Pierre Bonnard's Dining Room in the Country

Pierre Bonnard and John Ruskin: the best art and exhibitions in January 2019

Plus Katie Paterson at Turner Contemporary in Margate
December 8, 2018
Pierre Bonnard: The Colour of Memory

Tate Modern, 23rd January to 6th May

After Pierre Bonnard’s death in 1947, one critic said that in his work, “impressionism becomes insipid and falls into decline.” This exhibition aims to recast our picture of the French painter. The show reveals neither an impressionist nor a post-impressionist Les Nabis painter, but instead a wholly modern artist, conjuring from memory in vivid colours and experimental perspectives elusive moments of everyday life. Beyond the sheer pleasure of colour, this first major UK show in 20 years is a chance to explore the psychological complexity of his paintings.

 

John Ruskin: The Power of Seeing

Two Temple Place, London, 26th January to 22nd April

John Ruskin, the Victorian artist, educator and critic, believed that social progress could only be achieved by making cultural treasures available to all. A man of passionate convictions, he founded St George’s Museum in Sheffield in 1875, filling it with watercolours, drawings, prints, plaster casts, and manuscripts. To honour the bicentenary of his birth, this exhibition shows a comprehensive selection alongside other loans and new commissions.

 

A place that exists only in moonlight: Katie Paterson & JMW Turner

Turner Contemporary, Margate, 26th January to 6th May

Katie Paterson is an artist determined to smell, taste and see the unknowable and unreachable. She has sent meteorites into space, recreated the smell of Saturn and invited audiences to phone a melting glacier. Her latest project, Future Library 2014-2114, involves planting 1,000 trees. To accompany her work, Paterson has selected over 20 watercolours and paintings by Turner, himself transfixed by nature’s power and mystery.