February art highlights: 5 shows to see
February London art highlights include an overlooked Bloomsbury Group sensation, an American extravaganza at the Royal Academy and a once-in-a-lifetime retrospective of our greatest living painter
The long overdue one: Vanessa Bell at Dulwich Picture Gallery
She was a pioneer of modern art, whose paintings and vision forged a new language of visual expression. But the work of this bohemian Bloomsbury Group darling has been criminally overlooked - until now. The glorious paintings of Vanessa Bell come to Dulwich Picture House this month
Read more ...The experimental one: Richard Mosse at the Barbican Curve
Irish photographer and Deutsch-Borse winner Richard Mosse turns photojournalism on its head. Highly in concept, his images disarm (remember his images of the Civil War-torn Democratic Republic of Congo, which blazed in lurid, sing-song pinks?)
This remarkable photographer is set to turn heads once again with a new immersive Barbican project: an multi-channel video installation. We don't know much yet, but expect something wonderful
Read more ...The boisterous one: Eduardo Paolozzi at the Whitechapel
British artist Eduardo Paolozzi is often called the 'godfather of Pop Art'. In fact he was much more than that - Paolozzi was one of the most iconoclastic and visionary artists of the 20th century. If you don't know his name yet, you'll never forget it once you discover this extraordinary body of work at the Whitechapel.
Read more ...The essential one: David Hockney at the Tate Britain
David Hockney is Britain's most beloved living painter. For more than six decades, his unmistakable works have defined a certain corner of post-modernism.
To mark his 80th birthday, the Tate Britain mount the most extensive Hockney retrospective the world has ever seen.
Read more ...The timely one: America After the Fall; Painting in the 1930s, Royal Academy
We might think we have it bad with Trump, but a glance at America in the 30s makes The Donald look like a pussycat.
During this period, artists sought to capture these changes; and work from this period will be the subject of an upcoming exhibition at the RA, America After the Fall. One of the most famous in the history of American art, Grant Wood's iconic Southern Gothic will be there, along with Pollock, Hopper, O'Keefe and many more