National Gallery showcases Spanish Master of Light
At a time when the National Portrait Gallery in London is trying to encourage wider and younger audiences to its galleries by staging the Michael Jackson exhibition, 'On the Wall', the National Gallery next door will be staging a more classical show in Spring 2019.
The rush towards the contemporary in exhibition conception and design, was discussed at our January forum held at RIBA with speakers from the RA, Hiscox and The Hepworth Wakefield - its relevance - the debate over how to attract visitors and tourists to our cities for cultural and economic wellbeing.
However, the more traditional move by the National Gallery in London, is big news nonetheless, as this will be the first exhibition for over a century of the work of the Spanish artist Joaquin Sorolla y Bastida (1863 - 1923) to include portraits, seascapes and landscapes, garden views and bather scenes. It will be the most complete exhibition of the artisit's paintings outside Spain.
'Sorolla: Spanish Master of Light will open on the 18th March 2019 and run through to the 7th July 2019 and will include over sixty works from both public and private collections in Spain and the USA.
The last major exhibition in the UK was in 1908 when Sorolla himself showed his works at London's Grafton Galleries. This latest one is organised by the National Gallery of London and the National Gallery of Ireland.
Sorolla has always been viewed as technically gifted and 'spirited' and is sometimes referred to as Spain's Impressionist. The National Gallery in London views Sorolla's work as resonating with artists in its current collection such as Velazquez, Goya as well as the more contemporary works of Sargent and Monet.