AS this is the year of destiny for Vision 2020, let’s see what the visual arts have in store for us. It seems remarkable that this bold programme for the future was announced 30 years ago. There wasn’t much about art in the original vision, but it did lay the foundations of the sort of economy in which artists have a place and some food. You don’t get a lot of galleries in subsistence economies.
Things are very different in modern Malaysia, which not only has private galleries but also a thriving auction sector. What it doesn’t have very often is blockbuster exhibitions. Is next year going to be different?
Well, there may never be anything to rival “Ghosts” at Muzium Negara, but the Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia might reprise the phenomenal success of “Swords of the Prophet” with “Inspired by the East: How the Islamic world influenced Western art”. It’s the only collaboration ever to happen between a Malaysian museum and the British Museum.
Moving on from Malaysia, there is much more in store. Last year was all about Leonardo da Vinci. This artist is an unstoppable one-man trend. Even a year after his 500th anniversary there is still plenty of Leonardo left to go around. The definitive exhibition is at the Louvre.
His career does buck two other, more significant trends, though. What we saw a lot of last year was women artists. There may be even more in 2020. What there might lesser of is Asia. This continent has had a good run, with living megastars, such as Ai Wei Wei, and dead ones, like Hokusai, bringing in huge crowds.
In 2018, by far the most visited exhibition by a living artist was a name that few will ever have heard of: the Korean phenomenon Do Ho Suh. Extremely popular right now is another Korean, the video pioneer June Paik Nam. The Japanese cartoon art of manga has also brought in a new generation of aesthetes, especially at the British Museum.
ART OF FASHION
The big shock of two years ago was the success of clothing from the Vatican. Could anything sound more staid? When applied to Rihanna and other pinnacles of popular culture, the Catholic Church suddenly became the coolest thing in New York, which pretty much means the whole world.
At least some of the fashion exhibitions for 2020 will involve more of Asia than the Vatican collection did. Kimonos at the Victoria and Albert Museum should show the wonders of applied art from a country that used to hold greater sway than it does now.
Moving on to the really important stuff, there will be handbags. These and more are also on at the V&A and tickets are already predicted to sell fast for an exhibition that doesn’t open until April.
Could these accessories rival the Christian Dior exhibition in 2019 at the same venue, where all tickets sold out on the first day? The Dior show had strong input from Asia in many of the fashion designs — and the visitors. The chances are that bags will have the same magic formula.
They are bound to do better than another important show at that museum. “Epic Iran” offers visitors a chance to understand the much-maligned nation, but the trend is away from serious viewing. One museum that could have turned fashion into something deadly serious is the Louvre, the world’s most visited museum in the global capital of fashion. The Louvre is resisting, however, and focusing on worthy subjects such as… Leonardo da Vinci.
ART OF SISTERHOOD
Where there is gravitas in 2020, it will tend to be associated with female artists. Topping the list is the only woman permitted to occupy the same space as masters such as Leonardo and Michelangelo. Artemisia Gentileschi was not only brilliant but also wronged. She deserves to be the patron emeritus of #MeToo.
Her life was genuinely tragic, entailing being tortured in order to confirm that she had been raped. This double serving of injustice did not prevent her from becoming one of the most expressive artists of the Renaissance. Much of Artemisia’s work deals with women, which makes her even more exceptional as a female artist in a very male world. There’s also a healthy outpouring of violence, including graphic beheadings.
Artemisia will undoubtedly be taking the sisterhood to even greater heights than a very successful exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, which continues into 2020. “Pre-Raphaelite Sisters” is all about the generally overlooked women who helped make the Pre-Raphaelites the essential movement that they became.
Their cause has been continued in the 21st century by women collectors. According to the latest figures from Sotheby’s, the number of female buyers has grown by 20 per cent since 2010.
If she ever had any money, one of these would have been Niki de Saint Phalle. Instead, she became one of the 20th century’s most vibrant, colourful, French sculptors. Being a woman made her unique in this category. Although she died in 2002, this aristocratic victim of childhood abuse immersed herself wholly in the American world of feminism and LGBGT issues.
There’s nothing that can really match her huge, exuberant sculptures except the kitsch of Jeff Koons, who has nothing like the charm of the highly depressed Frenchwoman. Of living women artists, it’s probably the Serbian Marina Abramovic who’s going to get the most attention in 2020 with her solo show at the Royal Academy. Shockingly, this is the first female solo that the Royal Academy has had in its 250-year history.
OLD IS GOLD
One artist who has had more solo shows than most is Vincent van Gogh, including the Royal Academy. There’s always an exhibition of his happening somewhere in the world; and in 2020 his work will be exhibited in seven different locations, from Amsterdam to Tokyo.
Similarly, Picasso is a trend that’s never going to disappear. Not only are there exhibitions taking place in 2020, there’s a new Picasso museum opening. This one is in Beijing, where the notorious egomaniac will have to be satisfied with sharing space with the Italian sculptor Giacometti.
There are not so many new museums being launched in 2020. Over the past two decades, they have become vanity projects for the super-rich; economic uncertainty seems to have dampened the enthusiasm lately. Instead, we will be hearing a lot about an old museum.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art is celebrating 150 years with an exhibition all about itself. One of the highlights is a new gallery that gives credit to British decorative art and design — a marvellous coincidence for two countries trying to re-establish their former “special relationship”.
The Met is also doing a special on fashion, as might have been predicted, along with installations of cross-cultural significance. The only thing that’s missing for the equable new look at the Met is gallery of women artists.
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