Exhibition: Abstractions: Studies from the National Theatre

The iconic, brutalist architecture of the National Theatre building on London’s South Bank has been documented by photographer Amelia Lancaster for over 20 years. These images can now be seen inside the very building they depict at a free exhibition, appropriately enough, inside the National Theatre.

Lancaster has been taking photos of the South Bank area and its buildings for the past couple of decades, and says she was fascinated by “the simplicity of the trio of concrete, sunlight and shadows” at the National Theatre - how light and shadow would dramatically alter the facade of the Denys Lasdun-designed building.

The images, shot mostly on 35mm film, interrogate geometries that are revealed as the light moves around the different angled planes of concrete. They are presented in three subsets - beautiful brutalism, reduction, and negatives - and each subset uses colour and contrast to take the already-angular National Theatre and create new abstract compositions.

You can find it on the second floor -- follow the signs for the Wolfson Gallery, which is actually the foyer space above the Lasdun Restaurant.

(Editor note: The exhibition ends in "autumn 2024", so lacking a date, it's listed here as ending on 31st August, the last day of the meteorological summer)

Ian has Visited - review here.