Arts & Culture
Originally published on Tuesday, 5th February 2013
The Culturist: February
Things get real in February. The dry spell is over (if you ever started), hardcore health plans have loosened up considerably and you’re willing to start being sociable again. And doesn’t London know it? She’s throwing out all sorts of cultural offerings this month, from two major retrospectives, to must-see foreign film and theatre, and one of the most highly anticipated restaurant openings of the year. Time to get back on the map.
ART: LICHTENSTEIN: A RETROSPECTIVE
February 21 – May 27, £14
Tate Modern, Bankside, SE1 9TG
A big-hitter but a goodie. Book tickets now for Lichtenstein’s Retrospective at Tate Modern before the hoards descend (the advance open day is Feb 20). It’s gone full circle – Tate first staged a solo exhibition for him back in 1968, the first ever showcase completely dedicated to a living American artist. See 125 of his most definitive paintings from hand-painted landscapes to comic strips – including his first masterpiece Look Mickey – and decide who did the Ben-Day dot better: him or Warhol.
EAT : BALTHAZAR
Balthazar, opens mid-February The Flower Cellars, 4-6 Russell Street, WC2B 5HZ
Balthazar, the almost-mythical creature of New York’s restaurant scene, is finally coming to London (along with a few others…) courtesy of Keith McNally and Richard Caring. And it’s not just resting on its laurels. Instead of being a carbon copy of its NY mother, the London outpost will use the best of British served up French bistro style. We just hope the $99 three-tiered seafood platter makes the cut. As in NY there will be a bakery next door selling bread, pastries, sandwiches and other lunchtime goodies.
BOOK PICK: PHILIP TREACY BY KEVIN DAVIES
Now available, £39.95
His list of commissions reads like a who’s who in modern day society (Elizabeth Taylor, Princess Marie-Chantal of Greece, David Beckham, Lady Gaga) yet he still continues to surprise us – remember his MJ-inspired comeback show last year? Now, the futuristic milliner master Philip Treacy celebrates a new book that has been 20 years in the making. Chronicling his life and works from the past two decades, the tome, made up from photographs taken by close friend Kevin Davies, candidly captures his day-to-day life, behind-the-scenes commotion and the many, many masterpieces.
FILM : NO
Opens February 8, £13.75, Curzon Soho, 99 Shaftesbury Avenue, W1D 5DY
Pablo Larraín’s third film is based on true events that happened in Chile in 1988 ahead of the national referendum on dictator Pinochet. House name Gael García Bernal (who also co-produced the drama) plays René Saavedra, an advertising executive who is tasked with creating the “NO” campaign against Pinochet’s re-election. The plan? To overthrow the dictatorship with happiness.
THEATRE: PETER & ALICE
March 9 – June 1, tickets from £12.00
Noël Coward Theatre, St Martin's Lane, WC2N 4AU
Director Michael Grandage is pulling out all the stops for the first season of his new West End theatre company, which will show five plays for five-week runs. Peter and Alice, the second play from six-Tony award winning John Logan, is the tale of an encounter between Alice Liddell Hargreaves (the inspiration for Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland) and Peter Llewelyn Davies (the inspiration for JM Barrie’s Peter Pan) in 1932 at a Lewis Carroll exhibition. Did we mention the leads are Ben Whishaw and Judi Dench? The company will also stage A Midsummer Night’s Dream with Sheridan Smith and David Walliams, and Henry V with Jude Law. Get booking. Like now.
V-DAY : THE MIDNIGHT MOMENT
every night from 11.57pm until Feb 28, Times Square, New York
If we must do the big V then we pick Tracey Emin’s neon memos in New York. Three minutes before midnight every night this month, Emin’s romantic neon messages will appear on video screens across Times Square. Paris is also getting their own taste of New York signage. NY artist Baron Von Fancy – who pays homage to the old school sign-painter artists of his city via tongue-in-cheek clichés – exhibits at Colette this month, where you can also pick up tees, postcards and bags.
MIX: SMALLTOWN DJS BEST OF 2012
If you need some toe-tap-inducing encouragement to embrace 2013 we urge you to get familiar with the (not so) Smalltown DJs from Calgary. They are the self-proclaimed KISS of dance music so expect tunes that make you want to get up (and down).
NEW YEAR: BAO CHINESE NEW YEAR
February 11, from 6pm (no bookings required), Dead Dolls Club 428 Kingsland Road E9 7LJ
If you thought the street food fad was oversaturated then you were wrong. Bao, London’s latest street food enthusiasts, have travelled the night markets of Taiwan to perfect their take on Xiao Chi, literally “small eats”. Their signature dish, Gua Bao (pork bun), is a fermented tangzhong (a brioche-like bread) bun filled with slow braised pork belly, pickles, coriander and peanut powder. If you missed their first pop up event last week, then head to the Dead Dolls Club for Chinese New Year where Bao will be cooking up a Taiwanese storm: soya milk fried chicken, razor clams, daikon croquettes and red bean crumble, not to mention the lucky Gua Baos.
PHOTOGRAPHY: MAN RAY PORTRAITS
February 7 – May 27, £14, National Portrait Gallery, St Martin's Place, WC2H 0HE
The National Portrait Gallery is staging the first major retrospective dedicated to the portraits by prolific modernist photographer Emmanuel Radnitzky, aka Man Ray. 150 vintage prints taken throughout his working life in Paris, New York and Hollywood (and for publications such as Vogue and Vanity Fair) will be on show, featuring artists, musicians and performers such as Catherine Deneuve, Salvador Dalí and Kiki de Montparnasse, the famous subject of his most iconic piece, Le Violon d’Ingres.
