V&A Museum – Major Shows Opening in 2010

Shadow Catchers, Postmodernism and the Aesthetic Movement Explored

Sep 19, 2009

Three shows at the V&A. One looks at Shadow Catchers - camera-free ways to capture images. Two explore art movements - Postmodernism and the British Aesthetic Movement.

The V&A is renowned for outstanding exhibitions based on its comprehensive collections. The museum is a storehouse of treasures spanning more than 3000 years. Exhibits have been gathered from all corners of the globe.

Visitors are promised even more treats as 2010 approaches with new shows planned, such as Shadow Catchers, Postmodernism and The Cult of Beauty – The Aesthetic Movement in Britain, 1860-1900. All three exhibitions will be subject to an admission charge.

Five international artists – Pierre Cordier, Susan Derges, Adam Fuss, Garry Fabian Miller and Floris Neusüss – will be featured in this exhibition.

These artists question the belief that a camera is needed to take a photograph. The artists capture images by casting shadows on light sensitive paper or by chemically manipulating its surface. The exhibition will examine camera-less techniques, which were originally explored by earlier photographers, and have now been re-discovered by 21st-century artists.

Shadow Catchers will be open in The Porter Gallery from 12th October 2010 to 23rd January 2011.

The Cult of Beauty will explore the Aesthetic Movement in Britain between 1860 and 1900. The show will ask how the ideas of a small group of avant-garde artists grew so rapidly into an art movement that influenced so many aspects of everyday life. Items on display will include metalwork, ceramics, furniture, paintings, wallpapers, domestic furnishings, photographs and costumes.

Works by James Abbot McNeill Whistler, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, George Frederick Leighton, Edward Burne-Jones and William Morris will be on view together with items by Christopher Dresser, Bruce Talbert and Walter Crane. Architectural and interior designs by Edward Godwin, George Aitchison, Philip Webb, Thomas Jeckyll and other designers will also be on display.

The Cult of Beauty will be open from April – to July 2011. The exact dates are still to be confirmed.

Postmodernism, an exhibition centred on the 1970s and 1980s, will address specific questions:

The show will explore various areas of design, including architecture, interior design, furniture, graphics and graffiti art. It will also investigate the music of the era such as raves, New Wave and Hip-hop. The exhibition will demonstrate how pop-promo videos helped promote personalities like Grace Jones, Boy George and Madonna.

The exhibition will open on 8th October 2011 and will be on show until 15th January 2012.

Further details about the above-mentioned exhibitions, related events and publications, can be obtained from the V&A Museum.

The copyright of the article V&A Museum – Major Shows Opening in 2010 in Special Art Gallery Exhibits is owned by Frances Spiegel. Permission to republish V&A Museum – Major Shows Opening in 2010 in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.