Diary

Agenda

Sights to behold: a calendar of shows and fairs for the coming months

Words / Philomena Epps

Carrie Mae Weems: The Evidence of Things Not Seen, Württembergischer Kunstverein, Stuttgart

2 April–10 July The title of Carrie Mae Weems’ solo exhibition, The race, cultural identity, sexism, class and power over the Evidence of Things Not Seen, takes its name from the 1985 last three decades. Featuring photographic series, videos book-length essay by James Baldwin. This retrospective is and installations, the show will also feature a new photo the first extensive presentation in Germany of the work of series titled Monuments, a pertinent project that explores the contemporary American artist, who has investigated the colonialist implications of public commemoration.

© Carrie Mae Weems. Courtesy of the artist, Jack Shainman Gallery, New York

Yves Saint Laurent aux Musées, various locations, Paris

Until 15 May

This multi-venue celebration marks the 60th anniversary of Yves Saint Laurent’s first runway show, and highlights how the legendary designer was inspired by artists such as Mondrian, Matisse, Braque, Picasso and Léger. In addition to a detailed, archival presentation at the Musée Yves Saint Laurent about the couturier, a selection of his iconic designs and garments will be staged in dialogue with the permanent collection at the Centre Pompidou (above), Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris, Musée d’Orsay, Musée National Picasso Paris and Musée du Louvre.

© Succession Picasso/DACS, London 2021; © Charles Ray / San Francisco MOMA. Courtesy of the artist and Matthew Marks Gallery A Century of the Artist’s Studio, Whitechapel Gallery, London

Until 5 June After three years of research with a curatorial committee, this survey presentation will mark the final exhibition curated by the Whitechapel Gallery’s outgoing director Iwona Blazwick. With over 100 artworks made by over 80 artists and collectives from across the globe, the show depicts the artist’s studio as the “crucible of creativity”. It’s an exhibition of two halves: the public studio, examining how artists have embraced the studio as an open arena; and the private studio, demonstrating how it can be a refuge or space for political resistance. Expect to see work by Francis Bacon, Vanessa Bell, Andy Warhol, Louise Bourgeois and Pablo Picasso (above), among others.

Charles Ray, Bourse de Commerce & the Pompidou Centre, Paris

Until 6 June & 20 June American sculptor Charles Ray is the subject of two concurrent shows in Paris, one at the Pompidou Centre and the other at the Bourse de Commerce, the former Parisian stock exchange that now houses the private collection of François Pinault. Both exhibitions are driven by Ray’s interest in the human figure, demonstrating a range of scales and sculptural materials including stainless steel, fibreglass, aluminium, concrete and marble. The Pompidou focuses on works from the 1970s until the early 2000s, while the Bourse de Commerce considers his use of human figuration from the 1990s until today (including 2012’s Sleeping Woman, above).

Hito Steyerl: I Will Survive, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam

Until 12 June The Stedelijk Museum will present Hito Steyerl’s most expansive retrospective exhibition in the Netherlands to date. I Will Survive starts with the documentary work Steyerl made in the 1990s, moving on to the immersive videos and multimedia installations she has become internationally known for in the last decade. Over the last 30 years, Steyerl has used her polymathic career as an artist, critic, filmmaker and professor to research, illuminate and query contemporary socio-political issues, often using satire to disrupt the status quo. Recent work (such as 2013’s How Not To Be Seen, above) has critiqued capitalism, nationalism, the digital information age and questioned the status of art and culture.

Barbara Kruger, Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin

29 April–28 August The iconic American conceptual artist Barbara Kruger has designed a new text installation for the exhibition hall at the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin, which will occupy the entire floor of the space. Formerly working as a commercial artist in advertising, in the late 1970s Kruger began co-opting the arresting and bold techniques of graphic design to create large-format posters that explored consumerism, gender and identity politics. The installation is reduced to her trademark colours of black, white and red, creating a powerful contrast with the original Mies van der Rohe architecture. The critical slogans have been deliberately phrased to address political and social issues and current public debate.

Courtesy the artist, Andrew Kreps Gallery NY & Esther Schipper, Berlin. © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn, 2021. Film still © Hito Steyerl; Courtesy of the artist, Friends of the High Line & Sprüth Magers/ Timothy Schenck

© The Estate of Etel Adnan – Courtesy Galerie Lelong & Co

Etel Adnan: Colour as Language, Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam

20 May–4 September

Colour as Language marks the first major retrospective by the Lebanese artist, poet and writer Etel Adnan in the Netherlands. Adnan, who died in 2021 at the age of 96, said that “colours exist for me as entities in themselves, as metaphysical beings.” The exhibition will focus on her nature painting, in which intense, energetic colours and block-like abstract forms are used to convey the landscape, presented alongside a selection of work by Van Gogh. The show will also feature examples of her ‘leporellos’, concertina-folded notebooks of text and images.

In the Black Fantastic, Hayward Gallery, London

30 June–18 September Curated by the British writer and journalist Ekow Eshun, In the Black Fantastic is a group exhibition showing work by contemporary artists from the African diaspora who are engaged with the speculative and the mythic. With painting, photography, video, sculpture and mixed media installations on offer, the artist list includes Wangechi Mutu (a still from whose The End of Eating Everything is pictured), Ellen Gallagher, Hew Locke, Chris Ofili and Kara Walker. Guided by the legacies of Afrofuturism, the show highlights how these artists reimagine ways of depicting both the past and the future, through utilising elements of folklore, myth, science fiction and spirituality.

Documenta Fifteen, Kassel, Germany

18 June–25 September Initiated in 1955, Documenta is contemporary art show that takes place every five years for 100 days in the city of Kassel in Germany. Each has a different artistic director, with this year’s 15th edition overseen by Ruangrupa, a collective of artists and creatives from Jakarta, Indonesia, who have commissioned over 50 artists and collectives to make work, announcing their vision of “a globally oriented, collaborative and interdisciplinary art and culture platform that will remain effective beyond the 100 days”. Johannesburg’s Keleketla! Library, Nairobibased Nest Collective and the Archives of Women’s Struggles in Algeria (above) are among those listed so far.

© Wangechi Mutu. Courtesy the artist and Victoria Miro; Hichem Merouche, courtesy Archives des luttes des femmes en Algérie

Kunstmuseum Den Haag

Mondrian, Fondation Beyeler, Switzerland

5 June–9 October

Celebrating the 150th anniversary of Mondrian’s birth, Riehen’s Fondation Beyeler and Düsseldorf’s K20 have organised a touring exhibition. The retrospective focuses on Mondrian’s impact on the evolution of avant-garde painting, moving from figuration to abstraction in the early 1920s. It will particularly hone in on his earlier practice, which explored motifs of windmills, dunes, land and seascapes, and how that fed into his iconic nonrepresentational work – culminating with Victory Boogie Woogie (above), his last painting before his death in 1944.

Fashioning Masculinities: The Art of Menswear, V&A Museum, London

Until 6 November

Photo: Any Gwatkin

The V&A’s first show to exclusively focus on menswear, this exhibition charts a historical and contemporary impression of how masculinity has been performed through fashion and style. It will be organised along three themes: Undressed will focus on the idealised male body and underwear; Overdressed explores the elite masculine wardrobe, with oversized silhouettes and lavish materials; and Redressed reflects on the history of tailoring and origin of the suit (and its subversions, such as the deconstructed example by Craig Green pictured).

Courtesy Galeria Jaider Esbell de Arte Indígena Contemporânea; Galeria Millan. © Jaider Esbell Estate

Venice Biennale, Italy

23 April–27 November

The delayed 59th edition of the Venice Biennale will finally open this spring. Italian curator Cecilia Alemani states that her shows at the Giardini and Arsenale will focus on “the representation of bodies and their metamorphoses; the relationship between individuals and technologies; the connection between bodies and the earth” including work by late Brazilian artist Jaider Esbell (above). In the national pavilions, look out for Sonia Boyce representing Great Britain, Simone Leigh for the US, Yuki Kihara for New Zealand and Alberta Whittle for Scotland.