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'Making Faces'
Sunley Room
Until 26 September
The eagerly awaited touring exhibition 'Making Faces' opens at the National Gallery in July, following on from the success it has enjoyed at the Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery and the Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne. This is the third in the National Gallery's highly successful series of touring exhibitions organised in collaboration with their regional partners.
'Making Faces' contains works by artists as diverse as Cranach, Goya, Hogarth, Renoir, Warhol and Julian Opie. It will explore the way painters have represented faces from the profile portraits of 15th-century Italy, such the 'Portrait of a Lady in Red' (Florentine School, National Gallery), to the abstracted images such as Frank Auerbach's 'Julia' (Laing Art Gallery). Opening with a section on how artists have addressed the problem of catching a likeness, the exhibition will centre on the way painters have used expression, idealisation, distortion and caricature to convey character, social standing and emotion. Supported by generous grants from the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Esmée Fairburn Foundation, the Touring Partnership exhibitions allow masterpieces from the National Gallery, accompanied by important loans, to be shown outside London and have proved exceptionally popular.
'Russian landscape in the age of Tolstoy'
Until 12 September. Sainsbury Wing. Admission Charge.
During the course of the 19th century, landscape came to play a unique role in Russian folk consciousness, featuring heavily in the country's literature, mythology and visual art. The emptiness of the vast reaches, the rigours of its climate, the difficulties of transportation, and the intense isolation of the long winter months, contributed to a specifically Russian sense of nature, different from that found in the west. At this time most Russians, including landowners, peasants and serfs, lived on the land. Even aristocrats returned to their country estates for part of the year, to reconnect with the land and its people. By the 1860s landscape came to be imbued with political, moral and social meanings. The exhibition features work by Venetsianov, Shishkin, Levitan and Kuindzhi, showing lakeside and forest vistas, awe-inspiring depictions of the endless Russian horizon, and the hard struggle of peasant life in both summer and winter. The exhibition is organised by the Groninger Museum, Groningen, the Netherlands.
Wednesday Late
4 August 2004, 6-9pm. Free admission. Sainsbury Wing Foyer
Wednesday Lates take place every week, with additional activities on the first Wednesday of every month.
Cool off at the National Gallery at this month's Russian Wednesday Late. Immerse yourself in the spirit of Russia at the vodka cocktail bar with live Russian music from the Emaron String Quartet and free Russian food tastings.
Enjoy half price entry to the critically acclaimed 'Russian landscape in the age of Tolstoy'. Ticket holders are able to join the free guided tour of the exhibition at 7pm. Watch a Russian ceramic painting demonstration by Carolinda Tostoy. A prize draw will take place giving you the chance to win Champagne and Caviar for two at Tsar's Bar, The Langham Hotel London. A number of talks will be held throughout the evening.
6pm Picture in Focus
Degas 'Beach Scene' Room 46
6.30pm Guided Tour
Meet at the Sainsbury Wing Information Desk
Bite-Size Art
7pm: Brugghen: 'The Concert', Room 25
7.20pm: Raeburn: 'The Archers', Room 34
7.40pm: Degas: 'Beach Scene', Room 46
Events
Mother Russia Film Season
Until 11 September 2004. Sainsbury Wing Theatre.
Every Saturday. 2.30pm. Admission free.
Immerse yourself in Russian culture this summer. To coincide with the 'Russian landscape in the age of Tolstoy' exhibition, the National Gallery is hosting the Mother Russia Film Season generously supported by Academia Rossica. Tickets are FREE and available by post from the gallery or in person on the day. Please arrive half an hour in advance of showing to collect for tickets.
'Dersu Uzala' (1975), Akira Kurosawa, 137 minutes, Saturday 7 August
Kurosawa's film, based on the journals of a Russian army explorer, describes the author's encounter with a hunter named Dersu Uzala in the Siberian wilderness.
'Stalker' (1979), Andrei Tarkovsky, 163 minutes, Saturday 14 August
A bleak Russian spin on The Wizard of Oz, telling the story of an illicit journey undertaken by the stalker of the title who leads a writer and a scientist into an alien place called The Zone
'Nostalghia' (1983), Andrei Tarkovsky, 125 minutes, Saturday 21 August
A presentation of two disparate world ñ the spare, monochromatic landscape of Russia and the lush, idyllic meadows of rural Italy.
'Solyaris' (1972), Andrei Tarkovsky, 165 minutes, Saturday 28 August
A cosmonaut is sent to investigate disappearances on a space station orbiting the planet Solaris, only to be confronted by his past in the guise of his dead wife.
Children's Events at the National Gallery
Move it!
Summer holidays at the National Gallery
3-28 August 2004
Shake up your summer with four weeks of groovy 'Move it!' fun at the National Gallery. All throughout August, there are a variety of FREE hands-on art workshops, events and activities for families with children of all ages. Each week the workshops explore different themes taking inspiration from all around the Gallery. Please see separate release for further details.
Indian Dancing
Every Friday and Sunday in August, 1.15 pm, Room 32
Move it! Come to the National Gallery this August to find out how paintings relate to Indian stories and dance. Through music and movement, the dancers will unravel the tales hidden in the pictures and convey their connection with epic stories of different cultures. SAMPAD, a South Asian arts organisation, have developed two special performances based on story telling and Bharatanatyam, a form of Indian classical dance. These events are funded with grants from the Arts Council and the Bagri Foundation.
6, 8, 13, 15 August
The performers respond to Gentileschi's 'Finding of Moses', telling the story of the birth of Lord Krishna from the Hindu Trilogy.
20, 22, 27, 29 August
In the other, they take Giordano's 'Perseus turning Phineas to Stone' as their starting point, matching the terrifying severed head of Medusa with the story of Ravana the ten-headed demon, from the Ramayana.
For press information and images please contact Lara Raymond on 020 7747 2596
For public enquiries please telephone 020 7747 2885
Advance ticket booking: visit www.nationalgallery.org.uk (booking fee)
Back to 2004 Press Releases
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