LONDON, Sept 4 — Summer vacation may be over, but the autumn — with its lower prices and lighter crowds — is the perfect time for a weekend getaway. With this in mind, we’re looking at autumn art happenings in a selection of international cities. In this London edition, a look at highlights in major venues and out-of-doors.
London Design Festival
September 16-24, 2017
This annual city-wide festival encompasses events, exhibitions and installations at venues around the city as well as out of doors. Among highlights will be Villa Walala, a “soft-textured building-block castle” going up in Exchange Square, Broadgate, and the immersive coloured light installation “Reflection Room” by Flynn Talbot, one of a number of commissions to be housed at the V&A.
Rachel Whiteread at Tate Britain
September 21, 2017 - January 21, 2018
The first woman to win a Turner Prize — for her life-size cast of the interior of a London home — is the subject of a mid-career retrospective that will showcase her evocative sculptures. Known mostly for her work casting negative spaces, she'll be featured here in three decades of work, including new pieces that have yet to be exhibited.
www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-britain/exhibition/rachel-whiteread
Basquiat: Boom For Real, Barbican Art Gallery
September 21, 2017 - January 28, 2018
In the first large-scale UK show devoted to the work of the pioneering New York artist, more than 100 pieces will be on display. The must-see highlights: a partial reconstruction of the first body of work Basquiat exhibited, made for Diego Cortez’s watershed group show New York/New Wave at PS1 in 1981.
www.barbican.org.uk/artgallery/event-detail.asp?id=20335
Opera: Passion, Power & Politics at the V&A
Opening September 30
The Royal Opera House collaborated on this landmark exhibition told through seven opera premieres in seven European cities over a nearly 400-year span. As an added bonus and a major draw, the exhibitions is the first to be staged in the new museum’s Sainsbury Gallery, part of its new must-see Exhibition Road Quarter.
www.vam.ac.uk/exhibitions/opera
Frieze Week
October 5-8
Two major art fairs together form what is known as Frieze Week, a bustling art week featuring both public and ticketed events. Frieze Masters is devoted to art from the ancient era through to the late 20th century, while Frieze London shines a light on contemporary artists. Through October 8, a free outdoor sculpture display is on view in London’s Regent’s Park, the events’ main venue; during the fair it will be joined by new commissions as part of the Frieze Projects programme.
frieze.com — AFP-Relaxnews
