at the Victoria and Albert Museum through 5 May 2025
This is a lush treasure trove of spectacularly beautiful objects. You could spend hours here diving into the politics, craftsmanship and social trends of the glory days of the Mughals. The time period covered is roughly 1560-1660, with art coming from northern India, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq and other bits of the Middle East. You can also happily ignore all the context, simply wandering around and filling your eyes with glory. All of the giddy fantasies of The Arabian Nights are here.
The Mughals loved intricate craftsmanship. You’ll know their greatest hit, the Taj Mahal. These rooms show how that was just the tip of the decorative iceberg. From clothing to rugs, documents to furniture, cooking pots to ceramics … you get the feeling that the Mughal court couldn’t tolerate anything being simple or plain. The most stellar objects are small enough that I regretted not having reading glasses. Opulent jewellery featuring blazes of finely-set gems and bright enamel work. Weapons with animals and flowers forming their hilts. Drinking cups and tiny boxes that were probably worth more … and took longer to make … that the average citizen’s home.
Thankfully I’m now a V&A member, because this is a show I will want to return to several times.
Medieval Women: In Their Own Words
at the British Library through 2 March
I rarely get to the British Library; it’s just that little bit too far north to be on the “flight path” for anything I usually do. But I had a rare meeting in this part of town and thought I’d drop in. I found an exhibition worth going out of your way for.
We meet Trota of Salerno, a medic offering well-informed, practical advice on women’s health from the then-cosmopolitan courts of Southern Italy. Christine de Pizan stands out as the first professional female author in Europe. A fascinating “birth girdle” … essentially a belt inscribed with charms and prayers to wrap around the pregnant woman’s stomach … brings home the extreme danger of childbirth. Ippolita Maria Sforza argues forcefully for female education. Gwerful Mechain writes satirical poetry in Welsh about women’s vaginas, suggesting that it’s what men are really talking about in their poetry so she’s just getting to the point. We meet the first female printer in Europe, Estellina Conat, and the savvy banker Licoricia of Winchester, both of whom achieved success despite the double drawbacks of being female and Jewish.
Though there are a lot of texts here, as you’d expect from a library-sponsored exhibition, the show brings the Middle Ages to life with gorgeous illuminated manuscripts, a handful of complementary artefacts, atmospheric background music, short films from experts and really attractive set design. This was my biggest pleasant surprise of the autumn.
Barbie: The Exhibition
at the Design Museum through 23 February 2025
Barbie: The Exhibition
at the Design Museum through 23 February 2025
Barbie would have been just as surprising as the British Library show, had I not read some rave reviews in advance. The exhibition is a long, bubbly bath in sweet nostalgia for anyone who played with Barbie dolls as a child. It goes much deeper, however, revealing Mattel’s decades-long prowess in design and marketing.
The show starts with the creation of the iconic doll, pointing out that while her lithe form can earn feminist ire today she was meant to be a star of their movement. In a world where dolls were almost entirely babies, giving little girls a chance to practice motherhood, Barbie let their imaginations soar to new possibilities. (I think the Barbie Tikki Bar may have had a disproportionate influence on my own life.) A procession of Barbies through the years shows not only how in-tune the dolls were with the times, but how adept the company has been at shifting facial features and skin tones to include new markets. They were doing diversity before most corporate diversity trainers were born.
We think of tie-ups between seemingly unrelated companies as a modern phenomenon, but Barbie has been doing it for decades. The fashion designers who’ve had a go at dressing her are impressive, and so are all the consumer brands that have placed themselves in her life. The room full of accessories is a blast, showing the evolution of Barbie’s houses, cars, lifestyle and travel. Pure fun, with a few solid marketing lessons slipped in.
Michelangelo, Leonardo, Raphael: Florence c. 1504
The show starts with the creation of the iconic doll, pointing out that while her lithe form can earn feminist ire today she was meant to be a star of their movement. In a world where dolls were almost entirely babies, giving little girls a chance to practice motherhood, Barbie let their imaginations soar to new possibilities. (I think the Barbie Tikki Bar may have had a disproportionate influence on my own life.) A procession of Barbies through the years shows not only how in-tune the dolls were with the times, but how adept the company has been at shifting facial features and skin tones to include new markets. They were doing diversity before most corporate diversity trainers were born.
We think of tie-ups between seemingly unrelated companies as a modern phenomenon, but Barbie has been doing it for decades. The fashion designers who’ve had a go at dressing her are impressive, and so are all the consumer brands that have placed themselves in her life. The room full of accessories is a blast, showing the evolution of Barbie’s houses, cars, lifestyle and travel. Pure fun, with a few solid marketing lessons slipped in.
at the Royal Academy of Arts through February 2025
A serious exhibition for hard-core fans, marred by the RA letting too many people at once into a show that mostly requires you to get close to drawings on paper. As with the Mughals, I was kicking myself for not bringing reading glasses. The rivalry between the three Renaissance artists is familiar territory and I found nothing particularly new here. (Unlike the British Museum’s Michelangelo: The Last Decades earlier this year that revealed fascinating elements to the artist’s spirituality and closest friendships.)
The most striking part of this show is being able to compare Michelangelo’s preparatory drawings to the circular relief he sculpted from them, here shown just a few feet away. The only Michelangelo sculpture in the UK, this “tondo” is already part of the Royal Academy’s collection so nothing particularly new. The main point of the exhibition is to show the way the three men influenced each other, demonstrated through their drawings. Interesting, though I suspect all but the most dedicated art history nerds will be more entertained, while learning just as much, but watching the three-part Renaissance: The Blood and The Beauty currently on BBC iPlayer. Exact same topic, but with Charles Dance doing a compelling turn as Michelangelo. If you do come see the exhibition, watch the BBC series first to make it more relevant.
Naomi in Fashion
at the Victoria and Albert through 6 April 2025
One of the glories of museum membership is getting to poke your head into exhibitions you wouldn’t choose to pay for. Which is how I ended up flitting through this impressive collection of haute couture that supermodel Naomi Campbell has shown off on the catwalk. While popular culture isn’t my thing, and I’ve never been the size or had the money to bother with high fashion, I can’t deny that many of the dresses in here are proper works of art. There’s a peacock feather gown that’s as beautiful as anything in the Mughal exhibition, and a golden, beaded wonder that looks too fine for human consumption … more appropriate for an Elven queen in Lord of the Rings. The curators have done a clever interactive bit in the centre of the exhibition space, inviting visitors to try and get evaluated on a catwalk strut. A gaggle of teenage girls were having the time of their lives.
Silk Roads
at the British Museum through 23 February 2025
I really wanted to like this exhibition. Sadly, it left me a bit cold. The premise is a good one, though hardly original: the trading routes for luxury goods that have been operating since ancient times have cross-fertilised cultures at the same time they exchanged goods. It’s a bit of an art historical validation for the global economy. Look at what lovely things we make when we all influence each other.
Thus you get a global potpourri of stuff, from Buddhas and Chinese pottery to Viking silver and the decorative accessories of the Ancient Rus. The items on display are attractive but there are no jaw-droppers that make this a must-see. And while the concept of cross-pollination was a good one there was only one “ah ha” moment for me in the whole show; A Hindu god sculpted with Ancient Greek musculature really drove the mash up message home. Overall, I was missing a story to tie it all together. Remembering how the same museum had brought its Roman Legion show together through the story of one soldier, I thought they really missed a trick not introducing us to one or more traders who could have brought these routes to life.
The most striking part of this show is being able to compare Michelangelo’s preparatory drawings to the circular relief he sculpted from them, here shown just a few feet away. The only Michelangelo sculpture in the UK, this “tondo” is already part of the Royal Academy’s collection so nothing particularly new. The main point of the exhibition is to show the way the three men influenced each other, demonstrated through their drawings. Interesting, though I suspect all but the most dedicated art history nerds will be more entertained, while learning just as much, but watching the three-part Renaissance: The Blood and The Beauty currently on BBC iPlayer. Exact same topic, but with Charles Dance doing a compelling turn as Michelangelo. If you do come see the exhibition, watch the BBC series first to make it more relevant.
at the Victoria and Albert through 6 April 2025
One of the glories of museum membership is getting to poke your head into exhibitions you wouldn’t choose to pay for. Which is how I ended up flitting through this impressive collection of haute couture that supermodel Naomi Campbell has shown off on the catwalk. While popular culture isn’t my thing, and I’ve never been the size or had the money to bother with high fashion, I can’t deny that many of the dresses in here are proper works of art. There’s a peacock feather gown that’s as beautiful as anything in the Mughal exhibition, and a golden, beaded wonder that looks too fine for human consumption … more appropriate for an Elven queen in Lord of the Rings. The curators have done a clever interactive bit in the centre of the exhibition space, inviting visitors to try and get evaluated on a catwalk strut. A gaggle of teenage girls were having the time of their lives.
Silk Roads
at the British Museum through 23 February 2025
Thus you get a global potpourri of stuff, from Buddhas and Chinese pottery to Viking silver and the decorative accessories of the Ancient Rus. The items on display are attractive but there are no jaw-droppers that make this a must-see. And while the concept of cross-pollination was a good one there was only one “ah ha” moment for me in the whole show; A Hindu god sculpted with Ancient Greek musculature really drove the mash up message home. Overall, I was missing a story to tie it all together. Remembering how the same museum had brought its Roman Legion show together through the story of one soldier, I thought they really missed a trick not introducing us to one or more traders who could have brought these routes to life.
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