Latest news with #V&A
Wall Street Journal
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Wall Street Journal
Adentures in Abundance at the V&A East Storehouse
London The Victoria and Albert Museum, known as 'the V&A,' is the world's largest museum of design, decorative and fine arts. V&A East Storehouse, which opened on May 31, is grandma's attic. The V&A is a neo-Renaissance, tile-clad Victorian pile in South Kensington. The Storehouse is an industrial box in the hipster wilds of Hackney Wick, east of the City of London, repurposed from part of the media center for the 2012 Summer Olympics. The remaking of the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park as East Bank, a new cultural quarter, will include the V&A East Museum, opening in 2026.
Boston Globe
16-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
It is a truth universally acknowledged that this year marks Jane Austen's 250th birthday
Advertisement Jane Austen, letter to her sister, Cassandra, 1808. The Morgan Library & Museum/The Morgan Library & Museum, MA 'A Lively Mind' is a show of considerable charm and no less considerable substance. It's like its subject that way. The Morgan has a special place in the world of Austeniana. It owns nearly a third of her surviving letters, the largest collection extant. Fifteen of those letters are in the show. In the most delightful one, she writes to her niece with every word spelled backward. Imagine doing that in an email; good luck with trying to get around spell check. There are almost 140 other items. They include silhouette portraits of Austen's parents and several portraits of her. None of those, alas, was drawn from life. (The only one that is, Advertisement Jane Austen, "Opinions of Emma," circa 1816. Images British Library archive/Bridgeman Images Part of what makes Austen's novels so satisfying is the fullness of the world she presents. There's a comparable fullness here: of a life led in literature, of course, but also actual life. It's hard to get more actual than a lock of Austen's hair or a gold-and-turquoise ring that belonged to her. Wallpaper from two rooms in the Austen family home, in Chawton, have been reproduced for the show: Amy Sherald, "A Single Man in Possession of a Good Fortune," 2019 © Amy Sherald. Courtesy of the artist and Hauser & Wirth. Photo: Joseph Hyde It is a truth universally acknowledged that the most famous words Austen wrote are the opening sentence of 'Pride and Prejudice': 'It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.' In a nifty bit of updating, 'A Lively Mind' concludes with an Advertisement Henry Herschel Hay Cameron, "Mrs. Julia Margaret Cameron," 1870. © The Royal Photographic Society Collection at the V&A/© Victoria and Albert Museum, L Julia Margaret Cameron was born in what is now Kolkata, in 1815, two years before Austen's death. Austen's Bath and Southampton and Chawton were very far away, and geography is the least of it. Lest we forget, though, an Antiguan sugar plantation is the source of Sir Thomas Bertram's wealth in Austen's 'Mansfield Park.' Julia Margaret Cameron, "The Mountain Nymph Sweet Liberty," 1866. © The Royal Photographic Society Collection at the V&A In 1848, Cameron, her husband, and their children moved to England. She was 48 when she got her first camera. Over the next 11 years she would become one of the foremost photographers of the 19th century. 'Arresting Beauty: Julia Margaret Cameron' takes its title from her saying of her new-found art, 'I longed to arrest all beauty that came before me, and at length the longing has been satisfied.' Organized by London's Victoria & Albert Museum, the show runs at the Morgan through Sept. 14. It includes 80 photographs, usefully organized by theme; three pages from a brief autobiographical manuscript (a QR code lets viewers call up on their phone the remaining 18 pages); and a mighty object befitting the Victorian confidence evident in Cameron's images: her first camera lens, a gift from her husband. Julia Margaret Cameron, "The Whisper of the Muse," 1865. © The Royal Photographic Society Collection at the V&A An unusual, sometimes bewildering tension defines the work. There's the ravishing specificity of this still-new medium, photography. So many of the faces in Cameron's images have an immediacy that can make them seem almost like our contemporaries. Consider the way the young woman in 'The Mountain Nymph Sweet Liberty' stares at the viewer. The there and then of that moment when Cameron photographed her becomes our here and our now. Yet consider how earnestly bogus the title is. That title is indicative of Cameron's general fondness for staged tableaux and how she took inspiration from Renaissance painting and literature, including Shakespeare, the Bible, Browning, and Tennyson. 'Fancy Subjects for Pictorial Effect' she once called such photographs. She was being more candid than she perhaps realized. Advertisement Julia Margaret Cameron, "Julia Jackson," 1867. © The Royal Photographic Society Collection at the V&A/© Victoria and Albert Museum, L Tennyson was a neighbor. He was among the cultural luminaries Cameron photographed. The man posed in the middle of one of those fancy subjects, 'The Whisper of the Muse,' is the painter G.F. Watts. Charles Darwin said of the portrait Cameron took of him: ''I like this photograph very much better than any other which has been taken of me.' As Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was about to sit for her, Tennyson warned, 'you will have to do whatever she tells you. I will come back soon and see what is left of you.' The most striking instance of how Cameron's work could both be of its time and look ahead was also literary, if not in any way she could have intended. It's a portrait of her niece Julia Jackson. If Jackson's beauty looks so familiar it's because of how much the older of her two daughters, Virginia Woolf, resembles her. Last year was the centenary of the Morgan's becoming a public institution. In observance of the anniversary, various gifts were made to the collection. 'A Celebration: Acquisitions in Honor of the Morgan's Centennial,' a ponderously straightforward name for a wholly engaging show, consists of a selection of those items. John Coltrane, fragments and drafts for incomplete compositions, circa 1945-55. © Jowcol Music, LLC. Used By Permission/All Rights Reserved. Photography by Janny Chiu Among the 110 works — drawings, photographs, prints, manuscripts, books, and book bindings — many are associated with names that would have been familiar to the banker J.P. Morgan, who founded the library, and his namesake son, who expanded it: Leonardo, Parmigianino, Watteau. There are also names that definitely would not have been: John Coltrane, Jasper Johns, Rosamond Purcell (the first member of Somerville's Brickbottom Artists Association to enter the Morgan collection?), and the late John O'Reilly, from Worcester. Advertisement You can well imagine the first group of names moving the Morgans to reach for a checkbook. That that's in no way true of the second group speaks to how the institution has grown and evolved over the last century. Rich as 'A Celebration' is, and it is very rich, its range attests even more to what makes the Morgan so worth celebrating. A LIVELY MIND: JANE AUSTEN AT 250 ARRESTING BEAUTY: JULIA MARGARET CAMERON A CELEBRATION: Acquisitions in Honor of the Morgan's Centennial At Morgan Library & Museum, 225 Madison Ave., New York, through Sept. 14 (Austen and Cameron) and Aug. 17. 212-685-0008, Mark Feeney can be reached at
Hypebeast
14-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Hypebeast
傳奇時尚攝影大師《Horst: Photographer of Style》巡迴展登陸澳門
澳門新濠天地迎來重量級文化盛事，與倫敦 Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) 攜手呈獻《Horst: Photographer of Style》攝影巡迴展，由即日起至 9 月 12 日，將 20 世紀傳奇攝影大師 Horst P. Horst 的經典作品帶到澳門。 Horst P. Horst 被譽為 20 世紀最具影響力的時尚攝影師之一，以其精準的光影運用、構圖美學與超現實主義風格聞名。在其橫跨 60 年的職業生涯中，他為 Coco Chanel、Yves Saint Laurent 及 Andy Warhol 等無數傳奇人物掌鏡，留下了眾多雋永的經典肖像。 是次展覽精選大師的代表作，劃分為「高級訂製 Haute Couture」、「超現實主義 Surrealism」、「舞台與螢幕 Stage and Screen」、「彩色時尚 Fashion in Colour」及「生活時尚 Living in Style」五大主題。從巴黎高訂時裝的優雅，到與藝術巨擘 Salvador Dalí 合作的前衛探索，全方位引領觀眾走進 Horst 的光影世界，感受其鏡頭下的獨特魅力。 展覽更特設「致敬霍斯特」單元，展出馮海、梅遠貴、許闖、楊剛聖和曾無五位中國攝影師的作品，透過東方視角與大師展開一場跨越時空的藝術對話，為觀眾帶來不一樣的思考。各位藝術與時尚愛好者，不妨親身到場感受這場光影盛宴。 《Horst: Photographer of Style》展覽日期： 即日起至 2025 年 9 月 12 日時間： 上午 10 時至晚上 9 時地點： 澳門新濠天地 1 樓（嵐吧外） >西班牙藝術家 Joan Cornellà 今夏回歸香港，於藝穗會舉辦大型個人展覽 >攝影師 Greg Girard 新作《HK:PM》登陸 M+ 幕牆，重現 70 至 90 年代香港光影之旅 >羅浮宮為解決遊客擁擠問題啟動 2.7 億歐元設計競賽，將為「蒙娜麗莎」打造專屬展廳
Daily Mirror
12-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
'David Bowie was my best friend - he gave me a priceless gift''
Geoff MacCormack, 78, who knew the iconic Space Oddity singer like no other, talks through some of 90,000 items relating to David Bowie's life and work which will go on display at the V&A museum in September He was the man who fell to Earth - and inspired generations of future shape-shifting music stars, from Madonna to Lady Gaga. But David Bowie 's other-worldly creativity, and ability to constantly reinvent his image, style and music, left just as indelible an imprint on the world of fashion, art and culture, too. It's the reason why the singer, who died in 2016 aged 69, is being honoured with a permanent gallery at London's V&A (Victoria and Albert Museum), which opens in September. The new David Bowie Centre, at the museum's V&A East Storehouse location, will house over 90,000 items relating to Bowie's life and works, including his costumes, sketches, paintings, writings and set lists. We got a sneak peak at some of the exhibits, offering fans fascinating insights into the mind of rock's enduring enigma. They include Bowie's paint palette covered in the last colours he used, the asymmetric knitted catsuit he wore as Ziggy Stardust and the lyrics he cut up and mixed up to write his 1977 song 'Blackout' Bowie's lifelong friend Geoff MacCormack says the new permanent gallery shows just how much of a legacy the Space Oddity star left. In an exclusive interview, Geoff, who was also Bowie's backing singer and percussionist, says: 'David became a fashion icon. His whole show was about what he was wearing and his different personas. He was very clever at constantly changing himself.' And he said that during the years he spent touring the world with Bowie gave him something that allowed him to emulate his success - bravery. He says: "David made people braver. He encouraged people to do their thing without fear, including me. He instilled his bravery into others, and today we see what a incredible legacy he left.' But Geoff, who went to Burnt Ash Primary School in Bromley, Kent, with Bowie says it wasn't immediately obvious that he would leave such an impression on the world. He recalls: 'Our friendship was based on the appreciation of music and humour. We used to listen to Radio Luxembourg together, but he'd also get a lot of the latest records because his dad worked for the Dr Barnardo's charity organising fundraising shows. 'David's dad bought him a little record player, and he was the only kid I knew who had one. I remember listening to rock'n'roll, and seeing his eyes open wide. We were born just after the war, we still had ration books and there were bomb sites all over the place, so it was a pretty grey world until that music hit us. 'He was fascinated by the stuff coming over from America, Elvis Presley, Little Richard, Screaming' Jay Hawkins, it was just like alien music, slightly disturbing but in a cool way. We were at the birth of rock'n'roll and it felt like a whole new world.' 'He was definitely different. He was into reading some really quirky stuff, especially American magazines. I remember one time him telling me a story he was reading, about two wrestlers who had fought to the death, really gory stuff with eyes being gouged out and stuff. 'I remember the more wide-eyed I was the more he got into performing this recital for me. We were only about eight or nine.' At that stage, Geoff says, his friend's quirkiness didn't extend to his dress sense. 'David went to a different school to me. I was a Mod, so I was more into fashion, but David was more of a studious type,' he says. 'I think it was once he started doing well and had a personal tailor, Freddie Burretti, that he started experimenting with his clothes. Freddie lived in the basement of 89 Oakley St, where David also rented a flat, and he used to just walk down and try on his new creations. 'The same way David pushed boundaries and challenged conventions in music, he did with his costumes, performances, stage sets, everything.' Geoff, whose book, David Bowie: Rock 'n' Roll with Me, charts their friendship through candid photographs, recognises many of the items that will be displayed at the V&A. He contributed backing vocals to a number of Bowie's albums and spent three years touring the world with him. During their time together in America, when Bowie was filming The Man Who Fell to Earth, the star took up painting. One of the works on show at the V&A will be a self-portrait of the singer. Geoff says: 'We lived in a ranch in Santa Fe, and that's the first time I saw him paint. The style was very similar to the self-portrait. But he didn't always like what he did. David was very confident about his music, but not particularly so about his paintings. But he still kept them, whether or not he liked them.' Another fascinating item at the V&A is an example of Bowie's 'cut up' technique in his songwriting, inspired by his contemporary William Burroughs. He took existing text, cut it into pieces and rearranged them to create new lyrics and meaning. Geoff recalls: 'The first time I saw him do it was for Diamond Dogs, at the Olympic Studios in Barnes, London. William Burroughs actually turned up in the studio while he was doing it. 'It was incredible to see. He was able to give what he was writing about a slight swerve. A cut up sentence becomes more interesting, taking you somewhere else, by chance, rather than by choice.' Geoff was also with Bowie when he departed from his glam rock style and recorded the soul album Young Americans - with backing vocals from Ava Cherry and the then-unknown singer Luther Vandross. He remembers: 'We were in the middle of the Diamond Dogs tour in 1974, and I was one of the Diamond Dogs, who'd mime and dance. It was a brilliant show, with a huge set built to look like a city, and loads of moving parts including a moving bridge. 'We both loved soul music, and David decided to do a soul album. But he wasn't very patient. If he was into something he'd get on with it, even at the expense of ditching an amazing and very expensive theatrical show. So that's what he did.' Bowie abandoned Diamond Dogs, took the month of August 1974 off to record the new album, then re-branded the tour 'The Soul Tour'. Geoff's fondest memory of his time with Bowie is an adventure of a lifetime when he joined him on a world tour, following the release of Ziggy Stardust. Because of Bowie's phobia of flying, that meant sailing from the US to Japan and taking the Trans-Siberian Express train across China and Russia back to the UK. He recalls: 'It was great for me, I was travelling with him and hanging out with him on their long journeys. 'At the time, his management wanted him to look like a star, before he was a star, so he would do stuff on a grand scale. So we'd stay in grand hotels, go first class on the ships, he was living beyond his means but it was an incredible time.' After finishing his US tour, Bowie and his entourage needed to reach Japan for the next leg. Geoff says: 'The only way was to get a boat from LA. We stopped off at San Fransisco and went out with Bet Midler. Then onto Vancouver and Hawaii. 'When we got to Japan, we hung out with Kansai Yamamoto, the designer who David had found years before and was already using his clothes. He had some new costumes for him, which he wore on the Japanese tour, and then the British tour later that year.' One of the designs was the famous one-legged, zig-zagged jumpsuit which visitors will be able to see at the new exhibition. Geoff says their spell in Japan, and the long train journey back, inspired Bowie's future creations. He says: 'Everything we saw and listened to crept into his music at some stage. 'Japan in 1973 was a very alien society, really weird. Coming from there, getting a boat to Siberia, another completely alien experience, then the Trans Siberian through Siberia, China, Russia. 'Then East Germany, which was really unfriendly because the guards boarded the train and they were kicking in doors. What we saw on those trips definitely gave him ideas.' Geoff was also on stage with Bowie when he dramatically announced Ziggy Stardust's 'retirement' at London's Hammersmith Odeon in July 1973. Bowie went on to achieve his first US No1 with Fame, then won new fans in the 80s with hits like Let's Dance and Under Pressure, with Queen. Geoff, now 78, went on to set up his own hugly successful advertising production company, which he says was also inspired by David Bowie. He says: 'I'd never done it before, but David was always saying just do stuff. He threw me in the deep end. I wouldn't have done it if it were not for him. Like with so many other people, he made me braver."
Scottish Sun
11-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Scottish Sun
The trendy London neighbourhood with world-famous new museum and cool hotels
A new theatre has also just opened in the area and the neighbourhood even boasts a great evening destination PLACE TO BE The trendy London neighbourhood with world-famous new museum and cool hotels STRATFORD is having a moment thanks to some exciting new museums and attractions. Put on the map following the creation of Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in 2012, the East London neighbourhood is slowly becoming a trendy spot to go to. 3 The huge V&A East Storehouse is sprawled over four floors Credit: PA 3 The lack of walls mean you can see everything while standing in one spot Credit: © Bet Bettencourt 3 The Gantry Hotel is a great evening destination Credit: © Ryan Wicks 2021 So much so, it was named the coolest place to visit in London by Time Out earlier this year. And that's been backed further by the opening of the much anticipated V&A East Storehouse ( at the end of May. It is certainly expansive – spread across four floors, taking up the space of 30 basketball courts. Free to visit, after putting my handbag into one of the many lockers (big bags and bulky coats along with food and drink aren't allowed inside) I was ready to explore. The museum's collection is broken down into three 'themes' – items that have a story, items inspired by the V&A and items that show a working museum. An element I loved was the lack of walls so you can see everything while standing in one spot – almost reminding me of an IKEA warehouse. But the variation of items (of which there are 250,000) means there is something for everyone. Kids will be fascinated by the sword displays, while I loved the items from important protests throughout history. Architecture lovers will be taken by the famous Frank Lloyd Wright rooms and there is enough art and memorabilia to keep all types occupied, from motorbikes and guitars to magazines and interiors. Yet, it's a museum made for the modern day – every piece has a QR code to scan for more information rather than huge signs of text. Take a look inside London's Hotel 41 Later this year it will open the David Bowie Centre, an archive dedicated to the six decades of the late singer's career. And next spring will see the opening of V&A East Museum, a 7,000sqm attraction space with live shows and pop-ups. But that's not the only new boost of culture at Stratford. Following the success of Sadler's Wells Theatre in Islington, the new Sadler's Wells East ( has also opened just around the corner from the new V&A. Huge bowls of pasta With live dance shows, from flamenco to hip hop, I was left in awe watching Find Your Eyes – a show created by photographer Benji Reid who used dance alongside his live photography on stage. With my battery running low, I needed some downtime and thankfully just around the corner was the stylish Gantry Hotel. It's a great evening destination, where you'll spot everyone from laptop types in the lobby to after-work drinkers on the terrace. The day-lounge-turned-evening-restaurant Union Social kept me well fed with huge bowls of pasta followed by a glass of wine from the retro Coupe bar. But my king-size bed was the highlight, and I was soon lulled into sleep just steps from the train station. I may not be the coolest person on the planet – but Stratford certainly made me feel like I was for the day.
