs for garden monuments, are on show. (020 7942 2000). Until 24 June.
Canaletto in England
Dulwich Picture Gallery, SE1
By the time Canaletto arrived in England in 1746, his luminous paintings had already made themselves at home here, brought back as Venetian souvenirs by so-called Grand Tourists. He was to stay for nine years, installed in a Beak Street studio where he painted scenes from home, as well as turning his attention to his immediate surroundings. London's teeming streets and enormous parks, the Thames and its warehouses, and the suburban villas of the wealthy all appear in this gently revelatory exhibition. (020 8693 5254). Until 15 April.
Face of Fashion
National Portrait Gallery, WC2
Work by a clutch of top fashion photographers from Europe and America comes together in this stylish survey of the form. Corinne Day, well known for her work with pal Kate Moss, favours an anti-glam aesthetic; Steven Klein draws out dark narratives; Paolo Roversi opts for ethereality; and Mario Sorrenti explores passions and fears. (020 7306 0055). Until 28 May.
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