AboutLondon Laura – March 2024 Newsletter
How did you get on with my February recommendations? I really enjoyed Yoko Ono – Music of The Mind at Tate Modern. It’s all rather ‘conceptual’ but give in to it and it’s a lot of fun. You can hammer nails into an artwork, play chess with all white pieces for both players, shake hands through a hole in a canvas and much more. I liked listening to the music on headphones and the ‘bottom’ video is ‘impressive’.
I also enjoyed Sargent and Fashion at Tate Britain. It’s the opportunity to see some of his portraits and focus on the clothing as some of the frocks are on display too.
The Lookout
Did you know, there’s another free high viewing gallery in the City of London? Right next door to Horizon 22 is The Lookout on the 50th floor at 8 Bishopsgate.
You can get the same great views of London landmarks including the Tower of London, Tower Bridge, The Shard and St Paul’s Cathedral but it should be easier to get your free tickets. I’ve explained it all in a blog post.
I thought this might be a good moment to offer reminders of the other free high viewing galleries available in The City of London…
London’s highest free viewing platform
Outdoors but lovely
The original and huge
And then, over in Bloomsbury…
Great for views over the British Museum
What’s Happening This Month?
The Royal Academy has Angelica Kaufmann from 1 March. She was one of the most celebrated artists of the 18th century and a founding member of the Royal Academy.
Women of the RNLI opens at the National Maritime Museum on 2 March. This free exhibition celebrates the work of women in the Royal National Lifeboat Institution.
Another free option, the Francis Crick Institute has Hello Brain! on from 2 March. It will explore the brain's ‘connectome’: how trillions of connections between billions of cells – more than there are stars in the sky – shape our thoughts, behaviours and experiences.
Francesca Woodman and Julia Margaret Cameron: Portraits to Dream In opens at the National Portrait Gallery on 21 March. Showcasing more than 150 rare vintage prints, it will juxtapose the lives and work of two of the most important and influential practitioners in the history of photography.
I’m looking forward to THE BIBA STORY: 1964 - 1975 at the Fashion & Textile Museum which opens on 22 March. This is the only exhibition that looks at the history of Biba from the first simple shift dresses to the glamorous devoré wraps, sequinned bodices, leopard print coats, trouser suits, floppy hats and feather boas that came to epitomise the Biba look.
Leighton House Museum has Out shopping: The dresses of Marion and Maud Sambourne (1880-1910) on from 23 March. Outfits, several never displayed before, tell the story of a middle-class mother and her affluent daughters with a focus on the important role fashion shopping played in the lives of women in this period.
The first solo UK exhibition of Italian designer Enzo Mari opens at the Design Museum on 29 March. It looks at the 60-year career of this pioneer of post-war Italian design.
As well as all that, I still want to go to Two Temple Place to see The Glass Heart exhibition (on until 21 April), and the Emalin gallery at 118½ Shoreditch High Street as you get to go inside The Clerk’s House building next to Shoreditch Church. (The current exhibition ends on 16 March.)