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Top 10 events in London
Top 10 events in London - Once a month alongside our regular newsletter we publish what are in our opinion top 10 events in London. Published 17 January.
1 - Damien Hirst - The Complete Spot Paintings 1986–2011 - Included in the exhibition are more than 300 paintings, from the first spot on board that Hirst created in 1986; to the smallest spot painting comprising half a spot and measuring 1 x 1/2 inch (1996); to a monumental work comprising only four spots, each 60 inches in diameter; and up to the most recent spot painting completed in 2011 containing 25,781 spots that are each 1 millimeter in diameter, with no single color ever repeated. Until 18 February. www.gagosian.com
2 - Lygia Pape - Magnetized Space - Lygia Pape (1927–2004) was a leading Brazilian artist whose work brought together formal rigour and daring experimentation. In her own words, she explained her approach: ‘My concern is always invention. I always want to invent a new language that’s different for me and for others, too… I want to discover new things. Because, to me, art is a way of knowing the world... to see how the world is… of getting to know the world’. Until 19 February. www.serpentinegallery.org
3 - OMA/Progress - Founded in 1975 as the Office for Metropolitan Architecture, OMA is one of the most influential global creative practices working today. From their controversial projects to their curiosity about contemporary life, OMA’s global offices generate critical ideas and extraordinary buildings that anticipate our rapidly changing world. OMA/Progress is the first major presentation of OMA’s work in the UK and opens up the west entrance to the Gallery for the first time in the Barbican’s history. Take part in a lively programme of events, talks and masterclasses, browse OMA images, drawings, collages and plans to print on-demand in large format, and enjoy a specially-curated OMA shop. Until 19 February. www.barbican.org.uk
4 - Memory Remains: Francesc Torres - Marking the tenth anniversary of 9/11 these photographs, by Francesc Torres, explore Hangar 17 at JFK Airport which became a storehouse of memories when it was filled with material cleared from the World Trade Center site. Until 26th February 2012. london.iwm.org.uk
5 - Jeremy Deller: Joy in People - A hugely influential artist for much of the past two decades, Turner Prize-winner Jeremy Deller has helped to rewrite the rules of contemporary art in many respects. This mid-career survey – the first in the artist’s career – provides a fresh overview of his multi-faceted work. The exhibition incorporates almost all of his major works to date, including installations, photographs, videos, posters, banners, performance works and sound pieces. From 22 February until 13 May. www.southbankcentre.co.uk
6 - Yayoi Kusama - The nine decades of Yayoi Kusama's life have taken her from rural Japan to the New York art scene to contemporary Tokyo, in a career in which she has continuously innovated and re-invented her style. Well-known for her repeating dot patterns, her art encompasses an astonishing variety of media, including painting, drawing, sculpture, film, performance and immersive installation. It ranges from works on paper featuring intense semi-abstract imagery, to soft sculpture known as "Accumulations", to her "Infinity Net" paintings, made up of carefully repeated arcs of paint built up into large patterns. Since 1977 Kusama has lived voluntarily in a psychiatric institution, and much of her work has been marked with obsessiveness and a desire to escape from psychological trauma. In an attempt to share her experiences, she creates installations that immerse the viewer in her obsessively charged vision of endless dots and nets or infinitely mirrored space. From 9 February until 5 June. www.tate.org.uk/modern
7 - Gillian Wearing - Turner Prize-winning British artist Gillian Wearing’s photographs and films explore the public and private lives of ordinary people. Fascinated by how people present themselves in front of the camera in fly-on-the-wall documentaries and reality TV, she explores ideas of personal identity through often masking her subjects and using theatre’s staging techniques. This major exhibition surveys Wearing’s work from Signs that Say What You Want Them to Say and Not Signs that Say What Someone Else Wants You to Say (1992–3) to her latest videoBully (2010). From 28 March until 17 June. www.whitechapel.org
8 - Picasso and Modern British Art - Picasso remains the twentieth century’s single most important artistic figure, a towering genius who changed the face of modern art. In a major new exhibition at Tate Britain, Picasso and Modern British Art explores his extensive legacy and influence on British art, how this played a role in the acceptance of modern art in Britain, alongside the fascinating story of Picasso’s lifelong connections to and affection for this country. It brings together over 150 spectacular artworks, with over 60 stunning Picassos including sublime paintings from the most remarkable moments in his career, such as Weeping Woman 1937 and The Three Dancers 1925. It offers the rare opportunity to see these celebrated artworks alongside seven of Picasso’s most brilliant British admirers, exploring the huge impact he had on their art: Duncan Grant, Wyndham Lewis, Ben Nicholson, Henry Moore, Francis Bacon, Graham Sutherland and David Hockney. From 15 January until 15 July. www.tate.org.uk
9 - Bauhaus: Art as Life - The biggest Bauhaus exhibition in the UK in over 40 years presents the modern world’s most famous art school. From expressionist beginnings to a pioneering model uniting art and technology the Bauhaus’ utopian vision sought to change society in the aftermath of the First World War. Bauhaus: Art as Life explores the diverse artistic production that made up its turbulent fourteen-year history and delves into the subjects at the heart of the school: art, culture, life, politics and society, and the changing technology of the age. Bauhaus: Art as Life will feature a rich array of painting, sculpture, design, architecture, film, photography, textiles, ceramics, theatre and installation. Exemplar works from such Bauhaus Masters as Josef and Anni Albers, Marianne Brandt, Marcel Breuer, Walter Gropius, Johannes Itten, Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Hannes Meyer, László Moholy-Nagy, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Gunta Stölzl, will be presented alongside works by lesser-known artist Masters and Bauhaus students. From 3 May until 12 August. www.barbican.org.uk
10 - The Flying Dutchman - Last year’s performances of Wagner’s final opera, Parsifal, were hailed as ‘a staging that is as good as any Wagner seen in London in the last 20 years’ (The Guardian). Now ENO presents his earliest masterpiece, The Flying Dutchman, in a new production by Jonathan Kent, formerly at London’s cutting-edge Almeida Theatre and now a successful opera director in demand from Santa Fe to St Petersburg. Edward Gardner, ENO’s Olivier Award-winning Music Director, conducts his first Wagner opera. American bass James Creswell (Timur in 2009’s Turandot) stars as the legendary ship’s captain fated to sail the seas for ever, with Orla Boylan – a ‘radiant’ (Independent on Sunday) Sieglinde in 2004’s The Valkyrie – as Senta, the girl sent to save him. From 28 April until 23 May. www.eno.org
