2024 is a special year for London’s National Gallery, as the home to the national collection of paintings celebrates its Bicentenary. NG200 will be a year-long festival of art and creativity, celebrating the Gallery’s past and looking forward to its future.
A host of exhibitions, events and activities are planned that will take place not just at the Gallery’s Trafalgar Square home but nationally and internationally too, through a series of online and virtual experiences – and everyone is invited!
NG200 launches on 10 May 2024 with National Treasures – 12 simultaneous exhibitions opening at 12 museums and galleries in each nation of the UK and each region of England, and each centred around a masterpiece from the National Gallery collection.
The museums are:
The Laing Art Gallery in Newcastle, with a major exhibition featuring Turner’s The Fighting Temeraire (1839) as the centrepiece;
York Art Gallery, where Monet’s The Water Lily Pond (1899) has inspired an exhibition which includes a large-scale commission by contemporary artist Michaela Yearwood-Dan;
Leicester Museum and Gallery, which will show Renoir’s Umbrellas (about 1881-6) alongside a digital installation using sound and animation to bring the artwork to life;
The Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge will display Botticelli’s Venus and Mars (about 1485) in their Octagon Gallery, alongside three major Italian Renaissance works in different media;
Brighton Museum and Art Gallery will use Rembrandt’s Self Portrait (1640) to spark a youth Photography Club project and eventual display;
The Ashmolean Museum, Oxford will show The Wilton Diptych (about 1395-9) alongside the museum’s Cloth of Gold, the funeral pall of Henry VII;
Ikon Gallery in Birmingham have commissioned Dublin-based contemporary artist Jesse Jones to make new work in response to Artemisia Gentileschi’s Self Portrait as Saint Catherine of Alexandria (about 1615-17);
Bristol Museum and Art Gallery with Constable’s The Hay Wain (1821) as the focus of an exhibition of landscapes from 17th-century Dutch to abstraction and conceptual art;
The National Library of Wales with Canaletto & Cymru, featuring The Stonemason’s Yard (about 1725);
The Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool will display The Rokeby Venus (1647-51) alongside unexpected artworks by women and nonbinary artists from the Walker’s collection;
Ulster Museum, where Caravaggio’s The Supper at Emmaus will be shown with 20th-century and contemporary art from their collection;
The National in Edinburgh, where Vermeer’s A Young Woman Standing at a Virginal (about 1670-72) will be on display amongst the National Galleries of Scotland’s collection of Dutch and Flemish paintings.
Gabriele Finaldi, Director of the National Gallery, said: “As the National Gallery approaches its third century of bringing people and paintings together, we are thrilled to be sharing 12 of our greatest masterpieces with museums across the UK. Over half of the UK’s population will be within one hour’s travel of a National Gallery painting and we hope that many, many people will visit our museum partners and participate in their exciting programmes.”
For further information about the National Gallery’s Bicentenary: nationalgallery.org.uk
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Image:
NG524, Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775 – 1851), The Fighting Temeraire tugged to her last berth to be broken up, 1838, Oil on Canvas, 90.7 x 121.6 cm © The National Gallery, London.