One more thing we can enjoy again. Walking through exhibitions and being inspired by the arts. Here are our favourite shows .
LENBACH HAUS, MUNICH
Group dynamics: the Blue Rider
“The whole body of work we call art knows neither borders nor nations but only humanity”: that is how Kandinsky and Marc put it in their almanac The Blue Rider, which came out in 1912. The credo inspired the Lenbachhaus to put together a new presentation that embeds the Blue Rider artists’ works in the sweeping history of art and culture that the almanac illustrates. For the first time, the exhibition allows visitors to study with their own eyes the interconnections between Bavarian and Russian folk art, Japanese woodcuts, children’s drawings, contemporary music and the works of Balinese, Gabonese, Oceanian, Sri Lankan, Mexican, and Egyptian art reproduced in the almanac. The dialogue between outstanding works and artifacts on loan from other museums and the beloved classics from the Lenbachhaus’ own collection opens up new perspectives on the Blue Rider artists’ high-minded vision.
AZZEDINE ALAIA FOUNDATION, PARIS
Azzedine Alaïa, Peter Lindbergh
Peter Lindbergh and Azzedine Alaïa shared a many things: a love of the colour black, a commitment to simplicity of form and a sensibility defined by a deep love of feminine beauty. “We met in 1979, I believe. Ever since, Azzedine and I are hand in glove,” confided Peter Lindbergh. Azzedine Alaïa was just as affectionate: “We don’t even need to talk. Everything flows.” It was a perfect collaboration: on the one hand, Peter Lindbergh’s sleek portraits, on the other, Azzedine Alaïa’s second-skin garments which were almost like armour. Two femininities that responded to each-other and came together with a poetic realism. The Azzedine Alaïa Foundation today sheds light on their greatest collaborations, giving life to a sublime visual dialogue which merges ultra-sensual design and resolutely cinematic photography.
JACQUEMART – ANDRE MUSEUM, Paris
Signac: colour harmonies
We consider him to be the Master of Landscape. The painter Paul Signac is honoured by a superb retrospective at the Jacquemart-André Museum which shows more than 70 works from the most beautiful private collection of neo-impressionists. A nice way to rediscover his delicate and pointillist brushstroke which truly liberated the work of colour. Take this opportunity to travel in the footsteps of this innovative artist, from Saint-Tropez (his favourite place) to Paris, passing through the wilderness of Brittany.
THE GUGGENHEIM, NEW YORK
Deana Lawson
The first artist working in photography to win the Guggenheim Museum’s Hugo Boss Prize, Deana Lawson, staged and stately evocations of intimate daily life will be celebrated in a solo exhibition in the spring. Lawson has said she conceives her beguiling images as “a mirror of everyday life, but also a projection of what I want to happen. It’s about setting a different standard of values and saying that everyday Black lives, everyday experiences, are beautiful, and powerful and intelligent.”
ROYAL ACADEMY OF ART, LONDON
David Hockney iPad Paintings
In the midst of a pandemic, David Hockney RA captured the unfolding of spring on his iPad, creating 116 new and optimistic works in praise of the natural world.