Art in London - a few shows worth a look this summer

Jake or Dinos Chapman at The White Cube

The 'terrible duo' are back with a huge show that encompasses both White Cube sites- Mason's Yard in Piccadilly as well as Hoxton Square. It's one brother per space. And allegedly each one didn't know what the other was creating. But the two shows fit perfectly together... um, seems a bit hard to swallow that. Like the shows themselves perhaps- if deformed school-children in swastika sweats, homo-erotic larger-than-life Nazi soldiers and Christian statues with bleeding gouged-out eyes are your thing, this show's for you.

I love the Brothers Chapman's work. I have been a fan for a long while. Why? Because they are so irreverent, they mock at serious institutions and as such are hilarious. And damn clever. Plus they seemingly also laugh at themselves, and the art market. As Dinos says about Jake's book which is on sale at the exhibition, "I know Jake cannot paint, I now know he cannot write either". The show is definitely worth a view, but make sure to visit both sites. Interview here with the artists.


Thomas Struth at the Whitechapel

Allegedly one of the most incredible large-format photographers around. This retrospective was flagged as unmissable- for instance Struth shoots the audience and their gaze, how people look at at Michaelangelo's David for instance. I did like this show, but found it slightly underwhelming. Although the scale of the photographs is certainly impressive, they are very cold.

But what did strike a chord with me at the Whitechapel, or rather a thread,  was by chance, we stumbled upon the incredible Fred Sandback installations. He uses yarn and other simple materials, to create spatial environments and sculptures such as Broadway Boogie Woogie, a 3D reference to Mondrian's 1942 paintings of NYC.

Miro at Tate Modern


I was lucky enough to visit this show with a Spanish curator who gave a running commentary of what was going on in Spain throughout Miro's life. This enormous show is exactly the kind the Tate always does really well. It is strange that Reina Sofia has not done a show like this.  It certainly has some jaw-dropping and memory-etching experiences. Particularly unforgettable is the room filled with six larger than life canvases: on one side the triptychs are super powerful in colour - orange, green and red and on the other, softer blue hues.

During his early period, what is interesting is Miro was rather cut off in the countryside in Catalonia, but his style echoed other artists of the same period. Much of the show highlights his proximity to Andre Breton and the Surrealists from 1924 onwards. His creations are almost all set to political backdrops, the fall of Primo de Rivera's dictatorship, the Spanish Civil War and afterwards, Franco in power. Miro famously stayed on in Spain in 'internal exile', and moved to Mallorca, to create much needed culture during this time. Many other Spanish artists stayed on in France. Miro always refused to show in Franco's exhibitions of Spanish art, unlike Picasso and Dali.

The Hope of A Condemned Man, triptych pictured above, was in response to the Franco Government's execution of a Catalan anarchist, Antich in 1974.

Miro did however live to see Franco's death and Spain's transition to democracy. Which must have been stupendous.

He says of the artist's role: "..an artist is someone who, in the midst of others' silence, uses his own voice to say something [...], something that is useful to mankind".

It reminded me of my visit to Los Caidos, the huge shrine built for and by Franco, where he is buried near Madrid.  I had been taken there by a friend without being told what this place was. I had no idea till I saw the small plaque where his body is buried. And then it all sunk in. What a crazy ego!

An important show, definitely worth a look. And despite the Tate Modern crawling with visitors over the summer, we found the paying exhibitions to be fairly quiet.



Taryn Simon at Tate Modern- A Living Man Declared Dead and Other Chapters


This American photographer and anthropologist impressed me by taking unlikely heroes and photographing them together with their families. She'd chosen a myriad of different global subjects: one of Hitler's legal advisors, a female Palestinian high jacker who had many plastic surgery ops to be able to get through security repeatedly; a Kenyan man who had 30 wives. Simon individually photographed each member of each generation of this rather large family. The idea being: we only hear of these (non) 'celebrities' but in reality they have whole families, each person with a story. These stories go on being recreated with each birth. Each generation unfolds, creating a myriad of stories that keep on coming.

I've written about some other shows in London and Paris, here. They include Tracey Emin's show at Hayward, Ai Wei Wei at Lisson and Somerset House and Bharti Kher at Galerie Perrotin, Paris.

Get out there and visit these, this is one of Europe's incredible offerings, its vibrant art scene!

Next to see on my list:

• The Animation Show at Barbican, 
• The Shape of Things to Come (new sculpture) at Saatchi, 
• Curtain Call (interactive installation) by Ron Arad at Roundhouse, 
• The BP Portrait Prize at National Portrait Gallery

...anyone up for joining me?