The Victoria and Albert Museum celebrates its 165th anniversary with a rather radical shift in its gallery space: the Exhibition Road Quarter. Opening the V&A up to visitors from the pedestrianised Exhibition Road side of the museum, this marks the V&A’s largest architectural intervention in over 100 years, creating a new public space for London…
Constable and Turner. Two great rivals and the two great masters of Victorian British art are currently enjoying massive exhibitions at the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Tate, respectively. If Turner’s best works are of stormy seas, then Constable’s are images of the English countryside. His masterpieces are of the hills and vales of…
“Make sure you don’t miss this one,” said a Chinese friend who has spent decades studying art both in the East and the West. She was talking about the V&A’s Masterpieces of Chinese Painting 700 – 1900 (until 19 Jan 2014). “It’s like seeing room after roomful of Mona Lisas.” What she didn’t explain was…
What to do when the rain is lashing down on a Sunday? Head over to the V&A Museum where for another five Sundays at 2pm there is a free screening of a play filmed live in performance. These screenings celebrate the 20th anniversary of the National Video Archive of Performance. Remember the Theatre Museum, which…
What is quintessential British design? The Mini, the E-type Jag, the Dyson vacuum cleaner, the Brompton Bike? The post-war Olympics of 1948 were called the Austerity Olympics. Sixty years later, and Britain is once again feeling the pinch. The V&A is hosting a look at British Design 1948 – 2012 between the two Games (until…
London Letter 