A selection of ten excellent exhibitions to visit in September while you’re avoiding the Christmas and Halloween decorations that are already going up in the shops.
Shattered glass of Beirut
British Museum, Bloomsbury
Free
Ancient glass vessels, shattered in Beirut’s devastating port explosion have gone on display in London for a few weeks before they are returned to Lebanon.
In the Black Fantastic
Hayward Gallery, Southbank
Adult: £16.50 | Concessions: £13.50 | Under-30s/Lambeth residents: £5
This is the UK’s first major exhibition dedicated to the work of Black artists who use fantastical elements to address racial injustice and explore alternative realities.
Walter Sickert
Tate Britain, Pimlico
Adult: £18 | Concessions: £17 | Children: £5 | Children (under 12): Free
The first major retrospective of Sickert at Tate in over 60 years, this exhibition explores how he had an often radical, distinctive approach to setting and subject matter. From working off detailed sketches to taking inspiration from news photography, these were the tools he used to depict his vision of everyday life.
Hiroshima by Iri Maruki and Toshiko Akamatsu
Daiwa Foundation Japan House, Regent’s Park
Free
The Hiroshima panels have been brought to this country by Artists for Peace, a grouping of artists with greatly differing political and aesthetic views, but united in their realisation that atomic war would destroy all that Britain is and stands for.
Layers of Lambeth: A look at the collections
Lambeth Palace Library, Lambeth North
Free
This exhibition draws on the Library’s rich holdings of prints, maps and plans to give an insight into how Lambeth has changed from the 17th to the 19th century.
Gold
British Library, King’s Cross
Adult: £8 | Concessions: £3-6 | Children (12-17): £5
Showcasing some of the most luxurious illuminated manuscripts, gold-tooled books, sacred texts and scrolls from the British Library’s collection, objects on display include the Harley Golden Gospels, the Lotus Sutra and a treaty in Malayalam, beautifully inscribed on a long strip of gold itself.
Maurice Broomfield: Industrial Sublime
V&A Museum, South Kensington
Free
Maurice Broomfield’s dramatic photographs captured factories and their workers in an era of rapid transition, depicting the remnants of the industrial revolution alongside emerging technologies.
Magnificent Maps of London
London Metropolitan Archives, Clerkenwell
Free
The historical map collections at London Metropolitan Archives show the development of the city in incredible detail, from the late sixteenth century to the present day. Beginning with the first attempts to chart the streets of the City of London, they provide a unique view of London’s story and many of the events that shaped the city we know today.
Platinum Jubilee: The Queen’s Accession
Buckingham Palace
Adult: £30 | Young Person (18-24): £19.50 | Child (5-17) / Disabled: £16.50 |
Under 5: Free
In celebration of The Queen’s historic Platinum Jubilee in 2022, The State Rooms at Buckingham Palace will feature a display looking at The Queen’s Accession to the throne in February 1952.
Off the Rails: The Line that never was
Elstree and Borehamwood Museum, Borehamwood
Free
An exhibition exploring the Elstree extension railway through the Northern Heights that was suspended during World War 2, and never restarted.
The Sickert show is good, especially when it gets to the main room with his famous music hall scenes. My review at https://www.chrismrogers.net/post/hello-darkness-my-old-friend