Gabrielle ‘Coco’ Chanel: Fashion Manifesto at V&A, South Kensington (downstairs in Sainsbury Gallery)
A real ‘blockbuster’ that has so caught the imagination that it’s already officially sold out until early next year! As a member of the V&A, I knew I could still get in to see the exhibition, so I decided to take the plunge and get there shortly before opening time of 10.00 – having completely forgotten that it was half-term; coming down Exhibition Road my heart sank when I saw the enormous queues waiting for the Science and Natural History Museums. However, although there were queues at both entrances for the V&A, it was more ‘ladies of a certain age’ rather than the hordes of excited schoolchildren with parents on a day out over half-term! Not that we weren’t excited about our visit – both for Chanel or for Diva, which is still on (until April 2024).
The Chanel exhibition starts with some beautiful silk garments that were among the first pieces she created, using knitted/jersey silk that had previously only been used for underwear. They are so delicate and fragile, as are many of the early items.
Chanel had had a very difficult early life but she became one of the wealthiest women of her time, having started as a milliner before moving on to clothes design, and making long-term friends with people who could introduce her to other influential, interesting and useful people. A strong anglophile, she mixed with the English aristocracy – including the Duke of Westminster (with whom she had an affair) – and used titled young ladies as models for at least one of her fashion shows in Grosvenor Square.
The exhibition has stunning examples of her creations throughout her long life and career, and also includes the history of Chanel No.5 and the other fragrances. After WWII (when there were suspicions that she might have collaborated with the Nazis, although there is still much mystery about this – and indeed every other – part of her life) she ‘disappeared’ from the fashion world for a while before returning in triumph with her trademark ladies suits, bags and accessories. There are many stunning examples of these, each room having defined highlights outdoing those of the previous room!
This is an amazing exhibition – well worth a visit (make friends with a member who can take you without having to try and get a ticket through dubious secondary markets/touts!)!
On until Sunday 25/February 2024 but officially sold out!
A very useful, informative aid/addition to the exhibition is the Arena programme shown on BBC2 on 15/September: ‘Coco Chanel Unbuttoned’, which is still available on the iPlayer.
Frans Hals at National Gallery, Trafalgar Square, London WC2
A wonderful exhibition in eight rooms containing some 50 portraits (he only painted portraits and genre works – with no indication that he ever produced sketches or studies, he worked extremely quickly and alla prima, where layers of paint are added to still-wet layers – and the two or three paintings here that contain a still life or landscape were completed with other artists). The curators (and sponsors CSFB) have managed to include loans from galleries throughout Europe and the US, as well as the Royal Collection, Chatsworth, and yes, The Laughing Cavalier has been loaned from The Wallace Collection!
The exhibition is arranged chronologically, covering Hals’s very long life (he died in his 80s in 1666, although very little is actually known about him), and the first room shows incredibly mature portraits, including a loan from Chatsworth that is stunning not only for the lady’s face but also for her costume which looks as if you can touch the fabric and sparkling decorative stitches.
Each room contains commissioned portraits or genre works – imagined types of everyday people that would have been familiar to 17th Century Northern Europeans; and the particular trait common to nearly every one is the cheerfulness of the sitter, whether it is a young musician or an older successful trader, who might have his wife in a nearby ‘pendant’ painting. In this exhibition two of these pendant pairs are reunited for the first time in nearly a century.
Hals’s painting style develops with increasingly loose strokes until in the final room – when he was 80 years old – he has produced probably my favourite painting on show – Portrait of a Young Woman – which has its home in The Ferens Art Gallery in Hull (who knew?!).
Reviews of the exhibition are generally enthusiastic, although somehow there are two from The Guardian, one giving a glowing 5* and the other offering a bored 2*. To be honest, Frans Hals is not one of my favourite artists, although I can certainly admire and appreciate his technical skill and the (very unusual) generally cheerful portrayal of his subjects – the faces are very relatable to, and some of the details of the clothes – brocade, leather, lace etc – really are extraordinary . Having said that, I note that there does seem to be a current trend of trying to group Hals with Rembrandt and Vermeer as the third member of a triumvirate of Dutch Golden Age artists, but I have to say I know whose work I would prefer to see! Nevertheless this exhibition is well worth a visit, if only to cheer oneself up on a rainy, dark winter’s day.
On at the National Gallery until 21/January 2024. Members/Friends go free with no need to book.
RB Kitaj: London to Los Angeles at Piano Nobile, 96 & 129 Portland Road, London W11
I had seen an intriguing preview of this exhibition in The Times, so was pleased to get to W11 to see it, despite the weather being perfectly foul! The retrospective exhibition is being held in the two parts of Piano Nobile’s gallery which are across the road from each other (just next to the much-lamented Julie’s restaurant, one of Notting Hill’s most iconic eateries for decades – RIP).
The first part of this small but wide-ranging exhibition is in No.96 and has some early paintings on the ground floor which piqued my interest, having collage-like compositions in a broad colour palette; however, on going downstairs there are about 8-10 drawings which really took my breath away: small portraits/studies of Francis Bacon and W.H. Auden; two pastel and charcoal drawings of his daughter Dominique: and a haunting self-portrait which will stay with me for some time.
The second part of the exhibition, in No.129, has examples of his work after his self-imposed exile and move to LA.
American-born Kitaj came to London in the late 1950s and studied at the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art, then at the Royal College of Art with, amongst others, David Hockney who remained a lifelong friend (along with Frank Auerbach). And he needed his friends as his first wife Elsi Roessler committed suicide in 1969. He met and married Sandra Fisher – also an artist – in 1983 and it was Sandra who advised him to concentrate on drawing rather than painting. His retrospective exhibition at The Tate in 1994 received some savage reviews from certain critics (notably Andrew Graham-Dixon and the late Brian Sewell), despite the private preview having been well attended and widely praised, and shortly thereafter Sandra died from what was then described as an aneurism, probably exacerbated by the stress of the unexpected reception to the exhibition. Kitaj blamed the critics for her death and soon after left England and moved to LA where he remained for the rest of his life, until, suffering from Parkinson’s, he feared being unable to continue painting and committed suicide just days before his 75th birthday in 2007.
He was obviously a man who thought deeply about everything to do with his art – that Tate exhibition included (unusually for the time) captions that he had provided in which he described his complex and lengthy thought processes in devising and producing the works (and which were derided as pompous and over-ambitious in the scathing reviews); yet the public visitors to the exhibition were intrigued and fascinated by the unusual insight provided.
There are no such insights provided in this latest exhibition but I do think it is worth a visit for anyone visiting or living in Notting Hill with some time to spare. I found the drawings most memorable – I think there are far fewer artists who can draw really well than those who can paint!
The exhibition runs until 26/January 2024 and Polly and Luke at Piano Nobile (https://www.piano-nobile.com) were most informative and helpful. There is also a beautiful catalogue available (at £65, but a unique souvenir!).
Winter Art & Antiques Fair at Olympia London
The last of the annual arts fairs but always worth visiting to see what is being offered in the way of objets d’art, pictures, prints, sculpture, glass, silver, furniture, jewellery, etc etc – especially if you have tickets for Spirit of Christmas, which takes place next door at Olympia.
On until Sunday 5/November
And finally for this set of reviews:
Chelsea Art Society ‘Chelsea A-Z’ at 340 King’s Road, London SW3
The Chelsea Art Society is one of the best art groups around, with work of a very high standard, and they hold exhibitions each year – either in the Old Town Hall or at 340 King’s Road – where it is possible to meet interesting people, buy paintings, sculpture, prints etc at incredibly reasonable prices and support local artists – some very young and promising (and some perhaps not so young!).
Most of the paintings generally feature local sights so, if you’re interested in having something to remind you of this beautiful part of London, you are spoilt for choice!
This show runs from Saturday 4/November to Sunday 12/November between 10.00-18.00 daily (except the last day 10.00-13.00).
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