The V&A has announced details for the only major retrospective in Europe of the work of the visionary fashion designer Lee Alexander McQueen. One of the most innovative designers of his generation, McQueen was celebrated for his extraordinary creative talent. He combined a profound grasp of tailoring and eclectic range of influences with a relentless […]
One of the worlds most important industrial archive, the Wedgwood Collection has been saved for the nation after a public appeal raised nearly £3m. The Art Fund will now gift the collection to the V&A who intend to continue to display the ceramics at the current museum located in Barlaston, Staffordshire near Stoke. The collection […]
7 September 2014
It’s another coup for the V&A with this superlative survey of the late, great Horst P. Horst. Not only does the excellent exhibition design and intelligent curation highlight what was great about the first great master of fashion photography, the show ties in with the rest of the V&A collections so well as to encourage […]
12 August 2014
Ornate china tea sets, warped casserole dishes, and smartphone apps are all disobedient objects, according to a new exhibition in the V&A’s Porter Gallery, which spans across the globe from the late 1970s to today. Not in the sense that this motley assortment of items refuse to perform their roles as conduits of hot beverages […]
Tiny Furniture star Laurie Simmons masterpiece, ‘Kaleidoscope House’, a multicoloured translucent structure filled with miniature replicas of Ron Arad, Cindy Sherman and Barbara Kruger furniture and artworks will be one of the features of a new exhibition at the Museum of Childhood. The work is home to the design conscious step-family living in the new […]
The V&A will host the definitive retrospective exhibition of the work of master photographer Horst P. Horst (1906-1999) this autumn. Horst was one of the leading photographers of the 20th century. In his illustrious 60-year career, German-born Horst worked predominantly in Paris and New York and creatively traversed the worlds of photography, art, fashion, design, […]
London’s Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) has announced that it will present Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty in London in spring 2015. This is the same exhibition that was originally mounted at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York in 2011. It became the most popular single exhibition in 2011 and was one of the Museum’s […]
The V&A is to mount a major autumn exhibition that will re-examine the work of John Constable (1776-1837). Constable, one of Britain’s best-loved artists was born in East Bergholt, Suffolk on 11 June 1776, he was the second son of a gentleman farmer and mill owner. Whilst working in the family business he became intimately […]
In her fourth decade as one of America’s most innovative and influential photographers, Laurie Simmons says her current New York show “Kigurumi, Dollers and How We see” examines work that is “finally comfortable in a human scale environment.” Known for her early iconic work photographing miniature inanimate objects, Laurie’s staged domestic scenes, often imbued with […]
Hackney WickED brings a taste of the festival to the V&A. The Hackney WickED Art Festival, in its 7th year, has established itself as one of London’s biggest and certainly most uniquely creative Art events: promoting local culture and providing a platform for local emerging artists to showcase their work alongside more established names. The […]
The V&A have announced plans to release the only known copy of a complete list of ‘Entartete Kunst’ (‘Degenerate Art’) confiscated by the Nazi regime from public institutions in Germany, mostly during 1937 and 38. Entartete Kunst was the title of an exhibition held in Munich in 1937 drawn from the works seized by the […]
A new exhibition will trace the development of the fashionable white wedding dress and its interpretation by leading couturiers and designers, offering a panorama of fashion over the last two centuries. Wedding Dresses 1775-2014 will feature over 80 of the most romantic, glamorous and extravagant wedding outfits from the V&A’s collection. It will include important […]
The Design Fund to Benefit the V&A has enabled the Museum to acquire five contemporary design projects ranging from a series of vessels made of natural polymers to a 3D printed gun. They will all go on display at the V&A for the first time during London Design Festival (14-22 September). Martin Roth, Director of […]
The V&A has announced that it has acquired the archive of the British film and theatre actress Vivien Leigh (1913-1967) in the centenary year of her birth. The archive comprises many never-before-seen records including affectionate letters between Laurence Olivier and Leigh, correspondence from some of the most eminent names in 20th-century history including Winston Churchill, […]
Memory Palace a new exhibition at London’s V&A Museum brings together a new work of fiction by the author Hari Kunzru with 20 original commissions from leading graphic designers, illustrators and typographers to create a multidimensional story. The way we read books is changing. Memory Palace explores how a story might be imagined in a […]
The V&A has commissioned a major site-specific installation over five galleries by leading contemporary artists Michael Elmgreen and Ingar Dragset. Opening in October 2013, Tomorrow will transform the V&A’s former textile galleries into an apartment belonging to a fictional, elderly and disillusioned architect. The installation will feature over 100 objects from the V&A’s collections, which […]
The V&A’s autumn exhibition, Masterpieces of Chinese Painting 700-1900, will be the most ambitious survey of one of the world’s greatest artistic traditions. It will gather together the finest examples of Chinese painting created over a 1200 year period and will show more than 70 works including some of the earliest surviving Chinese paintings as […]
The Bowie exhibition wasn’t the only rock ‘n’ roll event happening at the Victoria & Albert Museum this week. Napalm Death the ‘grindcore’ metal band had a special invitation only gig canceled at the last minute over fears that it could damage the art treasures held in its world famous collection. The concert was built […]
An exhibition displaying around 100 objects from the V&A’s collections looks at the V&A’s engagement with and changing view of art and design from Africa since the earliest days of the Museum in the 1850s to the present. It is the first of a series of displays to highlight the V&A’s significant holdings of art […]
5 November 2012
There are only a handful of museum exhibitions that become events each year and the Hollywood Costume exhibition at the V&A certainly falls into this category. It is one of those unpredictable occurrences, when the public engages and embraces an exhibition, that transcends into a phenomenon. Like a hit film, there are plenty of good […]
I’ll get you my pretty and your little dog too! The original Ruby Slippers worn by Dorothy Gale (Judy Garland) in The Wizard of Oz (1939) are to go on public display in Europe for the first time in history as part of the V&A’s major autumn exhibition, Hollywood Costume. On a generous four week […]
The V&A have announced the dates for the highly anticipated ‘David Bowie Is’ exhibition set to open in March 2013. The museum has been given unprecedented access to the David Bowie Archive to curate the first international retrospective of the extraordinary career of David Bowie – one of the most pioneering and influential performers of […]
The V&A is set to honour the musician David Bowie with an exhibition of his spectacular stage costumes, sometime in the new year. Bowie will help to curate the exhibition with many of the costumes loaned from the mega-star’s personal collection.The show will follow his humble beginnings as a Brixton unknown named David Jones, through […]
London – The iconic white 3-piece suit worn by John Travolta as Tony Manero on the disco dance floor in the classic 1977 film Saturday Night Fever, has been discovered in London after an international search by the Victoria and Albert Museum. It has now been confirmed to go on display as part of Hollywood […]
Light from the Middle East is a New Photography exhibition at both the V&A and the British Museum. It is the first major museum exhibition of contemporary photography from and about the Middle East. It will feature more than 90 works by some of the most exciting artists from the region, spanning North Africa to […]
Eighteen museums and art heritage sites have been awarded Catalyst: Endowments funding to court money from private philanthropic sources. Thirty-four organisations around the country have been awarded Endowment grants of between £500,000 and £5 million in the joint initiative between the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), Arts Council England (ACE) and the Heritage […]
In honour of the new special exhibition opening today, Heatherwick Studio: Designing the Extraordinary, the V&A commissioned a temporary installation surrounding the main entrance of the building. The façade of the Victoria & Albert Museum is well-known throughout the world, but for the period of the Heatherwick exhibition, a bespoke installation graces the main entrance. Dozens […]
‘Tags Not Labels’, a major new exhibition of street art organised by the V&A opens in Belfast today, headlined by Banksy, Miss Tic, James Hewlett, and Shepard Fairey A major new exhibition of street art organised by the Victoria & Albert Museum has opened today at the Belfast’s Ulster Museum. It showcases over 30 street […]
Ai Weiwei: Dropping the Urn (Ceramic Works, 5000 BC – AD 2010) Victoria & Albert Museum A new exhibition which displays work by Beijing artist Ai Weiwei opens at the Victoria & Albert Museum in South Kensington in early October. It examines one of the most prominent artists working in China today and features a […]
Advances in 3D printing techniques put us on the verge of a new industrial revolution. Renowned New York based gallerist and curator Murray Moss’s exhibition of ‘printed’ works wittily reference eight of the museum’s key pieces and spaces. The London Design Festival hosted at the world’s greatest design museum the V&A present an exhibition/ collaboration […]