New This Year at London Art Week

June 26, 2021

Aelbert Cuyp (1620 - 1691), "A Portrait of a Gentleman holding a Watch," Johnny Van Haeften Ltd

London Art Week 2021: Special Exhibitions, Discoveries and Talks

From the organizers:

This year’s London Art Week (LAW) will be held in a dual format, with exhibitions taking place in participating galleries as well as on the digital platform from July 2-16. It is a major showcase of some of the best the art market has to offer from leading international galleries and auction houses, in London and abroad. “Led by a flagship Summer event, with a second week of events and exhibitions in the Winter, LAW aims to offer the very best paintings, drawings, prints, sculpture and objects, dating from Antiquity to the Twenty-First Century.”

Corneille de La Haye, known as Corneille de Lyon (c. 1500 - 1575), Madeleine of France, later Queen Consort of Scotland (1520 - 1537), The Weiss Gallery — Corneille de La Haye, known as Corneille de Lyon (c. 1500 – 1575), “Madeleine of France, later Queen Consort of Scotland (1520 – 1537),” The Hague; Lyon; c. 1536 – c. 1537, Oil on French oak panel, 13.8 × 11.8 cm. (5 ⅜ × 4 ⅝ in.); 37 x 25 cm. (14 5/8 x 9 2/3 in.)

What is new this year?

London Art Week launches a satellite Showcase in association with Cromwell Place, the recently-opened exhibition space in South Kensington. A special group exhibition will be held from July 2-9 in a dedicated room, which will feature a selection of works from a variety of LAW dealers (in addition to their own gallery-based shows). Some LAW participants will also be using spaces at Cromwell Place for their exhibitions this Summer.

This means that you can now visit London Art Week galleries, exhibitions and dealers in locations spanning Richmond to Holland Park and Kensington, Bloomsbury to Soho, in addition to our central hub of St. James’s and Mayfair.

A Digital group selling exhibition, Revolution and Renewal, is launching LAW Summer 2021. As part of London Art Week’s collaboration with museums, the organizers are delighted to welcome as guest curator the eminent art historian, curator and scholar Dr. Arturo Galansino, Director General of the Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi in Florence. The curated exhibition will have its own online section at LAW Digital and all participants have submitted a work on the theme for consideration.

Due to the pandemic, this is the first physical event offering London Art Week dealers a chance to show their latest discoveries. This year, Benappi Fine Art is introducing a lost Tintoretto portrait, recently discovered in a regional auction house. The Weiss Gallery runs an exhibition on the ‘Summer Queen’ after the discovery of a portrait by Corneille de La Haye of the tragic Madeleine of France, who fell in love with and married James V of Scotland (1512-1542), but died shortly after she arrived in Scotland.

Ben Elwes Fine Art has recently been able to attribute a previously-unknown marble bust of Victorian writer and activist Jessie White Mario (1832-1906) to the American sculptor Margaret Foley. Johnny van Haeften will be showing a rediscovered and rare early Portrait of a Gentleman holding a Watch by Aelbert Cuyp (1620-1691). Galerie Canesso presents a new addition to the oeuvre of Bartolomeo Cavarozzi (1587-1625), considered to be one of the greatest still life painters of the Caravaggesque movement – Basket of Fruit.

LAW continues with its extensive online talks program with specialists in their field including talks on Dürer with the National Gallery, the latest exhibitions at the Musee de Luxembourg in Paris, the Frick Madison in New York and the National Museum of Bargello in Florence. Other panel discussions are on Old Master Drawings as well as one looking at the conservation of Modern Drawings and last but not least a conversation with a collector of the works by South African-based contemporary artist-potter Hylton Nel.