Abby Cronin: arts journalist in London

Sense and the City, a new exhibition at London Transport Museum, will explore how people in the past imagined the London of the future and how new technology will influence city living over the next ten years. While the urban landscape will look much the same in 2021 as it does today in terms of buildings, transport infrastructure and even vehicles, our ability to sense and connect to all that the city has to offer is about to be transformed by the convergence of data and communication technologies.

Dazzling Arms and Armour from the East: Surface Decoration and Conservation Issues
Until 26 March 2012 in the Conservation Gallery
A unique opportunity to discover more about the varied and often exquisite forms of surface decoration found on Eastern arms and armour in the Wallace Collection. This display also explores the conservation issues involved in the care of this magnificent collection.

British artist Grayson Perry has been invited by the British Museum to put together an exhibition featuring objects from the Museum’s extensive collection. Exploring the Museum’s vast collection, Perry will choose an eclectic selection of objects from right across world cultures, from Polynesian fetishes to Buddhist votive offerings. In addition to the British Museum objects, Perry is also making an artwork especially for the exhibition. At the exhibition’s heart will be his new work, The Tomb of the Unknown Craftsman, an elaborate, richly decorated cast-iron coffin-ship, a vessel weighted with the freight of Perry’s imagination and an eloquent testament to the numberless forgotten artists who made the objects to be found in the British Museum today. Admission free, Room 91

This exhibition of remarkable Antarctic photography by George Herbert Ponting and Frank Hurley marks the 100th anniversary of Captain Scott’s ill-fated journey to the South Pole. Ponting’s dramatic images record Scott’s Terra Nova expedition of 1910–12, which led to the tragic death of five of the team on their return from the South Pole. Hurley’s extraordinary icescapes were taken during Ernest Shackleton’s Polar expedition on Endurance in 1914–17, which ended with the heroic sea journey from Elephant Island to South Georgia. Both collections of photographs were presented to King George V and are today part of the Royal Photograph Collection.

Creative beginnings: European art in the Ice Age: Humanity’s desire to represent the world around us in drawings, paintings and sculpture is not something recent. It is older even than the great civilisations of Egypt, Babylon, Greece, Rome and China. In Europe art first appears at least 35,000 years ago during the last Ice Age. This exhibition will show some of the great masterpieces of this era. Admission charge, Room 35

The Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize presents the very best in contemporary portrait photography, showcasing the work of talented young photographers and gifted amateurs alongside that of established professionals and photography students.

Discover the British Library’s unique collection of medieval and Renaissance illuminated manuscripts. Collected by the kings and queens of England over 800 years these treasures are outstanding examples of the decorative and figurative painting of the era. Together they are our most vivid source for understanding royal identity, moral and religious beliefs, learning, faith artistic trends and the international politics of the period.

The Design Museum marks Sir Terence Conran’s 80th birthday with a major exhibition that explores his unique impact on contemporary life in Britain. Through his own design work, and also through his entrepreneurial flair, Conran has transformed the British way of life.

Dale Chihuly has done more to revolutionise the perception of blown glass as an art form worldwide that any other artist. Make a date to see this extraordinary exhibition of Chihuly's work---the sheer scale of his chandeliers, fantastical sea creatures and the extraordinary colours---make this a MUST SEE! It's FREE

Dickens was neither born  nor died in London, but her evoked the city more poetically than any other English writer.  It is entirely fitting that the Museum of London should mark the bicentenary of his birth in 2012 with an exhibition exploring the novelist's relationship with the capital.

Discover over 100 fabulous 18th–19th-century prints and drawings from this extraordinarily creative period of German art history. German Romanticism was a philosophical  and artistic movement in the late 18th and
19th centuries which was highly influential across the whole of Europe.

Alberto Burri (1915-1995) is acknowledged to be one of the greatest exponents of twentieth- century European art for his radical and highly personal reinvention of artistic language. This exhibition will trace the artist's creative development between 1947 and 1987, ranging from rare, early, figurative works to the later pieces created with sacking, metal, plastic, wood, cellotex and ceramic for which he is undoubtedly best known.

'David Hockney: A Bigger Picture' will span a 50 year period to demonstrate Hockney’s long exploration and fascination with the depiction of landscape.
In January 2012 the Royal Academy of Arts will showcase the first major exhibition of new landscape works by David Hockney RA. Featuring vivid paintings inspired by the East Yorkshire landscape, these large-scale works have been created especially for the galleries at the Royal Academy of Arts.

One of the five pillars of Islam central to Muslim belief, Hajj is the pilgrimage to Mecca that every Muslim must make at least once in their lifetime if they are able. This major exhibition charts the history of this deeply personal journey

A ragamala is a set of miniature paintings depicting various musical modes, ragas, of Indian music. Each painting is accompanied by a brief caption or poem that describes the mood of the raga.

A selling exhibition  at the London Silver Vaults, the home of silver shopping.
Chancery Lane, London WC2A 1QS

The Design Museum’s Design Awards, ‘the Oscars of the design world’, showcase the most innovative and progressive designs from around the world, spanning seven categories: Architecture, Digital, Fashion, Furniture, Graphics, Product and Transport. A high profile judging panel will decide the best entries in each of the seven categories.

Featuring portraits of Queen Elizabeth II by royal photographer Cecil Beaton, this exhibition celebrates Her Majesty in her roles as princess, monarch and mother and coincides with the 60th anniversary of her accession to the throne

Lucian Freud (1922 – 2011) was one of the most important and influential artists of his generation. Paintings of people were central to his work and this major exhibition, spanning over seventy years, is the first to focus on his portraiture. Produced in close collaboration with the late Lucian Freud, the exhibition concentrates on particular periods and groups of sitters which illustrate Freud's stylistic development and technical virtuosity.

In the spring of 1624 the painter Anthony Van Dyck (1599 -1641) moved from Genoa to Palermo in Sicily. Soon after Van Dyck’s arrival, plague struck Palermo and most of the population died. In the same year, the bones of Saint Rosalia were discovered in a cave on the Monte Pellegrino where she was said to have died as a hermit in the Middle Ages.

The fair features modern and contemporary art from the UK but has a significant number of dealers who specialise in work from China, India, Japan, Russia, Poland, Serbia and the Ukraine. However, art from a whole host of other countries will also be on show including many European countries, and, this year a special exhibit from Australia.

Of all the Old Masters, Turner admired Claude the most, enthusing about the quality of light in the artist's Italian landscapes. On his death, Turner left the National Gallery two paintings – 'Dido building Carthage' and 'Sun rising through Vapour'. He made the gift in his will on condition that the works were hung between two pictures by Claude, which he named as 'The Seaport' ('Seaport with the Embarkation of the Queen of Sheba') and 'The Mill' ('Landscape with the Marriage of Isaac and Rebecca'). This exhibition brings together other closely related works by Turner and Claude. Many of these paintings share the same theme, giving visitors a chance to fully appreciate the enormous influence of Claude's mastery of light and landscape on Turner – from his formative years until the end of his life.

In the years immediately following World War II a new wave of industrial and commercial design swept away the remaining fragments of the 1930s and created an innovative and modern approach to living unprecedented in the UK.  At the visual forefront of this movement and noted for its accessibility was the textile designs of a group of women designers: Lucienne Day, Jacqueline Groag and Marian Mahler. These distinctive printed textiles map out a brave new world of sophistication and optimism.

One of the most accessible antique fairs in London.  A regular event and this spring---the first fair of the new year should be well worth your time.

A dozen leading specialist dealers selling textile art for the collector, and for interior decoration.
The Showroom, Penforld Street, London NW8

The Wallace Collection has embarked upon the transformation of the top-lit galleries, which were purpose-built by Sir Richard Wallace. The new design created a fresh architectural language for the display of the most important collection of Dutch art in Britain after the National Gallery, and one of Europe's finest.

The V&A's upcoming exhibition, British Design 1948–2012: Innovation in the Modern Age, will celebrate the best of British post-war art and design from the 1948 ‘austerity’ Games to the Summer of 2012. The exhibition will highlight significant moments in the history of British design and how the country continues to nurture artistic talent and be a world leader in creativity and design. On display will be over 300 British design objects including product design, fashion, textiles, furniture, ceramics, glass, graphics, photography, architecture, fine art, sculpture and famous British designers.

Garden antiques & ornament come to the fore at this time of year.

The biggest Bauhaus exhibition in the UK in over 40 years presents the modern world’s most famous art school. From expressionist beginnings to a pioneering model uniting art and technology the Bauhaus’ utopian vision sought to change society in the aftermath of the First World War. Bauhaus: Art as Life explores the diverse artistic production that made up its turbulent fourteen-year history and delves into the subjects at the heart of the school: art, culture, life, politics and society, and the changing technology of the age

This exhibition is the largest ever of Leonardo da Vinci’s studies of the human body. Leonardo has long been recognised as one of the great artists of the Renaissance, but he was also a pioneer in the understanding of human anatomy. He intended to publish his ground-breaking work in a treatise on anatomy, and had he done so his discoveries would have transformed European knowledge of the subject. But on Leonardo’s death in 1519 the drawings remained a mass of undigested material among his private papers and their significance was effectively lost to the world for almost 400 years. Today they are among the Royal Collection’s greatest treasures.

The definitive Exhibition of 18th Century Windsor Chairs, some 35 examples drawn from private and public collections.

To mark the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee in 2012, the National Portrait Gallery is staging an innovative touring exhibition bringing together sixty of the most remarkable and resonant images of Elizabeth II. The exhibition includes formal painted portraits, official photographs, press images and works by contemporary artists and explores the evolution of the way The Queen has been portrayed during the sixty years of her reign.

The Wallace Collection will stage The Noble Art of the Sword, which celebrates the artistic and cultural importance of the sword, as a symbol of power and prestige, as a flamboyant fashion statement, and as an icon of the Age of Discovery. It will be composed of weapons and related works of art from the Wallace Collection; never-before-seen illustrated works on fencing drawn from the Lord Howard de Walden library; loans from a number of the great collections of arms and armour; and portraits, prints and drawings that will help place the Renaissance civilian sword in its social and artistic context.

A selling exhibition featuring Stuart Devlin, Gerald Benney, et al.

'Gold: Britain's Glorious Riches' - A major exhibition of gold works of art and artefacts which vividly tells the story of Britain and Gold. Admission Free at the  Goldsmiths' Hall
The Goldsmiths' Hall, Foster Lane, London EC2V 6BN Opening times: Monday to Saturday 10am to 5pm

The Goldsmiths' Company Pavilion at Somerset House to showcase the UK's best emerging and established jewellery talent. This is a contemporary jewellery summer selling exhibition  located in the newly refurbished East WIng of SOmerset House. Seventy Jewellers arranged by category: silver, enamel, gemstones, gold,--a broad display of talent.

This exhibition will feature some of Warhol’s most iconic print portfolios as well as lesser known sets. Portfolios on display will include the the Muhammad Ali Portfolio and the Myths Portfolio produced six years before the artist’s death in 1987.  The silk screen was the foundation for almost all of Warhol’s art making. Often his prints are separated from his so-called paintings yet these paintings were themselves produced from silk screens. This exhibition will feature some of Warhol’s most iconic print portfolios as well as lesser known sets. Portfolios on display will include the Endangered Species Portfolio, the Flowers Portfolio, the Muhammad Ali Portfolio and the Myths Portfolio produced six years before the artist’s death in 1987

A set of four monumental fibreglass sculptures by American artist and fi lm-maker Philip Haas. The installation in the Gallery’s gardens will be the first ever public display of all four works following their completion.

Edvard Munch: The Modern Eye will be a major exhibition devoted to a reassessment of the works of the Norwegian painter Edvard Munch (1863 1944). This exhibition proposes a dialogue between the artist’s pictorial work in the 20th century and his interest in the most modern of representational forms: photography, film and the rebirth of stage production at that time. Munch is often presented as a 19th century painter, a Symbolist or a pre-Expressionist, but here he is seen emphatically as a 20th century artist.

Discover the Cultural Sensation that is Masterpiece London 2012. Masterpiece London is once again set to thrill collectors and new enthusiasts across the globe with a spectacular line up of UK and international dealers committed to exhibiting at the fair this year. In its third year Masterpiece London has firmly restored London’s position as essential to the global art and antiques market.  The fair will take place from 28 June – 4 July 2012 (with a Preview on Wednesday 27 June) in the South Grounds of The Royal Hospital Chelsea, London SW3.

In the 1950s a new wave of rock-n-roll and youth culture from America swept the country and the world. The mix of popular images and music with art and fashion would change the way people dressed - blurring the boundaries of commerce, culture and style.

This major exhibition is presented in collaboration with the Royal Shakespeare Company. It will revisit William Shakespeare’s stories and tell them anew to London in 2012. 400 years ago, the playhouse dominated society, from the lowliest groundlings to kings and queens. Spanning the Elizabethan and Jacobean eras, Shakespeare used the playhouse – an exciting new way to present drama – to showcase his own particular take on history and contemporary cultures from across the world. His influence was huge in his own time and his tales echo down through the ages. The exhibition will provide a unique insight into the emerging role of London as a world city, seen through the lens of Shakespeare’s plays.

The Association  of Art & Antiques Dealers annual prestigious event for 85 member exhibitors.

Popular Antiques & Textiles Fair--for collectors and interior decoration. Always a beautiful fair--lots of ideas for the home...etc.

Seasonal Sparkle: Jewellery, dining ware and silver gifts

The V&A's autumn exhibition, 'Hollywood Costume', explores the central role costume design plays in cinema storytelling. Bringing together over 100 of the most iconic movie costumes from across a century of film-making, it is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see the clothes worn by unforgettable and beloved characters such as Dorothy Gale, Indiana Jones, Scarlett O'Hara, Jack Sparrow, Holly Golightly and Darth Vader.