AGENDA Culture Diary 2023

CULTURE DIARY 2023

From New York to Paris, Cape Town and Bangalore, 2023 is set to be an exhilarating year for lovers of art and culture. Here are the global highlights–and the Relais & Châteaux properties perfectly located to soak them up…

Text Ian Belcher

EUROPE

JOHANNES VERMEER Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands February 10 – June 4, 2023 The largest Vermeer exhibition ever staged–the first exhibition of the 17thcentury Dutch master in the history of the Rijksmuseum–includes works loaned from galleries around the world. Alongside masterpieces such as Girl with a Pearl Earring, The Geographer and Lady Writing a Letter with her Maid, all of which reveal Vermeer’s brilliant use of light, it will display paintings never previously shown to The Netherlands’ public including the newly restored Girl Reading a Letter at the Open Window.

WHERE TO STAY: BIJ JEF, Den Hoorn-Texel, Netherlands LANDGOED HOTEL HET ROODE KOPER, Leuvenum, Netherlands WEESHUIS GOUDA, Gouda, Netherlands EMOP BERLIN Across Berlin, Germany March 2-31, 2023 The 10th edition of the biennial show–Germany’s largest photographic festival–spreads across Berlin and Potsdam’s museums, cultural institutions, galleries, photography schools and project spaces. Some 100-plus exhibitions highlight the work of German and international photographic artists, following a theme of Touch: the desire to establish and maintain connections, with a deeper dive into how photographic works ignite our emotions. The festival kicks off with talks, panel discussions and book presentations, alongside a huge Jubilee exhibition on Berlin’s photography scene.

WHERE TO STAY: BÜLOW PALAIS, Dresden, Germany GUTSHAUS STOLPE, Stolpe Bei Anklam, Germany SCHLOSSHOTEL BURG SCHLITZ, Hohen Demzin, Germany

© VIEW OF HOUSES IN DELFT, JOHANNES VERMEER, C. 1658, GIFT OF H.W.A. DETERDING, LONDON © KULTURPROJEKTE BERLIN, OANA POPA

AFTER IMPRESSIONISM 1880-1914 National Gallery, London, UK March 25 – August 13, 2023 Covering the tumultuous decades before the First World War when artists broke with tradition to create a new style of modern art, embracing Expressionism, Cubism and Abstraction, the National Gallery celebrates the achievements of three giants of the era: Paul Cézanne, Vincent van Gogh and Paul Gauguin. Charting their influence on other French and European artists, the exhibition will display over 100 works by painters from Klimt, Kokoschka and Matisse to Picasso, Mondrian and Kandinsky, alongside several sculptures including pieces by Rodin and Claudel.

WHERE TO STAY: 11 CADOGAN GARDENS, London, UK

© THE SAINSBURY WING STAIRCASE © THE NATIONAL GALLERY, LONDON / © DARIO MUELLER, UNSPLASH NEAPOLITAN SEASON The Louvre, Paris, France June 2023 – January 2024 Thanks to a Franco-Italian alliance between two major museums–both former palaces with inherited royal art collections–the Louvre will display 60 great masterpieces from Naples’s Museo di Capodimonte, including works by Caravaggio, Bellini, Titian, Parmigiano and Masaccio. Instead of a standalone exhibition, the works will be woven into the Louvre’s existing collections in the Grande Galerie, Salle de la Chapelle and Le Pavillon de l’Horloge, where drawings will include signed works by Michelangelo and Raphael.

WHERE TO STAY: HÔTEL SPLENDIDE ROYAL, Paris, France MARQUIS FAUBOURG SAINT-HONORÉ, Paris, France RELAIS CHRISTINE, Paris, France SAINT JAMES PARIS, Paris, France

WHERE TO EAT: LA SCÈNE, Paris, France LE GRAND VÉFOUR, Paris, France LE PRÉ CATELAN, Paris, France LE TAILLEVENT, Paris, France LUCAS CARTON, Paris, France MAISON ROSTANG, Paris, France PIERRE GAGNAIRE, Paris, France RESTAURANT DAVID TOUTAIN, Paris, France RESTAURANT JULES VERNE, Paris, France WHERE TO EAT: BIBENDUM, London, UK

NORTH AMERICA

THE INTERNATIONAL AFRICAN AMERICAN MUSEUM Charleston, South Carolina, USA January 21, 2023 One of the world’s most anticipated museum openings, the striking IAAM– designed by acclaimed architect Henry Cobb–stands on 18 pillars above Gadsden’s Wharf: formerly a prolific slave trading port. Using storytelling, artifacts and exhibitions, the museum’s nine galleries will examine connections across the African diaspora, the spread of African American culture and influence, and the fight for equality. Helped by its Memorial Garden’s art installations and reflection pool, the IAAM aims to honor the untold story of the African American journey.

WHERE TO STAY: PLANTERS INN, Charleston, South Carolina, USA EDWARD HOPPER’S NEW YORK Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City, USA October 2022 – March 2023 New York is the lead actor in the first exhibition to focus on the artist’s symbiotic relationship with the city he called home for six decades–the setting and inspiration for many of his most celebrated pictures. Amplifying the Whitney’s extensive Hopper collection with loans (and letters, photographs and ephemera from a recently acquired archive) it embraces his early sketches and illustrations of New York, and later paintings in which the city forms the backdrop for his evocative take on urban life.

WHERE TO STAY: BEDFORD POST, Bedford, New York, USA GLENMERE MANSION, Chester, New York, USA

WHERE TO EAT: DANIEL, New York City, USA ELEVEN MADISON PARK, New York City, USA GABRIEL KREUTHER, New York City, USA JEAN-GEORGES, New York City, USA PER SE, New York City, USA

MORNING SUN, 1952. COLUMBUS MUSEUM OF ART, OHIO: MUSEUM PURCHASE, © ELLIS CREEK / © EDWARD HOPPER,HOWALD FUND. 2022 HEIRS OF JOSEPHINE N. HOPPER/LICENSED BY ARTISTS RIGHTS SOCIETY (ARS), NEW YORK

© STEPHANIE VELDMAN

AFRICA

INVESTEC CAPE TOWN ART FAIR Cape Town International Convention Centre, Cape Town, South Africa February 17-19, 2023 Africa’s largest contemporary art fair draws together curators, collectors, galleries and art lovers. The 10th anniversary exhibition’s cutting-edge contemporary works will explore the notion of time, including the concept of change that comes with the passing of the months and years, for humans and the world we inhabit. With paintings, installations, textiles and sculptures by African artists from across the continent, including South Africa, Angola and Zimbabwe, Morocco, Uganda and Kenya, it also exhibits works from prestigious galleries in Paris, Milan and Barcelona.

WHERE TO STAY: DELAIRE GRAFF LODGES & SPA, Stellenbosch, South Africa ELLERMAN HOUSE, Cape Town, South Africa

OCEANIA

SYDNEY MODERN PROJECT Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia December 3, 2022 Bright, white and washed with dazzling harbor light, the expanded Art Gallery of New South Wales is lauded as Sydney’s most significant cultural development since its opera house opened 49 years ago. The $244 million redevelopment by Pritzker Prize-winning architects SANAA, creates a spectacular new gallery alongside the revitalized historic property, doubling the space for the works of Australian artists from the early 1800s to the present-day, including Frederick McCubbin, Margaret Preston and John Bulunbulun, and a distinguished collection of British Victorian paintings.

WHERE TO EAT: TETSUYA’S RESTAURANT, Sydney, Australia

© IMAGE OF THE SYDNEY MODERN PROJECT AS PRODUCED BY KAZUYO SEJIMA + RYUE NISHIZAWA / SANAA © ART GALLERY OF NEW SOUTH WALES, 2021

ASIA

CHINA ACADEMY OF ART GRADUATE WORK EXHIBITION Across Hangzhou, China June 2023 Laced through galleries, museums and campuses in beautiful Hangzhou alongside UNESCO world heritage-listed West Lake, this exhibition displays thousands of works by the renowned academy’s graduates: from exquisite jewelry to traditional paintings and calligraphy, with others exploring the intersection of art and science. As a major influence on modern and contemporary Chinese art, the academy has nurtured many famous artists since opening in 1928 and now hosts 10,000 students across four campuses, including stunning Xiangshan, home to the Kengo Kuma-designed Folk Art Museum.

WHERE TO STAY: CHAPTEL HANGZHOU, Hangzhou, China SEVEN VILLAS, Hangzhou, China

© ADOBE STOCK / © ARTIST’S IMPRESSION OF MAP MUSEUM OF ART & PHOTOGRAPHY BANGALORE THE MUSEUM OF ART & PHOTOGRAPHY Bangalore, India December 11, 2022 Clad in utilitarian steel panels, with its enlarged upper levels redolent of an Indian water tank, this striking museum designed by Soumitro Ghosh, the architect behind several Bangalore landmarks, delivers Indian art and culture to the heart of the community. Displayed over five stories, MAP’s 60,000 works–the core of the collection supplied by its founder, Abhishek Poddar–embrace 10 centuries of sculptures, paintings and photographs alongside textiles, tribal pieces and Bollywood memorabilia, deliberately blurring the boundaries between high art and everyday creativity.

WHERE TO STAY: SHREYAS RETREAT, Bangalore, India