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exhibitions^ 12-18 Aug 2017^ guide^32

Five of the best

exhibitions

1

Kate Davis

Hilarious and provocative

conjunctions of word and

image make Davis a powerful

feminist artist. Her arresting

videos include a surreal remix

of a 1960s documentary about

the sculptor Barbara Hepworth.

The pretentious narration

is undermined by images of

the banality and boredom of

housework and suburban life.

Intelligent, enjoyable stuff.

Stills Gallery, Edinburgh, to 8 Oct

2

Soul of a Nation

This incredibly rich survey of

black American art in the age of

Martin Luther King and Malcolm

X reclaims hosts of neglected

artists and is refreshingly open

in its definition of what is

“political”. There’s everything

from the Black Panther magazine

to poetic and mysterious abstract

paintings. The evolution of

David Hammons from radical

printmaker to wittily subversive

conceptual artist is one of the

highlights, as are the epic colour

field canvases of Frank Bowling.

Don’t miss it.

Tate Modern, SE1, to 22 Oct

3

Daughters of Penelope

This celebration of female

weavers at Edinburgh’s

important workshop also

includes artists who are

interested in what has been

defined as a “female” craft

ever since Homer’s Odyssey

portrayed Penelope weaving

and unweaving a tapestry. A

rug by Sonia Delaunay and a

fantastical spiralling galaxy

of eyes designed by Linder

are among the highlights of a

pleasurable dive into colour.

Dovecot Gallery, Edinburgh, to

20 Jan

4

Michael Sailstorfer

A warm aroma of

woodsmoke drifts across the

central piazza of this excellent

sculpture park but it doesn’t

come from a pizza oven. It

turns out that Sailstorfer has

transformed a row of cars into

wood-burning stove. Nature

reclaims its own yet the effect

is sinister and unnerving.

In another piece, a popcorn

machine creates a slowly

spreading sea of the stuff.

Elsewhere, houses are crushed

by giant frozen tears.

Jupiter Artland, Edinburgh, to

1 Oct

5

Raphael

The best exhibition of the

year so far reveals the very

human genius of an artist

who is so revered he can seem

remote. Raphael’s disarming

drawings of mothers and babies,

people fleeing a fire, and a cruel

massacre have an unaffected

truth and unforced beauty. You

end up loving Raphael so much

you mourn his early death,

nearly 500 years ago in 1520.

It is rare for an exhibition to so

transform how we see an artist.

Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, to

3 Sep

Jonathan Jones

 Raphael,

Head of

an Apostle

(c1503)

 (Far left,

top) Romare

Bearden,

Pittsburgh

Memory

(1964)

 (Far left,

bottom)

Michael

Sailstorfer,

1:43-47 (2012)

TRUSTEES OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM; JOSEPH BUCKLEY