Prospect recommends: The best art this month

Robert Rauschenberg, Joan Eardley and Zaha Hadid
November 17, 2016
Robert RauschenbergTate Modern, 1st December to 2nd April 2017

Robert Rauschenberg (1925-2008) was a pioneer of almost every art movement of the last 60 years: paintings, drawing, print-making, photography, sculpture, installation and performance. His art arose from a generous, experimental interaction with the physical world and popular culture, incorporating found objects and new media. He collaborated with choreographers, musicians, scientists and engineers. This show is the first major retrospective of his career since his death in 2008 and will travel on to the US.

Zaha Hadid: Early Paintings and Drawings SerpentineSackler Gallery, 8th December to 12th February 2017

This homage to the architect Zaha Hadid, who died earlier this year, will be held in the museum space she designed. In 2000 Hadid’s geometric folded pavilion inaugurated the Serpentine’s summer pavilions, and then the new Serpentine Sackler Gallery, which opened in 2013 in an old gunpowder store, complete with billowing restaurant. For many years however Hadid’s reputation and influence were owed principally to her paintings and visionary calligraphic drawings.

Joan Eardley: A Sense of PlaceScottish National Gallery of Modern Art, 3rd December to 21st May 2017

Joan Eardley, who died in 1963 at the age of 42, split her short life between the slums of Townhead in Glasgow and the fishing village of Catterline, south of Aberdeen. Observant, awkward paintings of children in tenements and graffiti scrawled streets contrast with vivid land and seascapes. Both are highly evocative of being in a particular place at a particular time. Her working methods are explored here through hitherto unseen sketches and photographs.