The clocks have gone forward heralding British Summer Time and the Easter holidays are approaching. So if you are thinking of leaving London for a short break, here is a select list of 10 exhibitions to see around Britain during April (in no particular order).
A Certain Kind of Light: Light in Art Over Six Decades
21 January – 7 May 2017
Towner Gallery, Eastbourne
A Certain Kind of Light explores how artists have responded to light, its materiality, transience and effect. Encompassing paintings, sculpture, video, photography, drawing and immersive installations, it features artworks created from the 1960s to the present day by almost thirty leading artists including David Batchelor, Ceal Floyer, Raphael Hefti, Runa Islam, Anish Kapoor, L S Lowry, Katie Paterson, Peter Sedgley, Rachel Whiteread and Cerith Wyn Evans.
Free admission
http://www.townereastbourne.org.uk/
Victor Pasmore: Towards a New Reality
British Constructivism: The Catherine Petitgas Collection
11 March – 11 June 2017
Pallant House, Chichester
A major study of British artist Victor Pasmore focussing on his radical change of direction to abstraction between 1930-1969 plus a display of British Constructivism including sculptures, reliefs and paintings by artists such as Kenneth Martin, Mary Martin, Anthony Hill and Norman Dilworth.
£10
Bruegel: Defining a Dynasty
11 February – 4 June 2017
The Holburne Museum, Bath
Bringing together 35 works produced by four different generations of the family, this exhibition investigates the development of Breugelian iconography over 150 years.
Paintings by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, his sons Pieter Bruegel the Younger and Jan Bruegel the Elder all feature, as well as those by their direct descendants and artists who married into the family.
£10
Degas to Picasso: Creating Modernism in France
10 February – 7 May 2017
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford
In works by Matisse, Manet, Chagall, Renoir, Degas, Léger and Picasso, this ground-breaking exhibition tells one of the most compelling stories in the history of art – the rise of modernism. With over 100 works from a private collection that has never been seen in Britain before, the exhibition plots a course from Romantic artists such as Ingres, Gericault and Delacroix via the dramatic artistic transformations of Van Gogh and Cézanne, to the radical experiments in Cubism by innovators such as Picasso and Braque.
£11
Idris Khan: A World Within
3 February – 7 May 2017
The New Art Gallery Walsall
The exhibition will bring together significant bodies of work drawing on a range of interests including classical music, the history of art, literature, philosophy and religion.
Free
http://thenewartgallerywalsall.org.uk/
Tony Cragg: A Rare Category of Objects
4 March – 3 September 2017
Yorkshire Sculpture Park
Yorkshire Sculpture Park presents the biggest UK exhibition to date by leading sculptor Tony Cragg in the Underground Gallery and open air. New sculptures, drawings and works drawn from nearly five decades of Cragg’s practice will survey and demonstrate the artist’s pioneering and continued mastery of materials.
Admission free/ parking charges apply
Disobedient Bodies: J W Anderson Curates the Hepworth Wakefield
18 March – 18 June 2017
The Hepworth Wakefield
This major exhibition sees Jonathan Anderson, one of the world’s most innovative contemporary fashion designers, exploring the human form in art, fashion and design. Figurative sculptures by artists including Jean Arp, Louise Bourgeois, Lynn Chadwick, Naum Gabo, Barbara Hepworth, Sarah Lucas, Henry Moore, Magali Reus and Dorothea Tanning are in direct dialogue with fashion pieces by designers such as Christian Dior, Jean Paul Gaultier, Rei Kawakubo of Commes des Garçons, Helmut Lang and Issey Miyake
Free
http://www.hepworthwakefield.org/
Elizabeth Frink: Transformation
19 January – 7 May 2017
Hauser & Wirth Somerset
The exhibition ‘Transformation’ comprises a selection of Frink’s distinctive bronzes produced in the 1950s and 1960s, alongside a series of drawings that highlight the artist’s skill as a draughtsman. Outside in the grounds are some of Frink’s most important sculptures from her later life, including the celebrated Riace Warriors.
Free
Entangled: Threads & Making
28 January – 7 May 2017
Turner Contemporary
A major exhibition of sculpture, installation, tapestry, textiles and jewellery from the early 20th century to the present day. It features over 40 international female artists who expand the possibilities of embroidery, weaving, sewing and wood carving, often incorporating unexpected materials such as plants, clothing, hair and bird quills.
Free
https://www.turnercontemporary.org/
The Arca Project: An Exhibition Inspired by the Work of W.G. Sebald,
1 April – 7 May 2017
Payne Shurvell Suffolk
The Arca Project is an exhibition consisting of 16 visual and 16 textual responses to one single image. Each response has been realised as a limited edition print, developed and made by Invisible Print Studio.
Free