Tate vs Supreme Court
Top court ruled against the gallery in a battle over the privacy of its neighbours
Also in this edition
Ai Weiwei’s hundreds and thousands
Strikes shutter British Museum
Your David Hockney autograph is likely not real
Happy February. And it’s a very happy February for museum lovers like you.
Big exhibitions usually open in seasons — spring and autumn — but this year we are seeing the final month of winter absolutely front loading the big shows.
Any new Grayson Perry exhibition is an event, and today Victoria Miro gallery has opened a display of his textile works from the past eight years. Next week sees the hugely exciting Donatello show at the V&A, and the following week people will flock to Alice Neel at the Barbican. Manchester Museum reopens from a multi-million pound revamp that same week (with an exhibition on mummies no less), and then Lightroom’s massive immersive David Hockney experience will pop-up in Kings Cross in London. Spoilt. For. Choice.
But there’s anticipated exhibitions, and then there’s Vermeer. One week today the hands-down most anticipated exhibition in the world in 2023 will open. This hugely rare show will assemble 28 paintings by the enigmatic Dutch master in one place, in a blockbuster that is likely to never happen again. It’s already sold more advance tickets than any other show in the Rijksmuseum history: 100,000. Most blockbusters in London would kill for that number for the entire run of show.
But, in keeping with this being the month for new shows, some of the Netherlands’ other most anticipated exhibitions of 2023 all seem to open in February too. If you want to find out what they are, I’ve compiled this handy list. And it just so happens that each of my four picks are in four different cities. So it’s the perfect excuse to explore more of this beautiful country.
Now onto the news!
Maxwell
News from the UK
Oh dear. Tate Modern’s viewing platform is a nuisance, the UK Supreme Court has ruled. Since 2016, the museum’s 10th floor has offered panoramic views of the city. But the owners of four luxury flats overlooked by the platform took Tate to court to argue that their privacy was being invaded. (ICYMI: these flats have floor-to-ceiling windows.) This week the top court in the land overturned the ruling of two lower courts to side with the apartment owners. Passing his judgement, Lord Leggatt said the viewing gallery left the residents feeling like they were "being on display in a zoo.” (Again: they have floor-to-ceiling windows). He added it was "not difficult to imagine how oppressive living in such circumstances would feel for any ordinary person." (Once more for those at the back: they have floor-to-ceiling windows).
Where to begin with this? The fact that Tate Modern’s proximity is adding £100ks to the values of the flats (and their owner’s pockets)? The fact that the original developers bent over backwards to support the expansion of the gallery which included plans to create the viewing platform. (“Brush shoulders with some illustrious arty types,” they said to woo buyers). Or how about the fact that other towers in the development have an even closer vantage points of these same flats, yet they’re not being taken to court? Instead a publicly funded charity and its asset enjoyed by the mere general public is. And those floor-to-ceiling windows? Is it just how it is now that your millions can buy you the luxury of being able to watch and literally look down on everything around you in your luxury tower block, but god forbid a rare moment where poorer people might get the chance to see through that magical material that is glass.
Perhaps the most bang-your-head-against-a-brick-wall aspect of it all is that every developer who wants to (literally) throw up another ugly oppressive cash-cow tower that blights London’s skyline plonks a viewing platform on top so it can be waived through planning permission. Because these are seen as valuable additions to the public realm. In these developments — where the only aim is to make obscene amounts of money — this is seen as enough of a benefit as to negate all the negative impacts of these horrible buildings. The court in this case drew a distinction between the impact of the Tate's viewing deck and a hypothetical block of flats that could have been built on the same site, which would be classed as "normal" land usage. So multi-million pound flats: good; museums: bad. Is that what London has become? At least Tate’s viewing gallery is on top of a building that is used and is useful.
If the two sides can now not reach an agreement, it will be for a court to consider the options: namely, whether access to the platform should be restricted, whether Tate Modern should pay compensation (I’m sure everyone will be delighted to see taxpayers money going to the owners of £2.5 million apartments), or whether some other proposal from the museum could solve the problem. The i newspaper is reporting that Tate will likely decide it’s easiest just to close it for good. What a great shame.
Oh, and someone should tell the residents of Neo Bankside that if they don’t like being seen by their neighbours, they might want to move sharpish — nine towers of up to 50 storeys are due to dwarf them both when they’re built right next door in the coming years. The first to be constructed has just topped out. And guess what it has on every other floor…
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Hundreds of thousands of Lego blocks, neolithic tools and ancient teapot spouts will be brought to the Design Museum for Ai Weiwei’s first ever design-focussed exhibition. All the pieces have been collected by the celebrated artist over the past 30 years and they’ll be seen in a set of unique site-specific installations that will take over the museum from April. Details of Ai Weiwei: Making Sense were revealed this week, and it promises to shine a light on what we make, and what we value. And they’ll be a massive marble sculpture of a toilet roll.
The British Museum was forced to shut this week as front-of-house staff joined 500,000 other public sector workers in striking in protest over pay. Four of the museums within National Museums Liverpool, and the National War Museum in Edinburgh were also shut due to the strike action. There’s likely to be more disruption at the British Museum later this month as more than hundred workers in security and visitor services teams have announced that they will walk out in the half-term week. The PCS union says its members are campaigning for a 10% pay rise in light of the cost of living crisis.
The National Portrait Gallery has revealed the details of the exhibitions it’ll host when it reopens this summer after it’s multi-million pound revamp — and there’s a hell of a lot of photography. The first exhibition to reopen the gallery will focus on the work of the British photographer Yevonde, a pioneer in the use of colour during the 1930s. In 2024 the gallery plans to hold an exhibition on two more of the most influential female photographers, Francesca Woodman and Julia Margaret Cameron. And unfortunately there’ll be a big show of photographs by Paul McCartney. Don’t all rush at once.
A Tudor treasure has been discovered in ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ find by an amateur metal detectorist. In a Warwickshire field, a Birmingham cafe owner unearthed a spectacular early Tudor pendant and chain bearing the initials of Henry VIII and Katherine of Aragon. It was revealed by the British Museum as they launched the annual reports on what historical treasure has been found in the past couple of years. Nothing of this size and importance from the Renaissance period had been found in Britain for more than 25 years, the museum said.
Another facepalm of the week goes to council contractors in Stoke-On-Trent who accidentally destroyed a brick sculpture of internationally-renowned potter Josiah Wedgwood. Created in the mid-1980s, the work was knocked down as part of road widening works. A council spokesman called it “A significant operational error” but they did “apologise unreservedly.” Council leader Abi Brown sounded a bit more human, and added: "I am devastated that this error has occurred.” It’s hoped the piece can be restored. An investigation has been launched.
News from around the world
With acquisition budgets only shrinking, it’s all too rare that multi-million dollar masterpieces can be acquired by public museums. So it’s a cause for celebration that the Musée d’Orsay has managed to secure the Impressionist masterpiece, Boating Party by 19th-century French artist Gustave Caillebotte. But with an annual acquisition budget of just 3 million euros, it was only made possible thanks to a donation from luxury goods giant LVMH — owners of brands such as Louis Vuitton and Tiffany & Co — who stumped up the 43 million euros (nearly £38.5 million) price tag to acquire it for the French state. It’s already on public display in the Paris museum, and it’ll go on tour in France next year to mark the 150th anniversary of the birth of Impressionism.
An ancient Roman statue of Hercules has been discovered buried in a Rome sewer. The work was unearthed near the Appia Antica or Appian Way, ancient Rome's first highway. It emerged face first as a bulldozer was tearing through old pipes that needed replacing. It appears it was buried there a century ago, and no one quite knows why. Once repaired, the statue is expected to be placed on public display.
It’s been 15 years in the making, but New York City finally has its own Anish Kapoor bean sculpture to rival the artist’s iconic original in Chicago. The large, reflective sculpture was commissioned for a prominent corner in Lower Manhattan back in 2008 but has only now been completed. The yet-to-be-titled work, is 19ft tall at its highest point and is estimated to have cost between $8m and $10m to create. The twist in this case compared to the Windy City’s sister work is that the new Tribeca bean appears wedged beneath the canopy of 56 Leonard, a luxury condominium building better known as the “Jenga Tower.” Expect to see it all over your instagram in the coming days.
And finally
Have you ever spotted David Hockney in a gallery and nabbed an autograph? Well I’m here to tell you might not. Alan Bennett has said he gets mistaken so much for the British artist that if he's ever approached by a fan in an art gallery, he's learned to sign anything they give him by the British artist so as not to disappoint. [h/t to the always excellent Popbitch for this one]
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