2012's Key Art Shows

2012 is the year that art and culture are being celebrated at the same time as sporting excellence - and that's a great thing. Excellence in the arts is just as much about the highest achievement of human endeavour as it is in sports. Of course, we derive the Olympic tradition from Ancient Greece, just as the classical tradition in the Arts in the West was informed by the humanist aesthetic and technical standards of the arts of Ancient Greece.

Each time I take the train to London I love looking at the development of Anish Kapoor's red spiral 'Orbit' in the Olympic park at Straford, funded in majority by the Mittal Steel company, it nicely forms an homage to both our capital and the London Olympics on the part of London based Indians Kapoor and Lakshmi Mittal. Nicknamed the 'Helter Skelter' the Orbit will be the tallest piece of public art in the UK and will be a wonderful lasting testament to the London Olympics.

February will see a major Picasso exhibition (15 February - 15 July) open at Tate Britain (always my favourite of the two Tate galleries) with more than 150 works by the master artist brought to London from collections world-wide. Interestingly in light of the current Hockney frenzy, works by artists including Hockney and Henry Moore who were inspired by Picasso will also be shown to illustrate how Picasso helped make British art 'Modern'. Further, the show will chart the story of Picasso's lifelong connection and affection for this country. This will be a fantastic show which will sell out rapidly I'm sure so get your tickets soon!

Tate Modern is bringing a retrospective of Damien Hirst's work (4 April - 9 September), with all the usual suspects included such as the bisected cow and calf 'Mother and Child Divided' which won the 1995 Turner Prize. This is interesting in as much as it brings together a career's worth (so far) of work by one of our best-known enfant terrible of the art scene, and will allow students of art to see if they can single out that magical ingredient which has resulted in Hirst becoming one of our highest paid artists today despite getting a mere E at A'Level Art and anecdotally being quite unable to draw. 

I tried to obtain pre-booking tickets to the Hockney show (January 21 - April 9) but all are already sold out! I will definitely go on the chance I can get tickets directly from the booking office on the day however, as the press photos of his new work look fabulous - here's an artist having fun developing his style even after a 50 year career and I can't wait to allow the huge canvasses to overwhelm my senses with the vibrant colour and pattern promised by the press shots.

Lucian Freud portraits will be on show at the National Portrait Gallery (February 9 - May 27). This will feature 100 works on loan from museums worldwide including MOMA New York and the Art Institute of Chicago and some never seen before. Freud, who died in 2011, was one of the most influential artists of his generation, painting friends and lovers with an observational intensity and psychological drama that is rare to see.

Currently, I would highly recommend the White Cube Gallery's Gary Hume show 'The Indifferent Owl' (18 January - 25 February White Cube Hoxton Square and Mason's Yard). Hume is to my mind the best of the Young British Artists who went to Goldsmith's College in the 80s of which Damien Hirst is the most renowned. Hume's beautiful, bold household gloss paintings on aluminium panels have always fascinated me in their glorious simplicity. There are also some charcoal drawings and sculptures.

Lastly, a quick note to let you know that Gallery Violet is returning to Suffolk this year with a Spring Pop-Up of some very exciting new work by artists represented - a number of whom are Suffolk-based, such as Hugo Grenville, Colin Slee and John Barker, but also showing will be work by US artist Andrew Weis who was very well received at the London Affordable Art Fair last year, and a new artist who is already receiving attention from our usual clients, Anthony Giles, who paints glorious seascapes. The show will be at Orwell Park School, Nacton, from 15-23 March. Please see full details at http://www.galleryviolet.com/index.php/about/press-room/gallery-violet-announces-spring-pop-up-2012/

Have a great 2012 in life and art!

Anick

www.galleryviolet.com

www.tate.org.uk

http://whitecube.com/exhibitions/gary_hume_the_indifferent_owl/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-12584721

http://www.royalacademy.org.uk/exhibitions/hockney/

http://www.npg.org.uk/