A GUIDE TO REOPENING MUSEUMS

Museums are gradually reopening their doors to welcome visitors and new exhibitions, here’s a list of museums that are opened/reopening soon.

The Museo Reina Sofía – Madrid, Spain
Open
To a raven and hurricanes that from unknown places bring back smells of humans in love by Petrit Halilaj has opened on the 17th of July and is ongoing until the 28th of February, 2021. To a raven and the hurricanes that from unkown places bring back smells of humans in love is the first exhibition inaugurated by the Museo Reina Sofía since its closure in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which interrupted the montage of the show. The title’s dedication to the raven and the hurricanes speaks to us of the struggle that precedes acceptance. The current crisis has laid bare the weakness of the economic system our world rests upon and the unsustainability of unlimited growth with our backs turned to nature. It has confronted us with our vulnerability and interdependence and has placed care and affection at the core of a common subsistence that cannot be prolonged without taking the rest of the planet’s inhabitants into account. With this nest, Halilaj offers a refuge, and so raises hope for a possible future different to the one apparently awaiting us.

View of the exhibition Petrit Halilaj. To a raven and hurricanes that from unknown places bring back smells of humans in love, Palacio de Cristal, 2020
View of the exhibition Petrit Halilaj. To a raven and hurricanes that from unknown places bring back smells of humans in love, Palacio de Cristal, 2020

Louvre Museum – Paris, France
Open
The Advent of the Artist exhibition in the Petite Galerie has been extended until the 5th of July, 2021. This exhibition takes a close look at the transition from the typically anonymous craftsman of the classical period to the artist of the Renaissance, at times famous to the extent of becoming the hero of novels and legends. It is this long-standing connection between the visual arts and the written word that inspired this edition’s focus on literature. Spread across four rooms, the exhibition features some forty artworks from the Louvre’s eight curatorial departments alongside extracts from literature, with the aim of tracing the emergence and recognition of the artist from Antiquity to the 19th century.

Albrecht Dürer, Portrait de l'artiste tenant un chardon. © Musée du Louvre / Erich Lessing
Albrecht Dürer, Portrait de l’artiste tenant un chardon. © Musée du Louvre / Erich Lessing

Rijksmuseum – Amsterdam
Open
Caravaggio-Bernini. Baroque in Rome has been extended until the 13th of September. A story of immense artistic vigour in Rome and radical renewal in the arts in the approximate period from 1600 to 1640. The exhibition is guided by key terms in the artistic vocabulary of the time, such as wonderment (meraviglia), vivacity (vivezza), motion (moto), jest (scherzo) and horror (terribilità).

Detail: Orazio Borgianni, David en Goliath
Detail: Orazio Borgianni, David en Goliath

Tate Modern – London, United Kingdom
27 July 2020
Aubrey Beardsley exhibition has been extended until the 20th of September. Spanning seven years, this exhibition covers Beardsley’s intense and prolific career as a draughtsman and illustrator, cut short by his untimely death from tuberculosis at the age of 25. Over 200 works are displayed including his celebrated illustrations for Le Morte d’Arthur, Lysistrata and Oscar Wilde’s Salomé. The exhibition also shows artworks that were key inspirations for Beardsley, including a Japanese scroll and watercolours by Edward Burne-Jones and Gustave Moreau.

Aubrey Beardsley The Climax 1893 (published 1907). Stephen Calloway.Aubrey Beardsley The Climax 1893 (published 1907). Stephen Calloway.
Aubrey Beardsley The Climax 1893 (published 1907). Stephen Calloway.Aubrey Beardsley The Climax 1893 (published 1907). Stephen Calloway.

Tate Liverpool – Liverpool, United Kingdom
27 July 2020
Ideas Depot exhibition has been extended until the 27th of September. The exhibition is a new display that has been co-curated with primary school teachers across the city, it includes major works from the Tate collection by artists including Anya Gallaccio, Salvador Dalí and Donald Rodney. This display is a belief that art plays a meaningful part in people’s day-to-day lives and intellectual curiosity. It has developed alongside a joint research project with Edge Hill University’s Faculty of Education, focused on developing a ‘schools in residence’ programme.

Tate St Ives – St Ives, United Kingdom
27 July 2020
Naum Gabo exhibition has been extended until the 27th of September. The exhibition marks the centenary of the Realistic Manifesto 1920, a set of pioneering artistic principles launched in Moscow by Gabo and his brother Antoine Pevsner. The statement declared that authentically modern art should engage with and reflect the modern age. Drawing primarily on the complementary collections of Gabo’s work held at Tate and the Berlinische Galerie in Berlin, Germany, the exhibition focuses on key themes in his work.

Naum Gabo Head No.2 1916, enlarged version 1964. The Work of Naum Gabo © Nina & Graham Williams / Tate. Photo: Kirstin Prisk
Naum Gabo Head No.2 1916, enlarged version 1964. The Work of Naum Gabo © Nina & Graham Williams / Tate. Photo: Kirstin Prisk

Serpentine Gallery – London, United Kingdom
04 August 2020
Cao Fei: Blueprints reopens on the 4th of August. The exhibition brings together new and existing works in an immersive, site-specific installation, expanding the themes of automation, virtuality and technology that Cao Fei continuously draws upon. This project at the Serpentine Galleries is Cao Fei’s first large-scale institutional solo exhibition in the UK and the third time that she has participated in the Galleries’ artistic programme.

Cao Fei, Blueprints (Installation view, Serpentine Gallery, 2020) Photo credit: Gautier Deblonde
Cao Fei, Blueprints (Installation view, Serpentine Gallery, 2020) Photo credit: Gautier Deblonde

V&A | Victoria and Albert Museum – London, United Kingdom
06 August 2020
Kimono: Kyoto to Catwalk will open on the 27th of August. This exhibition will present the kimono as a dynamic and constantly evolving icon of fashion, revealing the sartorial, aesthetic and social significance of the garment from the 1660s to the present day, both in Japan and the rest of the world.

Fashionable brocade patterns of the Imperial Palace, woodblock print, made by Utagawa Kunisada, 1847-1852, Japan. Museum no. Circ.636 to Circ. 638– 1962. © Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
Fashionable brocade patterns of the Imperial Palace, woodblock print, made by Utagawa Kunisada, 1847-1852, Japan. Museum no. Circ.636 to Circ. 638– 1962. © Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

The above descriptions are sourced from the shows’ press releases.

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