Galleries - June 2013

dealers who are using the occasion to show in the spaces of other friendly galleries. In addition to which some are presenting special shows for the occasion. For instance, Richard Green is holding an exhibition entitled Three Hundred Years of Portraiture and Conversation Pieces, from Cornelius Johnson in the 17th Century to Sir Alfred Munnings in the 20th Century. So, all in all, it really should prove the most intriguing of occasions, rather like a wonderfully eclectic art exhibition but which, instead of being held in just one gallery can be tracked down via a variety of often distinctly handsome locations. But you get to choose how to put it together – and what riches to choose from. To help work that itinerary out, there is a brochure with a map or you can visit the website: www.londonartweek.co.uk NU all concentrated in the Bond Street/St James’s area, putting on a show of their finest things, the rationale for which is that it also coincides with Sotheby’s , Christie’s and Bonhams major summer auctions. As my opening words indicated this really isn’t just about dealers getting out their best Old Master paintings for the summer, as the range of what’s on view is remarkably wide these days – one of the reasons that London remains so very much the focal point of the international art market is its continuing ability to adapt to a constantly changing environment, to reinvent itself in short. The other point that really does need to be made here is that this is not just a marketing ploy by dealers that are always there to be visited anyway – for example, a good proportion of those showing are private From Late Hellenistic marble torsos to Rodin bronzes via Baroque terracottas; Flemish altarpieces to Augustus John portraits via Canaletto Venetian views and Cuyp cows; German Renaissance drawings to Signac watercolours and Contemporary photography via the French Rococo; the newly formed London Art Week (28 June to 5 July) represents the most tremendous coming together of all London’s major Old Master, Drawing and Sculpture dealers that’s yet been seen. What’s happened, essentially, is that two previously separate set-ups, Master Drawings Week (now in its thirteenth year) and Master Paintings Week (now into its fifth), have decided to join forces while adding into the mix, for the first time, a Sculpture Week as well. The outcome is, indeed, a stunning display of strength with some 50 galleries, LONDONARTWEEK Top: G iovanni Baratta (1670-1747) ‘Apollo and Marsyas’, terracotta, h. 36.3cm at Trinity Fine Art Ltd. From bottom left: Frans de Momper (1603-1655) ‘The Tower of Babel’, oil on panel, 59 x 81.3cm at Haldane Fine Art. Circle of Domenichino ‘Rest during the Flight into Egypt’, oil on lapis lazuli, 17 x 24cm, Rome early 17th C. at Alberto & Alessandra Di Castro. Aelbert Cuyp ‘Landscape with Cattle’, oil on panel, 55 x 73cm at Fergus Hall Master Paintings