Twenty five to catch
Apollo selects the essential events in the month ahead
Illuminating Faith
Morgan Library and Museum, New York Featuring over 65 illuminated manuscripts, this show considers the symbolic force of the Eucharist in the medieval period, exploring the influence this sacrament had on cultural and civic life. Presenting works drawn from the Morgan’s holdings, it includes this 15th-century Roman missal.
www.themorgan.org
The Renaissance Dream
Galleria Palatina, Florence
In conjunction with the Museé du Luxembourg in Paris, this show considers the representation of dreams in ancient myth and Renaissance culture. Considered both prophetic and visionary, the dream was believed to be a manifestation of another world. Pictured is Lotto’s allegorical The Dream of a Young Girl, c. 1506.
Walk Through British Art
Tate Britain, London
In its refurbished galleries, Tate Britain unveils a presentation of 500 years of British art. The chronological hang continues through 20 rooms, and includes this c. 1944 crucifixion study by Francis Bacon. New galleries dedicated to Blake and Henry Moore also open this month.
Hans Richter
LACMA, Los Angeles
This long-overdue retrospective, the first since the 1980s, reflects on Richter’s encounters with other artists, writers, film-makers and composers. Alongside the 175 works by the artist are some 60 works by his contemporaries, including this original print of 1929 by László Moholy-Nagy.
Van Gogh at Work
Van Gogh Museum Amsterdam
Seventy-five of Van Gogh’s masterpieces return from their temporary home in the Hermitage Amsterdam for the Van Gogh Museum’s reopening on 1 May. The show marks the conclusion of eight years’ research into the artist’s methods, and it includes tubes of oil used by Van Gogh.
Byzantine Things in the World
Menil Collection, Houston
Presenting over 70 works from the Menil collection, this show illuminates the Byzantine belief that art embodied a mystical force. Artists valued the sensory, often sacred, nature of materials in the icons they created; here, the use of gold is evident in this image of St John the Baptist.
Gold: Danish Golden Age
ARoS Aarhus Kunstmuseum, Denmark
Drawing on the museum’s holdings as well as international loans, the show explores the cross-currents in art, science and politics in Denmark in the first half of the 19th century. Among the celebrated works and lesser-known treasures is Ditlev Blunck’s En gondoliere of 1832.
Museum Opening
Lenbachhaus, Munich
Having been closed for four years, the Lenbachhaus reopens following a total redesign by Foster + Partners of the original 19th-century villa. Its collection includes works by Der Blaue Reiter, alongside 19th-century painting and contemporary art.
The Europe of Rubens
Louvre-Lens
Born near Cologne, Rubens spent time in Antwerp, Italy, and the Spanish and English courts. As such he was a quintessentially European artist. This imaginative show traces the European dimension in Rubens’s oeuvre, and includes major works such as The Fall of Phaeton (c. 1605).
In Fine Style
Queen’s Gallery, London
Tudor and Stuart dress is examined through a display of portraits drawn from the Royal Collection, such as this one of Elizabeth I attributed to William Scrots (c. 1546). It includes more than 60 paintings alongside drawings, garments, accessories and items of jewellery.
Cairo to Constantinople
The Queen’s Gallery, Palace of Holyroodhouse, Edinburgh
Francis Bedford was the first photographer to join a royal tour, in this case the Prince of Wales’ 1862 visit to the Middle East. The Prince travelled by horse and camped, and these images docu-ment his journey and the figures he met, such as the Algerian freedom fighter, Abd al-Qadir.
The Arts in Florence
Palazzo Strozzi, Florence
The origins of the Renaissance are traced in this show, which focuses on sculpture – the form of figurative art in which it was first embodied. Objects such as Brunelleschi’s The Sacrifice of Isaac (1401) illuminate the concepts of beauty, charity and patronage that came to define this period of cultural flowering.
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