Beyond Caravaggio, which opened this week at the National Gallery (until 15 January 2017), looks at artists like Orazio Gentileschi and Jusepe de Ribera through 49 works borrowed mostly from UK and Irish institutions, private collections and churches. The shows open on hot on the heels of the art historian Michael Fried’s new book, After Caravaggio, released by Yale University Press in July. What explains the widespread interest in this generation of painters? “I think we simply know a great deal more about these Caravaggesque artists than was known, say, 30 or even 40 years ago,” says Letizia Treves, the curator of the National Gallery show. “As we have come to understand Caravaggio better, we’ve also been able to define more clearly the artistic personalities of those who came after him,” she adds.
Pink and purple pastels, objects that hover between furniture and works of art, and cartoon-like motifs repeated on wallpaper are just some of the aspects that will be familiar to many—even if you have never been to a Marc Camille Chaimowicz show before. The London-based, French artist’s influence on the aesthetics of young artists—and designers—is laid bare in An Autumn Lexicon (until 20 November). The Serpentine Gallery show also includes the restaging of Chaimowicz’s Enough Tiranny (1972) installation—first exhibited at the gallery four decades ago—replete with disco ball, coloured lights and pop records.
When Korean artist Koo Jeong A, whose biographical profile states that she ”lives and works everywhere”, was offered a solo show at London’s Korean Cultural Centre UK, she decided to invite around eight artists to share the space with her. The exhibition Riptide (until 19 November) features a series of line-drawings by Koo as well as pieces by a group of international artists that respond to her work. Among those selected is the Austrian artist Martin Roth, who is showing untitled (persian rugs), a living, “time-based” installation consisting of a carpet with grass growing on it. “Carpets have traditionally represented nature and I wanted to give this representation of nature life again,” Roth says.
