Update for July 2022: I’m republishing a couple of my favorite London focused posts because, well, I’m in London right now! 🙂 I must say, the thing I’m looking most forward to on this list is riding the new Elizabeth line! I know, I’m a total nerd. Luckily, we will have a good excuse, as the Woolwich station is the stop for The Burnt City immersive experience… Photos to come in a future post…. Cheers!
We are getting ready for a fun trip to London this summer, and I have a long list of things to see and do. Of course, there will be trips to Liberty. And Smythson. And I’ve shared some of the great immersive theater experiences we’ve scheduled. But I’ve got three cool new things in London that you may not have considered. And they look really super!
Hockney’s Eye in Cambridge
I am a huge David Hockney fan, and when I heard about a new exhibit of his in Cambridge, I added it to my list of to-dos this summer. It might not be a cool new thing in London proper, but Cambridge is an easy day trip from the city. I haven’t been to Cambridge in years, so it will be a good excuse to wander around the town as well.
The exhibit is “Hockney’s Eye: The Art and Technology of Depiction” and the website does a brilliant job of describing it:
One of the most influential artists of our time, David Hockney (b.1937) takes over Cambridge this spring and summer with an exhibition across The Fitzwilliam Museum and The Heong Gallery, Downing College.
Through both traditional and cutting-edge ways of making art, the exhibition explores Hockney’s obsession with how we see the world, and how our world of time and space can be captured on the surface of a flat picture.
In his use of cameras, digital drawing, the iPad, and digital film, Hockney follows a tradition of creative experiments with optical devices that goes back from Ingres’ proposed use of the camera lucida to Canaletto’s camera obscura and to the birth of Renaissance naturalism in the 15th century.
In The Fitzwilliam Museum’s picture galleries, Hockney’s drawings, paintings and digital artworks are shown in a series of provocative encounters with works by artists including Claude Monet, John Constable and Andy Warhol.
The display at The Heong Gallery charts Hockney’s pioneering modern experiments from the 1960s to the present day in bringing hand, eye, and optical instruments together, with the iconic Grand Canyon I (2017) among the many glorious and daring works on display.
I love how Hockney is never afraid to try new technologies. Dear Husband and I really enjoyed his exhibit at the De Young museum in 2013 (my gosh, has it been that long??) Hockney created many of the paintings on an iPad.
“Hockney’s Eye: The Art and Technology of Depiction” until August 29, 2022 at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge
New Elizabeth tube line!
OK, yes, I am a total nerd. But I am excited about checking out the new Elizabeth line when we are in London. I remember the construction all over central London when we were last there a few years ago. (I get excited about these things. It was thrilling to take the Acela out of the newish Moynihan Train Hall last summer.
I’m definitely interested in the massive project and the results. But I am also going to be checking out a tour offered through the London Transport Museum of “Hidden London.” And writing this has reminded me to buy our tube tickets in advance. So much to do!
Fashioning Masculinities at the V&A
I’ve made no secret of my love of the V&A. I plan on spending a solid day wandering through the collection; usually, we are rushing about and give this wonderful museum short shrift. Not this year! And while I was hoping for an exhibit as wonderful as the 2017 Pink Floyd exhibit, I was initially disappointed to hear that we’d be getting Beatrix Potter instead. I’m not knocking Beatrix and all the bunnies, but come on.
Luckily, I noticed that we’re going to get “Fashioning Masculinities: The Art of Menswear” this summer as well. The reviews have been good, and I do enjoy looking at amazing fashion. No, it’s not “The Dark Side of the Moon”- but I’ll take it!
Fashioning Masculinities: The Art of Menswear at the Victoria & Albert Museum until November 6, 2022
New objects from the V&A vaults
Speaking of the V&A, I had no idea that the museum owns over 2 million objects. And the museum displays only a small percentage at any given time. So I was delighted to hear about a BBC series called Secrets of the Museum on some of the objects that are being pulled out of the V&A values for us to enjoy. Talk about cool new things in London!
Here’s the trailer from season 2 (season 3 kicked off earlier this month)- and darn it, looks like I need a VPN to watch it from the US. Hmmmm…..
Do let me know if you’ve got some other cool new things in London that I should add to our list. While it’s wonderful to visit some of the old haunts, we’ve got to spice it up!
