As we rapidly approach the New Year, Artlyst has compiled a list of the top ten art exhibitions to look out for in 2014. Most are located right here in London and just a tube ride away. Many are free or available for half price with an Art Fund card, which we highly recommend as the savings pays for the yearly membership after a couple of exhibitions.
Martin Creed: What’s the point of it?
A survey of Martin Creed’s playful, thought-provoking art. Over the past two and a half decades British artist Martin Creed has pursued an extraordinary path by confounding the traditional categories of art. Winner of the 2001 Turner Prize, Creed is recognised around the world for his minimalistic approach that strips away the unnecessary, but preserves an abundance of wit, humour and surprise. Crossing all artistic media and including music, his art transforms everyday materials and actions into surprising meditations on existence and the invisible structures that shape our lives. This exhibition will be the first major survey of Martin Creed’s work, spanning its most minimal moments and extravagant room-sized installations. Martin Creed was born in Wakefield in 1968 and currently lives and works in London. This exhibition includes works containing nudity and some adult content. Visitors may be required to queue in order to enter some installations. (see top photo)
Martin Creed What’s the point of it? Hayward Gallery 29 January – 27 April 2014
Marina Abramovic at the Serpentine Gallery
London in June sees the Belgrade born performance artist Follow her major retrospective The Artist is Present at MoMa in 2010, creating a brand new performance for this exhibition. As well as works from throughout her career, re-performed for the first time since their original presentation. Summer 2014 will see Kensington Gardens become a destination for devotees of the ‘pioneer of performance art’ as Marina Abramović takes up residence at the Gallery.
June 2014 Serpentine Gallery London
Henri Matisse: The Cut-Outs
The exhibition re-examines the cut-outs in terms of the methods and materials that Matisse used, and their double lives, first as contingent and mutable in the studio and ultimately as permanent works through mounting and framing. The exhibition highlights the tensions in the works between finish and process; fine art and decoration; contemplation and utility; and drawing and colour. Matisse’s first cut-outs were made between 1943 and 1947 and were collected together in Jazz 1947 (Pompidou, Paris), a book of 20 plates. Copies, published by Teriade and featuring a text hand-written by Matisse, will be shown alongside the original cut-outs. This will be the first time that the Jazz maquettes and the book have been shown together outside of France.
Henri Matisse: The Cut-Outs Tate Modern 17 April – 7 September 2014
Andy Warhol, William S Burroughs and David Lynch: 3 Photographic Exhibitions Photographers Gallery
Three exhibitions highlighting the lesser known work of three important American artists is opening at London’s Photographers Gallery in January. Beat writer William S. Burroughs, Pop art’s best known figure, Andy Warhol and the filmmaker David Lynch all important photographers in their own right. The Photographer’s Gallery, London, has compiled archive material for the exhibitions which run running concurrently.
Andy Warhol, William S Burroughs and David Lynch 17 Jan – 30 Mar 2014 Photographers Gallery London
Mondrian and his Studios
Two of the UK’s most prestigious and popular art galleries, Tate Liverpool and Turner Contemporary, will present major exhibitions exploring the work of the acclaimed Dutch artist, Piet Mondrian (1872-1944). Timed to coincide with the 70th anniversary of his death, both exhibitions will collectively tell the story of one of the most iconic artists of the 20th century and focus the UK’s attention on the pioneer of abstraction.
During his career Mondrian’s artistic style changed significantly with a shift from figurative landscapes to the abstract grid work he is most famous for. Turner Contemporary’s Mondrian and Colour begins the narrative by exploring the early period of the artist’s career from c1885 to c1933, tracing the painter’s use of colour from figuration to early abstraction. Tate Liverpool’s Mondrian and his Studios: Abstraction into the World continues this exploration with a particular focus on the significance of Mondrian’s studios. The exhibition also explores the connection between painting and architecture after his move to Paris in 1911 and on to his time spent in New York via London before his death at the age of 71.
Tate Liverpool 6 June – 5 October 2014 Mondrian and Colour Turner Contemporary: 24 May – 21 September 2014
Richard Hamilton Retrospective
Richard Hamilton (1922-2011) was one of the most influential British artists of the 20th century and is widely regarded as a founding figure of pop art. He is someone who continued to experiment and innovate over a career spanning 60 years. Tate Modern will stage the first retrospective to cover the full scope of Hamilton’s work, from his early exhibition designs of the 1950s to his final paintings of 2011. This new exhibition will explore his relationship to design, painting, photography and television, as well his engagement and collaborations with other artists.
This will be the first Hamilton retrospective to fully reflect the importance of his exhibition designs and installations. The exhibition will include key examples of this practice, including a recreation of his very first installation Growth and Form 1951, and Lobby 1985-7, in which a painting of a hotel lobby in echoed by a column and staircase in the gallery room itself. In collaboration with Tate, two of Hamilton’s other installations, Man, Machine and Motion 1955 and An Exhibit 1957, will be shown at the ICA to coincide with this retrospective. Almost six decades after the artist presented these works at the Institute’s original location in Dover Street, they will be restaged to reflect the artist’s close relationship with the ICA throughout his career.
Richard Hamilton: Tate Modern 13 February – 26 May 2014 – Richard Hamilton at ICA 12 Feb 2014 – 6 Apr 2014
Hannah Höch: Whitechapel Gallery
Hannah Höch was an artistic and cultural pioneer. A member of Berlin’s Dada movement in the 1920s, she was a driving force in the development of 20th century collage. Splicing together images taken from fashion magazines and illustrated journals, she created a humorous and moving commentary on society during a time of tremendous social change. Höch was admired by contemporaries such as George Grosz, Theo van Doesburg and Kurt Schwitters, yet was often overlooked by traditional art history. As the first major exhibition of her work in Britain, the show puts this inspiring figure in the spotlight.
Bringing together over 100 works from major international collections, the exhibition examines Höch’s extraordinary career from the 1910s to the 1970s. Starting with early works influenced by her time working in the fashion industry, it includes key photomontages such as High Finance (1923) which critiques the relationship between bankers and the army at the height of the economic crisis in Europe.
Hannah Höch: Whitechapel Gallery 5 January 2014 – 23 March 2014 Galleries 1, 8 & Victor Petitgas Gallery (Gallery 9)
Anselm Kiefer Retrospective: Royal Academy of Arts
The Royal Academy in London is mounting a major a retrospective exhibition of the artist Anselm Kiefer who has made it his life’s work to confront the dark pre and post-war past of his native Germany, wrestling with its moral inheritances. Massive paintings, artist’s books, drawings, photographs, watercolours, sculptures and installations, will be presented by this 20/21st century giant.
Anselm Kiefer: Royal Academy of Arts, London, 27 September to 14 December
Vikings: life and legend – British Museum
The extraordinary Viking expansion from their Scandinavian homelands during this era created a cultural network with contacts from the Caspian Sea to the North Atlantic, and from the Arctic Circle to the Mediterranean. The Vikings will be viewed in a global context that will highlight the multi-faceted influences arising from extensive cultural contacts. The exhibition will capitalise on new research and thousands of recent discoveries by both archaeologists and metal-detectorists, to set the developments of the Viking Age in context. These new finds have changed our understanding of the nature of Viking identity, trade, magic and belief and the role of the warrior in Viking society. Above all, it was the maritime character of Viking society and their extraordinary shipbuilding skills that were key to their achievements. At the centre of the exhibition will be the surviving timbers of a 37-metre-long Viking warship, the longest ever found and never seen before in the UK.
Vikings: life and legend – British Museum 6 March – 22 June 2014
Giorgio de Chirico Myth and Mystery
This exhibition offers British audiences a splendid opportunity to explore the enigmatic world of Giorgio de Chirico (1888-1978) through rarely-seen sculptures reflecting the artist’s fascination with classical myth and legend. It will also feature a selection of drawings on related themes by the father of pittura metafisica.
Giorgio de Chirico Myth and Mystery Estorick Collection 15 January – 19 April 2014