Galleries - September 2012

Works on Paper' put on by Kings Place Gallery and Pangolin London (their gallery is in the same building, map 32) with a large and stunning range of some 100 works, from Picasso, Calder, Marini and Giacometti to Damien Hirst, Chillida, Caro and Phyllida Barlow. Then, in October, there's a distinctly interesting small group show of drawing at new-ish art space the Mile End Art Pavilion (map 32). Entitled 'Drawing from Within Part 1 – Transition', three young artists, Anna Jung Seo, Sandra Beccarelli and Bindi Nicholls have assembled an enormously promising debut show ofreally edgy abstract drawing. And, while still looking at drawing, don't forget the specialist Rabley Drawing Centre (map 7) in Wiltshire, who, just for this month and next, are putting together a handsome exhibition entitled 'Knot Drawing' which explores tapestries by leading Modern British artists – Alan Davie, Victor Pasmore and William Scott among them. 25 x 20/21 In the same way as drawing, it is easy to overlook what a still comparatively neglected field Modern British Art was back in 1988 when Gay Hutson and Angela Wynn decided to set up the (as it was then known) 20th Century Art Fair. Now, 25 years and two recessions later, they can look back with some justification and pride at the role the 20/21 British Art Fair (map 20) has played in its remarkable revival. To see what some ofthe 55 galleries – a full house as always – are showing this year turn to p36 for our special picture feature. Surreal Hastings Like its older Modernist brother Dada-ism, Surrealism has continued to exert a remarkably tenacious hold on the contemporary artistic imagination, its tapping ofour subconscious desires and dreams still a powerful influence 80 years on and expressed not just in our everyday world ofdesign and advertising but also in a surprisingly broad range of current practice. For though not many artists working today would still consciously label themselves Surrealist, there are (as Hastings- based artist Jo Welsh recently discovered) still a lot ofthem, often unconsciously, making use ofsuch techniques as the starting point in the exploration of their ideas and interests. It was this which led to her being invited by the ever-enterprising Hastings Arts Forum (map 15) to curate their show 'In the Light ofSurrealism' (14 to 25 September) and she has ANTENNAE 10. GALLERIES SEPTEMBER 12 Drawing Strength Starting life in 1994 as an initiative of the Cheltenham & Gloucester College of Art and known as the Cheltenham Open Drawing Competition, the Jerwood Drawing Prize took its present form in 2001 when it moved its centre of operations to London with Wimbledon School of Art now organising it and showing at The Jerwood Foundation's Union Street gallery space (map 31). Unquestionably still the major competition of its kind in the country, it has, from its inception, been one of the key factors in the astonishing revival drawing has enjoyed over the last two decades. Indeed it is hard to imagine quite what unfashionable doldrums drawing was in at the time with Goldsmiths' conceptualism at its height and only a very few enlightened art schools still retaining specialist drawing teaching. As a barometer of the health of the medium, it has always been a must-see show, the 2012 version (from 12 September), 73 artists exhibiting and now with £17,000 of prize money on offer, shows drawing to be in a more than healthy state – lively, highly accomplished and nicely eclectic. As if just to prove the point some excellent drawing shows are coming up this month and next in London and the regions. Most notable perhaps is the joint show of 'Sculptors' Drawings and From left: J o Welsh ‘Playing with Fire’. Hastings Arts Forum E lizabeth Butterworth ‘King Bird of Paradise’ at Jerwood Drawing Prize