The exhibition will explore the defining subjects of Moore’s work, including the reclining figure, the iconic mother and child, abstract compositions and seminal drawings of London during the Blitz.
The Henry Moore Foundation is the UK’s largest artist foundation, running a visitor programme at the artist’s former home in Hertfordshire, an exhibition and research programme at the Henry Moore Institute in Leeds, and staging Moore exhibitions all over the world. It awarded over £1.5 million in grants in 2008-9. Visit www.henry-moore.org.

Tate Britain, Linbury Galleries
Open daily 10.00 – 17.50, and until 22.00 on the first Friday of every month for Late at Tate
For tickets visit www.tate.org.uk/tickets or call 020 7887 8888

Van Gogh painted himself

The Royal Academy of Arts in London presents from January 23  2010 a major exhibition on Vincent van Gogh. It is the largest exhibition on the Dutch painter in Great Britain since 1968, reported the English art establishment Friday.
The Royal Academy of Arts shows ‘The real Van Gogh: the artist and his characters’ 65 paintings, thirty drawings and 35 letters of Van Gogh. Most of these letters the artist wrote to his brother Theo. The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam offers from October 9 2009 an exhibition devoted to the letters, at the end of fifteen years research into the correspondence of the painter.

Turner self portrait

Turner and the Masters in the Tate Museum in London will present a selection of magnificent paintings by JMW Turner (1775-1851) alongside related works by the old masters and contemporaries he hoped to imitate, rival and surpass. Bringing together around one hundred works of supreme historical significance from collections around the world this will be the first exhibition to look at Turner’s work in the company of the greatest painters in the preceding history of western art. It will reveal his debts and rivalries in exciting, even unpredictable, ways, and explore his reputation as one of the greatest painters of landscape in the European tradition.
The exhibition will pair Turner’s works with major paintings by his predecessors, many brought together for the first time, including works by Canaletto, Claude, Cuyp, Poussin, Rembrandt, Rubens, Ruisdael, and van de Velde. There will also be pairings with paintings by Turner’s most important contemporaries such as Constable and Bonington. It will show how Turner’s responses to other artists were both acts of homage and a sophisticated form of art criticism, designed to demonstrate his understanding of great art and his ability to equal and even outshine the most celebrated exponents of the landscape tradition.

The exhibition will include comparisons such as Rembrandt’s Landscape with the Rest on the flight into Egypt 1647 (National Gallery of Ireland) displayed with Turner’s Moonlight, a study at Millbank Exh. 1797 (Tate); Rubens’s Landscape by Moonlight 1635-1640 (Courtauld Institute of Art Gallery) shown with Turner’s Forest of Bere 1809 (Tate); Claude’s Moses saved from the Waters (Prado, Madrid) with Turner’s Crossing the Brook exh.1815 (Tate) Ruisdael’s A Rough Sea at a Jetty 1650s (Kimbell Art Museum) alongside Turner’s Port Ruysdael exh.1827 (Yale Center for British Art, New Haven); and Poussin’s, Landscape with a Roman Road (Dulwich Picture Gallery) paired with Turner’s Chateaux de St Michael, Bonneville, Savoy, exh. 1803 (Yale Center for British Art, New Haven).

Joseph Mallord William Turner is regarded as being among the greatest artists in history, whose work was prolific and varied including drawings, prints, watercolours and oils. Born in London, Turner was the son of a barber of humble means. He entered the Royal Academy Schools in 1789 at the age of 14 before becoming a member of the RA in 1802 and Professor of Perspective in 1807.

A fully illustrated catalogue will accompany the exhibition, published by Tate Publishing. The exhibition will tour to Le Grand Palais, Paris, from 22 February to 23 May 2010, and to the Museo del Prado, Madrid, from 22 June to 19 September 2010.

Turner and the Masters – Tate Britain, Linbury Galleries, 23 September 2009 – 31 January 2010, Admission £12.50 (£10.50 concessions), Open every day 10.00-17.50, and until 22.00 on the first Friday of the month, For information www.tate.org.uk or call 020 7887 8888

The exhibition will cover the period from the 18th century when the great era of the maharajas began to the end of British rule in 1947. It will show the changing role of the maharajas in an historical and social context and look at how their patronage of the arts both in India and Europe resulted in splendid and beautiful commissions designed to enhance royal status and identity.
Many of the objects have never before been seen in the UK. The royal collections of Udaipur and Jodhpur are lending several spectacular paintings and objects. The V&A is reuniting four portraits from the 1930s by Bernard Boutet de Monvel depicting the elegant Maharaja and Maharani of Indore. One pair depicts them in Maratha dress and the other in modern Western dress. They will be shown together on public display for the first time.
Another object on show in the UK for the first time is the Patiala Necklace, part of the largest single commission that Cartier has ever executed. Completed in 1928 and restored in 2002, this piece of ceremonial jewellery originally contained 2,930 diamonds and weighed almost a thousand carats.
The exhibition will begin with a recreation of an Indian royal procession with a life-sized model elephant adorned with animal jewellery, textiles and trappings and surmounted with a silver howdah.
The initial displays will explore ideas of kingship in India and the role of the maharaja as religious leader, military and political ruler and artistic patron. Symbols of kingship will include a gaddi (throne) from Udaipur, elaborate turban jewels, ceremonial swords and a gold ankus (elephant goad) set with diamonds.
A palanquin from Jodhpur used to carry the Maharaja’s wife will provide a rare glimpse into the lives of ladies at the royal court. The interior of the palanquin contains original framed prints and cushions.
The next section of the exhibition will focus on the shifts of power and taste in the 18th and early 19th centuries. The disintegration of the Mughal Empire led to a period of political change in which rival Indian kings laid claim to territory. On display will be the golden throne of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, who united the warring factions of the Punjab into a powerful Sikh state, as well as weapons and armour owned by Tipu Sultan of Mysore and the Maratha ruler Yeshwant Rao Holkar of Indore.
This period also witnessed the rapid expansion of the territorial interests of the English East India Company. This led to a new hybrid Anglo-Indian style which will be seen in objects such as a Spode dinner service and an Egyptian-revival style chair designed for the Nawab of Awadh.
The exhibition will then look at the grand imperial durbars of the Raj through large-scale paintings and rare archive film footage. This section will include a carpet made of pearls, rubies, emeralds and diamonds made for the Maharaja of Baroda and exhibited at the durbar of 1903.
The final section will explore the role of the ‘modern’ maharajas during the Raj and the increasing European influence on their lives. The exhibition will show how they were portrayed in both Indian and European style through portraits of the maharajas and their wives by photographers and artists including Man Ray, Cecil Beaton and Raja Ravi Varma.
The maharajas’ patronage of European firms resulted in luxurious commissions. On display will be saris designed by leading French couture houses, a costume by Madeleine Vionnet, a diamond and emerald necklace designed by Van Cleef & Arpels, a Rolls Royce and a Louis Vuitton travelling case.
The maharajas were also patrons of the emerging European avant-garde. The exhibition will include modernist furniture commissioned by the Maharaja of Indore for his palace in the 1930s and architectural designs for the Umaid Bhawan palace, an Art Deco style residence commissioned by the Maharaja of Jodhpur.
Mark Jones, Director of the V&A, said: “There has never been an exhibition like this before, showing the spectacular treasures of the courts of the maharajas. Many of the objects are leaving India for the first time to come to the V&A. This exhibition will show that India’s rulers were significant patrons of the arts, in India and the West, and will tell the fascinating story of the changing role of the maharaja from the early 18th century to the final days of the Raj.”
Tickets: Ł11 (concessions available). For advance telephone and online bookings (booking fee applies) call 0870 906 3883 or visit www.vam.ac.uk