Best of 2017

It’s that time of year again and I’ve sat down to try to give you my 2017 top 10. It’s been a busy and bumper year for me, from my extraordinary trip to the Pacific to moving to the Science Museum, and there have been a lot of fabulous museum things to see and do. 

General life business has meant that I’ve not blogged about everything that I enjoyed at the time so here I’m largely going to focus on the exhibitions and museums that I’ve not mentioned during the year, and that have kept me thinking. Likewise, I haven’t managed to get to everything I want to see, so already have a number of exhibitions queued up for the New Year, which I suspect might make it onto my list for 2018. In the meantime, here are my 10, in the order that I saw them as usual …

1. The Esperanto Museum, Vienna

After my fabulous trip to Vienna, I wrote about how much I loved the MAK. I was also blown away by the re-opened Kunstkammer at the Kunsthorisches Museum. But a smaller Vienna museum has stayed in my mind throughout the year. The Esperanto Museum is only one room in the Austrian National Library but brings to life, both wittily and compellingly, the history of attempts to create a universal language, including Klingon.

2. Tim Etchells and Vlatka Horvat: What Can be Seen at The Millennium Gallery, Sheffield

Okay, I have written about this one before, but I found this artist response a particularly insightful take on stored collections. Etchells and Horvat brought out the whimsy and happenstance of museum collections that I love so much, from enigmatic labels to unexpectedly powerful juxtapositions of objects. 

3. Under the Sun at the State Library of New South Wales, Australia

So much that I could have picked out from my #KSEndeavours trip, but I’ve chosen Under the Sun as it was an unexpected find that has continued to be thought-provoking. Inspired by Max Dupain’s famous photograph ‘Sunbaker’, this exhibition wove together a number of historic and contemporary responses to show how a seemingly simple image can enshrine social stereotypes of race, gender and sexuality.

4. Making Nature: How we see animals at the Wellcome Collection, London

This was one of the best history of science exhibitions that I’ve ever seen. Combining science and art objects with their usual flair, the Wellcome curators showed beautifully how scientific ideas are a product of social settings and concerns. In this case our understanding of the natural world. They also worked with one of my favourite small museums, the Grant Museum at UCL.

5. Casa Ceaușescu, Bucharest, Romania

In many ways I thought this was a poorly presented house museum, but I’ve included Casa Ceaușescu for how it, along with other Bucharest museums, really made me think about how we understand and represent the recent, and difficult, past. The disingenuous way in which the life and lifestyle of Ceaușescu was discussed in his preserved house was truly eye-opening.

6. The American Dream: Pop to the Present at the British Museum, London

At the risk of too many superlatives, this was one of the best history of art exhibitions that I’ve seen. Charting the course of American print-making from the 1960s, this exhibition showcased the British Museum’s extraordinary collections, and expertly wove together artistic and political history, including a brilliant focus on techniques of making. It was also a striking exhibition design overall. 

7. Substance and Shadow at Gagosian, Britannia Street, London

I don’t often comment on commercial galleries, but this exhibition combining the sculptures of Alberto Giacometti with their photographs by Peter Lindbergh was a little gem. Beautifully curated, Lindbergh’s photographs captured the sculptures in past relationships, as part of the collection of the Kunsthaus Zurich, while creating new ones with the sculptures on display. 

8. Plywood: Material of the Modern World at the V&A, London

I planned to go back for a second look at this stylish show, but annoyingly managed to miss it. A visual treat, it showed perfectly how focusing on a single material can bring together design, engineering, material science and decorative art in a narrative that shows really clearly how materials are just as subject to changing fashions.

9. The Mail Rail at the Postal Museum, London

We were lucky to visit the Postal Museum on a work trip, and the museum as a whole is very impressive, but the Mail Rail particularly struck me. It turns the old industrial tunnels used to transport mail under London into a visitor attraction. While seeing the incredible structure itself a series of excellent audio-visual displays on the stations give you a real sense of life working on the mail rail, and of the importance of the postal service.

10. The Jewish Museum, London

I’m ashamed to say that I’d not visited this small museum in Camden before, and was really impressed. Galleries present different aspects of Jewish religion, alongside the long and deep history of Jewish migrant life in London and the UK. A small heart-rending space tells the story of one Jewish British man who survived the Holocaust. An excellent exhibition Designs on Britain also focused on Jewish designers working on advertising and design from the Festival of Britain onwards.

One of my resolutions for 2018? Get back into my blogging, so watch this space!