London Exhibitions in 2013

Exhibitions in London in 2013

The second in the series of London in 2013 will give you an insite into what exhibitions are taking place in 2013. As you will see there is a wide choice of exhibitions featuring a large variety of artists and styles. Next Week: London Cultural Events.

Manet: Portraying Life

Royal Academy, 26 Jan – 14 Apr 2013
Including over 50 paintings spanning the career of the enigmatic Edouard Manet (1832-1883), this exhibition examines the relationship between Manet’s portrait painting and his scenes of modern life. Thematic groupings will explore Manet’s world and the landscape of late 19th Century Parisian society through depictions of his family, fellow artists, literary, theatrical and political figures.

Man Ray Portraits

National Portrait Gallery, 7 February – 27 May 2013
Devoted to one of the most innovative and influential artists of his generation, the exhibition will include over 150 vintage prints from Man Ray’s career from 1916-1968. Drawn from private collections and major museums including New York’s The Museum of Modern Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art and special loans from the Man Ray Trust Archive, the majority of the works have not previously been exhibited in the UK.

Extinction: Not the End of the World?

Natural History Museum, 8 February – 8 September 2013
Extinction: Not the End of the World? takes you beyond dodos and dinosaurs to explore the crucial role extinction plays in the evolution of life. The exhibition combines astonishing images, real specimens and interactive installations to bring to life species that disappeared long ago. Exploring the latest scientific findings, it also looks at today’s endangered species and asks whether conservation can save them.

Roy Lichtenstein

Tate Modern, 21 February – 27 May 2013
Roy Lichtenstein at Tate Modern is the first full-scale retrospective of this artist in over twenty years. Co-organised by The Art Institute of Chicago and Tate Modern, it brings together 125 of his most definitive paintings and sculptures and will reassess his enduring legacy. Renowned for his works based on comic strips and advertising imagery, coloured with his signature hand-painted Benday dots, the exhibition showcases key paintings such as Look Mickey 1961 and his monumental Artist’s Studio series of 1973-4.

Barocci: Brilliance and Grace

National Gallery, 27 February – 19 May 2013
Federico Barocci (1535-1612) is celebrated as one of the most talented artists of late 16th-century Italy. Fascinated by the human form, he fused charm and compositional harmony with an unparalleled sensitivity to colour. The exhibition will showcase Barocci’s most spectacular Marchigian altarpieces, including his famous Entombment from Senigallia and Last Supper from Urbino Cathedral – never before seen outside Italy.

Alien Revolution

Royal Observatory Greenwich, March – August 2013
This exhibition explores the idea that the other planets in our Solar System were other Earths, with their own plants, animals and intelligent inhabitants took hold and led people to ask. Within less than a century many people, from scientists to clergymen, believed in an infinite universe awash with intelligent alien life. So began the little-known Alien Revolution, which has been influenced by religion, literature, philosophy, art and film.

Life and death in Pompeii and Herculaneum

British Museum, 28 March – 29 September 2013
This exhibition will be the first ever held on these important cities at the British Museum, and the first such major exhibition in London for almost 40 years. It will bring together over 250 fascinating objects, both recent discoveries and celebrated finds from earlier excavations, many of which have never been seen outside Italy. The exhibition will have a unique focus, looking at the Roman home and the people who lived in these ill-fated cities.

The Portrait in Vienna

National Gallery, 22 May – 24 November 2013
The Portrait in Vienna 1867-1918 is the first exhibition to explore Viennese portraiture during the Austro-Hungarian Empire, showing both the continuity and the rupture between the Biedermeier and imperial traditions of the 19th century and the innovations of avant-garde artists such as Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele, Richard Gerstl and Oskar Kokoschka in the years around 1900.

Visions of the Universe

National Maritime Museum, June – September 2013
Visions of the Universe tells the story of astronomical imaging – from the earliest drawings done by hand to the latest pictures from Hubble and the Mars Curiosity rover. The exhibition brings together some of the best astronomical photographs ever taken and showcases over a hundred captivating images of stars, planets, galaxies and many other celestial highlights.

Lowry and the Painting of Modern Life

Tate Britain, 25 June – 20 October 2013
Lowry and the Painting of Modern Life results from an invitation extended to the distinguished art historians T.J. Clark and Anne M. Wagner to reappraise Lowry for a new, extended audience. Including works by Lowry from Tate collection and significant loans, the exhibition re-assesses his contribution as part of a wider art history, showing how he engaged fruitfully with the French tradition, and argues for his achievement as Britain’s pre-eminent painter of the industrial city.

Vermeer And Music: Love and Leisure in the Dutch Golden Age

National Gallery, 26 June – 8 September 2013
This exhibition explores the concept of music as a pastime of the elite in the northern Netherlands during the 17th century. The display will combine for the first time the National Gallery’s two paintings by Vermeer, Young Woman Standing at a Virginal and Young Woman Seated at a Virginal, and Vermeer’s Guitar Player. The exhibition aims to enhance viewers’ appreciation of these beautiful and evocative paintings by Vermeer and his contemporaries by juxtaposing them with musical instruments and songbooks of the period.

Horrible Histories: Spies and Secret War

Imperial War Museum (IWM), July 2013
In July 2013, IWM London reopens with a major new family exhibition, Horrible Histories: Spies. Based on the popular children’s book series written by Terry Deary, which will be celebrating its 20th anniversary in 2013.Visitors will be immersed into the world of Second World War spy-craft, including codes and cyphers, disguises, camouflage, forgeries and gadgets.

London’s Lost Jewels: The Mystery of the Cheapside Hoard

Museum of London, 18 October 2013 – 27 April 2014
In 2013, the Museum of London will open a major exhibition investigating the secrets of the Cheapside Hoard. This extraordinary cache of 16th and 17th century jewels was discovered in 1912, buried in the City of London, but questions still remain.

Turner & the Sea

National Maritime Museum, November 2013 – April 2014
This major exhibition is the first full-scale examination of Turner’s lifelong preoccupation with the sea. Including iconic works spanning the artist’s whole career – from his transformative Academy paintings of the late 1790s and early 1800s to the unfinished, experimental seascapes he produced towards the end of his life – this show will re-evaluate the compelling appeal of the sea for Turner and his contemporaries.