Best of 2021
2021 has been another strange and challenging year for us all, including museums and galleries. Yet, I’ve still been lucky enough to see some inspiring and thought-provoking displays, including some outside of the UK. As usual, in the order in which I visited, below is my top 10 for the year.
Lucy Sparrow, Bourdon Street Chemist - Lyndsey Ingram Gallery (London)
We all needed a bit of joy, perhaps even whimsy, to help us start 2021 and Lucy Sparrow brought that in spades. Her felt pharmacy recreated the shop window of a historic drug store, while the inside sold everything you’d expect from a modern chemist, but in felt, topically complete with hand sanitiser and public health signage for COVID-19.
John Akomfrah - The Unintended Beauty of Disaster and An Infinity of Traces - Lisson Gallery (London)
It was a treat to have the opportunity to watch again Akomfrah’s Four Nocturnes, the incredible three-screen film first produced for the Ghanaian pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2019. Lisson Gallery showed this and other works by the artists alongside a show of powerful work by 11 younger black artists. Rhea Storr’s The Imagination of the Black Radical has particularly stayed with me.
Yinka Shonibare, African Spirits of Modernism - Stephen Friedman Gallery (London)
London Gallery Weekend in early June was a real tonic for the soul, which allowed me to visit and discuss dozens of commercial shows with a friend. Shonibare’s exhibition was a highlight, looking backwards from western modernism to African aesthetics, with a particular focus on masks and the work of Picasso. Timely and eye-opening.
Museum of the Home (London)
Previously the Geffrye Museum, this London gem has been beleaguered of late thanks to the government’s approach to contested statues. The reopened museum is, however, a triumph, adding thoughtful thematic galleries, artistic commissions and more diverse interpretation to its much-loved chronological room displays.
Ben Nicholson - From the Studio - Pallant House Gallery (Chichester)
My first visit to Pallant House was a delight, including the impressive permanent collection and charming ‘Masterpieces in Miniature’ exhibition, but the Ben Nicholson show particularly gave me pause to think about the ways I have grown up seeing.
Migrating Objects: Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas - Peggy Guggenheim Collection (Venice)
It didn’t seem possible that we’d really make it to Venice until the plane left the tarmac, but a wonderful few days of museums, meandering and feasting followed. A long-overdue trip to the Peggy Guggenheim brought the unanticipated but extraordinary Migrating Objects show, focused on her collection of non-Western art, and how modernist art has made us see these works.
The Rake’s Progress - Glyndebourne Touring (Lewes)
Not strictly speaking an exhibition, but certainly a show, the delayed 2020 restaging of Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress with David Hockney’s designs was one of my art highlights of the year. Closely based on Hogarth’s prints, these designs were a feature of my PhD research and were only more compelling in full performance.
The Courtauld Gallery (London)
I’m lucky to have worked with a curator at the Courtauld since 2018, so it was an extra treat to see work come to fruition on the grand reopening of the galleries. The displays are beautiful and thoughtful, combining the collections in striking new ways, and with a small contribution in collaboration with the Science Museum.
Futures - Smithsonian Arts and Industries Building (Washington DC)
In early December, I was finally able to take advantage of some funding to visit a colleague in Washington DC. 2021 marked 175 years of the Smithsonian museums, including my host institution the Air and Space Museum. The Futures exhibition in the original Smithsonian building, beautifully combined the now wide-ranging collections to think about how we have and can imagine the future.
Chris Levine, 528 Hz Love Frequency - Houghton Hall (Norfolk)
Sneaking into the top 10 at the end of the year, this light installation at Houghton Hall was really impressive. Repaying slow attention from different perspectives, and completely changing how you experienced the house and grounds, I thought this was light art at its best.