American Impressionism. A New Vision

19th July 2014 - 19th October 2014
http://www.nationalgalleries.org/

The exhibition traces the discovery of Impressionism by American artists in the late 19th-century. Divided into four groups these include: major figures such as Mary Cassatt, John Singer Sargent and James McNeill Whistler who lived in Paris and were close personal friends of the French Impressionists, especially Degas and Monet; the group of American artists who trained in Paris and/ or settled near Monet at Giverny in 1887; American Impressionists working in the USA, including William Merritt Chase, Childe Hassam and Theodore Robinson and Later Impressionism and the American group known as 'The Ten'.

No Foreign Lands: Peter Doig

Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art
3rd August 2013 - 3rd September 2013

The first major Scottish show by Edinburgh-born Doig focuses on paintings from the last decade that reflect years spent between Trinidad, London and Germany. His paintings are filled with oblique references and unsettling atmosphere, local colour and characters. Fetching mind-boggling prices these days, he still tries to keep it real.

This important international exhibition is a collaboration with the Museum of Fine Arts in Montreal and surveys the paintings and works on paper that Doig has created during the past 10 years, with a particular emphasis on the artist's approach to serial motifs and recurring imagery. These works are exotic in their subject matter, formally spare and monumental at the same time and show Doig working at the height of his extraordinary powers.

His inventive style, uncommonly sensuous palette and suggestive imagery set him apart from the conceptualism dominating much of contemporary art. A willingness to take up the challenge still posed by the paintings of Gauguin, Matisse, Bonnard, Marsden Hartley and Edward Hopper places him in a long line of great colourists, expressive handlers of paint and creators of richly textured worlds.

Witches and Wicked Bodies

www.nationalgalleries.org
27th July 2013 - 3rd November 2013

An exploration of how witches and witchcraft have been depicted by artists over the past 500 years, including works by Albrecht Dürer, Francisco de Goya and William Blake, alongside pieces by 20th century artists such as Paula Rego and Kiki Smith.

The exhibition comprises 16th and 17th century prints and drawings that through the advent of the printing press spread artists' ideas, myths and fears about witches from country to country, successfully embedding these images in our visual culture to the present day. Modern works included in the show challenge how these myths have formed the basis for negative cultural representations of women.

Including major works on loan from the British Museum, the National Gallery (London), Tate, the Victoria & Albert Museum, as well as works from the Galleries’ own collections, Witches & Wicked Bodies will be an investigation of extremes, exploring the highly exaggerated ways in which witches have been represented, from hideous hags to beautiful seductresses.