THE ART OF LIVING Marianka Swain shares her capital cultural highlights

PICK OF THE MONTH DON’T MISS PUBLIC DISPLAY MODERN MASTER

How often do you walk past a piece of art without Historic England has taken action by listing 40 giving it a second glance? A new Historic England pieces, which should demonstrate the value of such exhibition at Somerset House aims to change that by art to councils and developers. “There are sculptors highlighting exceptional public work created between like Anthony Gormley who would love more public 1945 and 1985 by artists like , platforms if the commissions were there,” notes Sarah. , and – much of which has since disappeared, explains She hopes the exhibition, which features drawings, curator Sarah Gaventa. maquettes, letters and photographs as well as large- scale pieces, opens our eyes to such art. “There’s “We’re desperately trying to track these pieces down, a Barbara Hepworth Winged Figure off Oxford and leads are still coming in. There’s actually a wall Street ignored by a million people every day. Let’s in the exhibition with descriptions of lost art, like the appreciate how much this work enriches our lives, missing cat posters stuck on trees. This is our – the because it might not be there if we don’t.” nation’s – collection, but unless we all get involved, we’re in danger of losing even more of it.” OUT THERE: OUR POST-WAR PUBLIC ART The post-war period was extraordinarily democratic, TO APRIL 10 notes Sarah, with local authorities regularly commissioning art to go with new structures like hospitals. “They believed working people deserved Somerset House, Strand WC2R access to art – and should be reflected in it, like in Adults £6.50, concessions £5 Ralph Brown’s Meat Porters for Harlow Main Square. www.somersethouse.org.uk It’s a big change from politicians on plinths.” Eugène Delacroix, ‘Lion Hunt’, 1861

But public art is vulnerable, subject to vandalism © The Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois, Potter Palmer Collection, 1922.404 or neglect, “especially when the built environment changes. Bill Pye’s sculpture at Gatwick was sent Love, murder and war: welcome to the daringly straight to the scrapyard – the developers didn’t even expressive world of Eugène Delacroix. The French DELACROIX AND THE RISE OF contact the artist.” Romantic artist transformed 19th-century painting, MODERN ART and his influence can be seen in the bold colours TO MAY 22 Two of Sarah’s favourite monumental pieces are and abstract shapes of Matisse and Kandinsky, the currently homeless: a Paul Mount fibre-glass expressiveness of Van Gogh and Gauguin, and the wall panel, which he salvaged from a skip when vibrant complementary colours of the Impressionists. National Gallery, Trafalgar Square WC2N a Falmouth supermarket was torn down; and a Adults £14, children and members free concrete mural made by Trevor Tennant in 1963 for Delacroix drew inspiration from British art and www.nationalgallery.org.uk Welwyn Garden City, Britain’s first NHS hospital. literature, North African travels and Biblical scenes, but whatever the subject, his first priority was that “It was an age of great hope and ambition – creating the painting be “a feast for the eye”. This overdue communities for local people, with real quality in celebration of the passionate rebel traces 50 years of housing, services and culture. We seem to have lost his legacy, including works by contemporaries such touch with that. But in these cash-strapped times, as Courbet and Géricault and disciples like Renoir, surely people would love to adopt these incredible Gauguin and Matisse. works? We need some serious upcycling.”

Kandinsky, ‘Study for Improvisation V’, 1910

Barbara Hepworth’s ‘Contrapuntal Forms’, 1951 © Harlow Arts Trust ©

Ralph Brown’s ‘Meat Porters’, 1959 William Mitchell’s 1963 Harlow Water Gardens work Vincent van Gogh, ‘Pietà (after Delacroix)’, 1889 © Historic © England © Van Gogh Museum (Vincent Van Gogh Foundation), Amsterdam Van Gogh Museum (Vincent © Van © Historic © England © The Minneapolis Institute of Art, Gift Bruce B. Dayton

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