What to see this week
Turner in January 2018: The Vaughan Bequest is at the Scottish National Gallery, The Mound, Edinburgh, until January 31 (0131–624 6200; www. nationalgalleries.org) Since 1901, 38 Turners have been exhibited to the public free of charge, in keeping with their donor’s stipulation that these delicate watercolours should be brought out for display only for the month of January, to limit the possibility of their pigments fading through exposure to strong daylight. The bequest came from an outstanding collection of fine and decorative art, including more than 100 Turners, amassed by Henry Vaughan (1809–99), the son of a London Quaker hat manufacturer, who inherited a fortune in 1828. The glowing watercolours (above: Sea View, mid 1820s) provide a perfect antidote to the darkness of these northern winter days.
Reading de Chirico is at Tornabuoni Art, 46, Albemarle Street, London W1, until January 12 (020–7629 2172; www.tornabuoniart.com) More than 25 works spanning the career of Italian artist Giorgio de Chirico (1888– 1978) are presented alongside examples of his prolific literary output, including quotes from works such as Hebdomeros (1929) and manuscripts in his own hand.
The first such juxtaposition, the exhibition is divided into nine sections, each representing a different theme explored by the artist throughout his career: Italian Piazzas, Metaphysical Interiors, Portraits and Self-portraits, Still-lifes, Mannequins, Horses and Horsemen, Gladiators, Mythology and Mysterious Baths. A scholarly catalogue includes English translations of de Chirico’s theoretical and critical essays, poems, prose and love letters.
When Bardfield Came to Walden
is at Fry Art Gallery Too, 9B, Museum Street, Saffron Walden, Essex, until March 25 (01799 520679; www.fryartgallery.org) This inaugural exhibition of the Fry Art Gallery’s second home displays work from the 1960s to the 1980s by the colony of artists based in and around Saffron Walden, where Edward Bawden moved from Great Bardfield in 1970.
Ranging from Bawden’s distinctive linocuts to John Bolam’s semi-abstract landscapes, the variety on show also includes work by Olive Cook and Edwin Smith, Chloë Cheese, Paul Beck, John Bellany and the television and theatre designers David Myerscough-jones and Olga Lehmann.