With new art centres in Asia, plus an inaugural biennial and first-time art and design initiative in the USA, the art world is currently looking both East and West for big news. Meanwhile, the European museums in between continue with business as usual, staging a plethora of exhibitions featuring artists both old and new. [Photo: Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago]
The first of several arts facilities across Asia to launch in 2018 already had its soft opening in January. The Guardian Art Center in Beijing is actually the world’s first-ever custom-built auction house, but located within its public areas are “museum-quality galleries” hosting exhibitions and events. The centre is expected to be fully operational from July.
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Tai Kwun, Hong Kong’s Centre for Heritage and Arts, is slated for a summer opening. Once the refurbishment of the former Central Police Station compound is completed, the complex will house an art gallery, a 200-seat auditorium and outdoor spaces.
Frida Kahlo has been in the news for all the wrong reasons this year. If you think the unique artist should be remembered for her seminal work rather than as a pseudo-feminist Barbie doll, then head to the Hungarian National Gallery in Budapest, where 30 of her works, including early self-portraits, will be on show.
The ongoing World War One commemorations end in 2018, so this round of UK art exhibitions exploring the impact the so-called Great War will be wrapping up the four-year centenary. Tate Britain leads the charge with Aftermath: Art in the Wake of World War One “exploring the impact of World War One on British, German and French art.” The Imperial War Museums (IWM) have launched an entire season under the title Making a New World, including a major exhibition exploring symbols of commemoration, several installations at IWM London and a film created from archival footage by director Peter Jackson. [Tate Britain: Christopher Richard Wynne Nevinson, Ypres After the First Bombardment, 1916. Museums Sheffield ]
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The sea of red poppies seen by an estimated 3.5 million people since it first appeared at the Tower of London to commemorate the start of WW1 in 2014, remains on view in several British locations throughout 2018. 14-18 NOW, the programme that commissioned this and many other works of art “connecting people with the First World War” has also announced a final season featuring everything from performance art and spoken word to music and museum events. [CWGC Plymouth Naval Memorial, Plymouth, 2017. Photo by Matt Keeble/Getty Images]
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For potentially lighter fare, head to the Royal Academy of Art for the 250th anniversary Summer Exhibition. It’s one of the summer highlights of the London art calendar every year, and is referred to as The Great Spectacle for good reason. In addition to showcasing a curated selection of work by contemporary British artists, this year the show will also feature a retrospective.
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The Great Exhibition of the North, an 11-week arts festival designed to highlight the cultural diversity of Northern England, starts with an opening ceremony on the River Tyne in Newcastle. Just down the river, “a series of pavilions and architectural constructions” at the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art explore Northern imagination and identity.
Locally beloved, yet internationally overshadowed by her male collaborator and lover, Gabriele Münter shares the fate of many female artists. The German painter lived and worked with fellow expressionist Wassily Kandinsky in Bavaria for over a decade. Her work can usually be seen in the context of the Blue Rider exhibition in Munich’s Lenbachhaus, where this comprehensive review of her work was first presented, highlighting the artist in her own right. The exhibition is on show until 18 August, 2018 at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Humlebæk, just north of Copenhagen. [Gabriele Münter, Dame im Sessel schreibend, 1929]
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The Triennial of Photography Hamburg doesn’t just showcase the best of contemporary photography, but also aims to provide a platform for discussions on the ethical implications of the medium. This year’s motto BREAKING POINT indicates that the art and craft, along with the world it documents, is at a critical point. Perhaps photography, with its “ability to freeze time and bring focus”, can impact the direction our world will take from here? [Hanns-Jörn Anders, Unruhen In Nordirland, 1969]
The ambitious Art Design Chicago initiative has been celebrating the city’s art and design legacy with more than 25 exhibitions and hundreds of public programmes. In addition to several ongoing events, the Art Institute of Chicago launched Never a Lovely so Real, a photography and film exhibition, in May, while Charles White: A Retrospective starts at the Art Institute of Chicago in June, and the Koehnline Museum presents Sculpting a Chicago Artist: Richard Hunt and his Teachers from July. [Photo: Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago]
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