They preferred the Middle Ages to the progress of the Industrial Revolution. The painters of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood were true revolutionaries. In 1848, John Everett Millais, Dante Gabriel Rossetti and another five students at the Royal Academy began signing their paintings with the initials PRB, shrouding this acronym in mystery. Behind the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood lay the allure of Dante and the cursed stories of Shakespeare, the poetry of Keats and the vastness of the Bible. These were the arms employed against the hated Academy, where painting languished in the cages of convention. And Raphael? The artist from Urbino was considered the first perpetrator of the destruction of art, having spoiled it with affectation. It was necessary to get back to the origins, follow the lead of the primitive Italians. Young, audacious, bohemian, the Pre-Raphaelites scandalised England with their non-conformist life-styles. Then the group vanished along with its secret name, leaving a lasting influence behind. It is quite evident looking at the paintings at the Tate Britain - in no time at all, the rebels of Victorian England left their mark with masterpieces such as Ophelia and The Lady of Shalott, changing art history from illustration to photography.
A Barbican retrospective surveys Robert Ryman’s work from the 1950s to the 2000s. Painting is presented as a material and perceptual experience based on subtle variation.
The Design Museum in London presents the first international retrospective of Nigo, a journey through three decades that reshaped the relationship between streetwear, luxury and global pop culture.
At the National Portrait Gallery in London, Tim Walker reconsiders his fairy-tale imagery through the lens of a real community. Portraits, staging and narrative create a universe where identity and affection become a collective story. An exhibition that moves portraiture towards a space that is both poetic and political.
A major retrospective revisits the artistic and personal partnership between two central figures of the Bloomsbury Group, restoring their work to a decisive place within British modernism.
.jpg/jcr%3Acontent)
