Win tickets to Somerset House's 24/7
newsletter 13: January 2020
happy new year! it's great to be back in your inboxes, and i hope you had a stellar start to 2020. it's going to be a fab year for museums (and art, and galleries, and design, and travel, and...) and i can't wait to share it all with you.
there's no interview in this edition, BUT i do have a very exciting replacement: my first competition! i've teamed up with Somerset House to offer a pair of tickets to their 24/7 exhibition, EXCLUSIVELY to my subscribers. see below for more. right, let's begin the new decade...
catch up: news
the Natural History Museum has gone Harry Potty as they announce a major exhibition based on JK Rowling's wizarding world. The Telegraph
the first major exhibition in the UK to explore the history of the Arctic people and their heritage will open at the British Museum in May. Evening Standard
#thatsdarling. the Musée d’Orsay in Paris has hired an instagram artist-in-residence. The Guardian
the Museum of Hangovers wants your best drunk stories. where to start. Metro
a Picasso painting at Tate Modern - worth £20 million - was attacked. The Independent
the Duke and Duchess of Sussex quit the royal family, so Madame Tussauds has quit them. Cosmopolitan
Sir Antony Gormley is making his first UK public sculpture in 5 years to mark 400 years since the Founding Fathers set sail for America. Mail Online
a hush-hush major Damien Hirst retrospective is coming, somewhere in the world, as his giant sculptures appeared in a car park. The Art Newspaper
worthy of a Game of Thrones plot, the murder of Thomas Becket will be marked throughout 2020, including a major exhibition at the British Museum. The Independent
Umiaq and north wind during spring whaling by Kiliii Yuyan. From the British Museum's exhibition Arctic: culture and climate
weigh up: reviews
we're yet to see any big exhibitions opening in 2020, so until then here are some of my favourite reviews for shows which are closing soon.
"the first room is so bland I thought it was the exhibition shop awaiting a delivery. The lighting is bog standard, the sound of water on rocks no more convincing than the leaky tap in the gents". Leonardo: Experience a Masterpiece at the National Gallery - BBC News
"bursting with movement and energy, always remaining in the here and now, Riley’s paintings give their pleasures generously". Bridget Riley at the Hayward Gallery - Guardian
"this year’s Turner prize show demands a lot of your time, a lot of your patience and considerable input of your intellectual energy." The Turner Prize at Turner Contemporary - The Times (£)
"there are phallic images all over the place in Brazilian artist Anna Maria Maiolino’s witty and weird show, but this is no triumph for the male member." Anna Maria Maiolino: Making Love Revolutionary at Whitechapel Gallery - Guardian
luck up:🚨 competition 🚨
my 'listen up' interview series will return in the next newsletter - i have some hugely fascinating museum-lovers in the pipeline so keep your eyes peeled!
in the meantime, i'm really excited to say i've teamed up with Somerset House to offer all my lovely newsletter subscribers the chance to win 2 tickets to their incredible 24/7 exhibition.
the show explores the non-stop nature of modern life, taking visitors on a multi-sensory journey from the cold light of the moon to the fading warmth of sunset through over 50 multi-disciplinary works that provoke and entertain. Find out more.
TO WIN: just click the button below to send me an email with your name (or just hit reply to this email). THAT'S ALL. easy. i'll pick a winner at random from all entries received by 23:59 on Weds 15 January and contact you by email if you're the lucky winner. GOOD LUCK!
Daily tous les jours, I Heard There Was a Secret Chord, 2017 on view at 24/7 at Somerset House (c) Stephen Chung for Somerset House
get up: what's new
2020 is going to be an epic year for museums and galleries - there is SO much good stuff planned that the challenge will be to fit it all in! to help you know which exhibitions you absolutely cannot miss, read my top 5 highlights coming up over the next 12 months.
in the meantime, here's what's coming down the line soon:
Picasso and Paper at the Royal Academy - 300 works on paper by the master: burnt, torn, modeled, and drawn on
Portraying Pregnancy: From Holbein to Social Media at the Foundling Museum - 500 years of representing (or not) the pregnant female form
Tyrannosaurs at the National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh - the daddy of the dinosaurs are put in the spotlight in this major show
Man Ray: The Mysteries of Château du Dé at Gagosian San Francisco - the great man's often overlooked work in film
thanks for reading. it takes time to put this together, so if you enjoy what you see, please consider sharing it with at least one museum-loving friend so even more people can see it. and subscribe below. BIG THANKS