1: Fox Talbot: Dawn Of The Photograph
William Henry Fox Talbot called photography “the pencil of nature” and for him the medium he perfected with his 1841 patent for a negative-to-positive process was an ethereal way to capture the beauty of trees, spring blossoms and, decades before Monet, a haystack. At his home in the Wiltshire countryside he created images that possess a lovely innocence.
Science Museum, SW7, to 11 Sep
2: Conceptual Art In Britain 1964–1979
British conceptual art – you mean the Turner prize, bisected cows, unmade beds and the lights going on and off? No – there was a lively experimental art scene in Britain much earlier than most people think and this exhibition unveils its secret history. Marvel at the antics of Keith Arnatt, Art and Language, Mary Kelly and many more. But the exhibition does raise a question: why did these early British conceptualists never seize the national imagination in the way their spiritual descendants have? Were they too radical or just a bit silly? Something to think about in this exhibition of thinking art.
3: In The Age Of Giorgione
This is a sensual dream of an exhibition that brings to life a lost genius of the Renaissance. Dead from plague by his early 30s, Giorgione left behind a romantic reputation as a lover, a lutenist and a lyrical painter. The efforts of five centuries of quibbling art scholarship have nibbled away at his reputation until few surviving paintings are still attributed to him. How brave and important of the RA, then, to resurrect this seductive, courageous visionary. Ignore the sceptics and surrender yourself to the Venetian Leonardo da Vinci.
4: Glasgow International
While London has gone through a surreal evolution from staid backwater to today’s moneyed art capital, Glasgow has kept the bohemian ethos of a city made for artists rather than art dealers. With comparatively few galleries – but a great art college – it is a place to live cheaply and experiment. This festival starring the likes of Turner prize-winner Martin Boyce celebrates its creative inferno.
5: Botticelli And Treasures From The Hamilton Collection
No one has ever drawn hell with the clarity and confidence of Sandro Botticelli. A compelling selection of this mystic master’s illustrations for Dante’s Divine Comedy can be seen here, and it’s like walking through the world of the dead. What makes Botticelli unique among Dante illustrators is the calm dignity of his line that matches the grave tone of a poem whose sublime authority haunts the modern world.
