The National Gallery, London
Photo: Charles
From breaking news and insider insights to exhibitions and events around the world, the team at The Art Newspaper picks apart the art world’s big stories with the help of special guests. An award-winning podcast hosted by Ben Luke.
After opening a major building project in May last year and announcing the details of another in September, which is due to open in the early 2030s, the National Gallery in London has revealed, quite unexpectedly, that it has to make serious cuts, including to its staff, in the face of a deficit that could rise to £8.2m in the coming year. Martin Bailey, The Art Newspaper’s special correspondent in London, tells us more.
Carel Fabritius, The Goldfinch (1654)
Mauritshuis, The Hague
In The Hague in the Netherlands, the Mauritshuis has just opened a new exhibition called BIRDS – Curated by The Goldfinch & Simon Schama. Since The Goldfinch, the 17th-century painting by Carel Fabritius, is not able to speak, Schama tells Ben Luke about the show, including Fabritius’ remarkable picture.
Sunbeams or Sunlight. Dust Motes Dancing in the Sunbeams. Strandgade 30 (1900)
Oil on canvas, 70 × 59 cm. Ordrupgaard, Copenhague. Ordrupgaard, Copenhagen. Photo: © Anders Sune Berg
And this episode’s Work of the Week is Sunbeams or Sunlight. Dust Motes Dancing in the Sunbeams, Strandgade 30 (1900) by the Danish painter Vilhelm Hammershøi. The picture is one of the many highlights of a new exhibition, Hammershøi: The Eye that Listens, at the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid. The curator of the exhibition, Clara Marcellán, joins Ben to discuss the painting.
Why the art world must tackle the questions posed by artificial intelligence head on, plus comics celebrated in two European locations and Degas’ portrait of the circus artist Anna Albertine Olga Brown