Art Exhibitions in London at Christmas 2015

As usual I have some suggestions as to art exhibitions to see in London over the Christmas/New Year period.

• Plus the all important details of when the galleries are open and when they are closed.
• Major exhibitions have their titles in bold
• Links to the website for the exhibition is embedded in each title
• Exhibition venues are ordered according to the number of visitors they generated in 2014 according to the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions

Note this is not a complete list of all exhibitions in London during the festive season - but this list should provide most people with something to do. It gave me a few ideas just writing this post!

British Museum

Closed 24, 25 and 26 December and 1 January

• Celts: art and identity Until 31 January 2016 - art and objects produced and influenced by the Celts

National Gallery

Closed 24, 25 and 26 December 2015 and 1 January 2016

• Goya - The Portraits is on display in the Sainsbury Wing of the National Gallery until 10th January 2016. Open daily 10am-6pm - but closed 1 January and 24-26 December. This exhibition tells the story of his development as a portrait painter - for the first time in an exhibition.
• Visions of Paradise: Botticini's Palmieri Altarpiece 4 November 2015 - 28 March 2016

Tate Modern

Closed 24, 25 and 26 December but open on New Year's Day

Triple Gong c.1948 by Alexander Calder (1898 - 1976)
Calder Foundation, New York, NY, USA
Photo credit: Calder Foundation, New York / Art Resource, NY
© ARS, NY and DACS, London 2015

• Alexander Calder: Performing Sculpture Until 3 April 2016 - The American artist Alexander Calder (1898-1976) was apparently responsible for inventing the mobile now used for soothing babies. This exhibition reveals how motion, performance and theatricality underpinned his practice
• The EY Exhibition: The World Goes Pop - Until 24 January 2016 - demonstrates how pop art was not confined to the studios of its most well known exponents

Whaaam! Pop! Kapow! This is pop art, but not as you know it. 

Victoria & Albert Museum

Closed 24, 25 and 26 December

marketing the new galleries at the V&A

• Exhibition - Julia Margaret Cameron (in the Photography Gallery) - until 21 February 2016 - see my Review: Julia Margaret Cameron at the V&A. Plus a a companion exhibition up the road in the Media Space at the Science Museum - Julia Margaret Cameron: Influence and Intimacy which continues until 28th March 2015
• The Fabric of India - until 10 January 2016 - the first major exhibition to explore the dynamic and multifaceted world of handmade textiles from India.
• Bejewelled Treasures: The Al Thani Collection - until 28 March 2016 - explores broad themes of tradition and modernity in Indian jewellery using objects from the private collection of HH Sheikh Hamad bin Abdullah Al Thani
• The Guardian | The best jewellery box in the world: lifting the lid on a priceless collection
• The Telegraph | Imperial splendour - A sparkling new exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum unveils a hoard of rarely seen treasures from India’s Mogul empire
• Galleries recently reopened include:
• Europe 1600-1815 - see my review The new Europe Galleries 1600-1815 at the V&A
• Japan - see my review Refreshed Toshiba Gallery of Japanese Art at the V&A reopens

National Portrait Gallery

Closed Christmas Day.

Gallery view of the Giacometti exhibition

• Giacometti: Pure Presence - until 19 January 2016 - this is an exhibition which seems to have generated a variety of views
• FT | Giacometti: Pure Presence, National Portrait Gallery, London — review by Jackie Wullschlager

This limited show is at best a taster for Tate’s eagerly awaited 2017 retrospective.

• Spectator | Repetitive but compelling: Giacometti at the National Portrait Gallery reviewed by Martin Gayford
• The Guardian | Giacometti: Pure Presence review – the most profound, universal art of the past 75 years by Jonathan Jones
• The Telegraph: Giacometti: Pure Presence, National Portrait Gallery, review 

• Simon Schama’s Face of Britain - until 4 January - you have to move around the whole gallery to see the five new displays of portraits within the collection which comprise this exhibition. See my preview of it Simon Schama's The Face of Britain - and selfies. It didn't grab me. 
• Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2015 - see my post Prizewinners - Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Competition 2015.  I very much liked the fact that the exhibition had a very different look this year.
• Portrait of the Day: Grayson Perry; Map of Days (room 39)  - FREE talk about this artwork on 1 January at 12.30

British Library

Closed 24-28 December and 1 January

• Alice in Wonderland - until 17th April 2016. This exhibition is celebrating 150th anniversary of the publication of 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland' was first published. 

see Lewis Carroll’s original manuscript with hand-drawn illustrations, alongside stunning editions by Mervyn Peake, Ralph Steadman, Leonard Weisgard, Arthur Rackham, Salvador Dali and others. British Library

Kew Gardens - Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art

closed on 24 and 25 December

Tom Putt apple by Rosie Sanders

• Nature's Bounty - until 31 January 2016  - paintings from the Shirley Sherwood Collection focusing on fruit and vegetables from across the world

Tate Britain

Closed 24-26 December

• Artist and Empire - until 10 April 2016 - a major exhibition of art associated with the British Empire from the 16th century to the present day.
• Frank Auerbach - until 13 March 2016 

a British artist who has made some of the most vibrant, alive and inventive paintings of recent times.

Imperial War Museum 

Closed 24, 25, 26 December

• Lee Miller: A Woman’s War Until 24 April 2016 - about the impact of the Second World War on women's lives. Lee Miller's role in documenting the Second World War was only discovered after her death. She was one of the most important female war photographers of the 20th century.

Royal Academy of Arts

Closed 24, 25, and 26 December 2015. Open on 1 January from 12pm - 6pm.

• Jean-Etienne Liotard - until 31 January - the majority of his portraits are in pastels on parchment. 
• You can Download the Jean-Etienne Liotard Exhibition in focus guide
• Read Working in pure pigment: artists’ tips on using pastel by By Harriet Baker
• Academicians in Focus: Bernard Dunstan RA and Diana Armfield RA - Painting From Life – Painting Their Life (Belle Shenkman Room, The Keeper’s House, Royal Academy) - until 24 April 2016 - you can ask to see this exhibition even if you are not a member or Friend of the RA. I'm sure this is one exhibition which will be enjoyed by many of the artists who have exhibited with this married couple over the years in many of the FBA exhibitions at the Mall Galleries

Hampton Court Palace - The Cumberland Art Gallery

Closed 24, 25 and 26 December. Open on 1 January.

• The Cumberland Art Gallery houses a changing display of artworks, principally from the Royal Collection. It includes some stunning paintings.

Courtauld Gallery

Closed 25 and 26 December. Last admission at 3.30pm on 24 December.

• Soaring Flight: Peter Lanyon’s Gliding Paintings - until 17th January 2016 - a major exhibition exploring a series of paintings by Peter Lanyon (1918-1964), one of Britain’s most important and original Post-War artists. He died age 48 after a gliding accident. The general critical consensus is this is an exhibition not to be missed.
• The Guardian: Soaring Flight: Peter Lanyon’s Gliding Paintings review – rhapsodies in blue
• The Telegraph: Peter Lanyon's Gliding Portraits, Courtauld, review: 'spectacular'
• Time Out review

Exhilarating, uplifting, startling in their high originality – Peter Lanyon’s gliding paintings at the Courtauld Gallery are the revelation of the year.

• Bridget Riley: Learning from Seurat – Until 17 January 2016

“An exhibition of pure genius”★★★★★ The Guardian

Dulwich Picture Gallery

Closed 24, 25 and 26 December. Closed 1 January and every Monday. It is also running extended Christmas opening times.

• The Amazing World of M.C. Escher - until 17 January 2016 - Due to the popularity of this exhibition, the gallery are operating a timed entry ticket system. To avoid disappointment please pre-book tickets online.

Saatchi Gallery

Closed 25 and 26 December. Closes 4.30pm on 24th and 1 St January.

• UK/raine: Emerging Artists from the UK and Ukraine - until 3rd January 2015
• Thailand Eye - until 3 January 2016 - The first major showcase of contemporary Thai art in the UK

The Queens Gallery (The Royal Collection)

Closed 25-26 December 2015

• Masters of the Everyday: Dutch Artists in the Age of Vermeer - until 14th February 2016 - 27 masterpieces from the Royal Collection, the exhibition includes works by Gerrit Dou, Gabriel Metsu, Jan Steen and Pieter de Hooch, and Johannes Vermeer's A Lady at the Virginal with a Gentleman, 'The Music Lesson'.

Wallace Collection

Closed 24 - 26 December

• a national museum which displays the wonderful works of art collected in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It also has an excellent restaurant/tea room!