Tabish Khan, the @LondonArtCritic, picks his Top 5 Museum Exhibitions to see in London in Late Summer. Check out the previous top 5 if you’re after more shows to visit.
Grayson Perry: Delusions of Grandeur at The Wallace Collection
Grayson Perry isn’t a fan of The Wallace Collection, so when he was invited to exhibit there, he invented an alter ego who loves the collection to curate it. There’s colourful wallpaper, an ornate bed, an armoured helmet and even a gun inspired by the items from the collection displayed alongside it. It’s bold, bonkers and precisely the type of extravagant exhibition you’d expect from Perry. Until 26th October, ticketed.
The Genesis Exhibition: Do Ho Suh: Walk The House at Tate Modern
While you’ve probably seen this multi-coloured passageway all over Instagram, there’s a lot more to it than mere visual spectacle. Each section is a memory of a building that has meant something to the artist, including places he’s lived in, right down to fire extinguishers, sockets and the Samsung label on an air-conditioning unit. It’s about how buildings become living entities in our minds as we associate memories with each of them. Stepping through and past his installations allows us into his mind via his work. Until 26th October, ticketed.
Ancient India: Living Traditions at The British Museum
India was the birthplace of Buddhism, Hinduism and Jainism, and this exhibition looks at how they evolved and influenced each other. It contains striking statues, impressive artworks and tells a great story of the evolution of these three faiths. Even to someone of Indian origin like me, I found lots of interesting artefacts and information that I wasn’t aware of about these three faiths. Until 19th October, ticketed.
Edward Burra at Tate Britain
This exhibition shows the full diversity of Edward Burra’s range, covering his time in the clubs and bars of Paris and New York to the landscapes of Britain, lamenting its destruction in paintings that were ahead of their time. The show gets stronger as his work becomes more surreal and his depictions of Spain and the civil war are the most powerful, including devils, death, torture and a Matador applying the final thrust to a bull. Until 19th October, ticketed.
Millet: Life on the Land at The National Gallery, Room 1
A husband and wife pause their work in the field to say a prayer in golden light. It’s Jean-Francois Millet’s most famous work, on loan from Musee d’Orsay, in this excellent one-room display celebrating his paintings and drawings. He celebrates the ordinary workers in the farm, a radical act even by today’s standards, where portraits of celebrities and wealthy individuals are still everywhere. It’s our chance to soak in his depictions of working men and women, and the superb light in his paintings. Until 19th October, free.
Grayson Perry image courtesy of the trustees of The Wallace Collection. Tate image © Do Ho Suh. Photo © Tate (Jai Monaghan). Ancient India image copyright the trustees of The British Museum. Edward Burra photo: © Tate Photography (Larina Fernandes). Millet image: © Musée d’Orsay, Dist. Grand Palais Rmn / Patrice Schmidt.
