ARTS & CULTURE
Originally published on Monday, 01 December 2008
Can't get through December without...
…checking out India’s newest art. The Serpentine Gallery surveys India’s artistic output with a group exhibition of the sub-continent’s contemporary artists. The country’s most famous creator, M.F. Husain has made a series of paintings especially for the exhibition, alongside a mixed-media range of work including experimental films by Bangalore-based artist Ayisha Abraham. Expect work to capture the dizzying contrasts of Indian life today and its ever-increasing economic power.
Indian Highway, from 10th December to 22nd February.
Serpentine Gallery, Kensington Gardens, W2 3XA
…Last chance to see modern greats at the Royal Academy. The Maeght gallery opened in Paris in 1945 becoming one of the most important contemporary art galleries in the post-war world. The roster of artists the gallery represented and on display here includes Calder, Giacometti, Braque, Matisse and Miró, arguably the most impressive line-up of artists ever represented by a single gallery. The exhibition also shows rare filmed footage of Aimé Maeght relaxing with his artists, revealing the level of intimacy he achieved with them. Think home movies with Damien Hirst and Larry Gagosian. Natch!
£10.50. Exhibition ends 2nd January.
Sackler Wing Galleries , Royal Academy of Arts, Burlington House, Piccadilly, W1J 0BD.
… listening to a band from under the kitchen sink. In these financially straightened times an orchestra made up of instruments formed by piecing together bits of junk feels wholly right. The Lost and Found Orchestra has been born out the pick-it-up-and-bang-it energy of Stomp, those noisy-asts who have been kicking up a storm in the world’s better insulated theatres for the past decade or so. Strings are replaced by bowed saws and wind instruments have morphed into kettles, vacuum cleaners and hair dryers. It won’t be subtle and it won’t be quiet. It will be very, very silly and loads of fun. Note, ear plugs not provided.
Tickets £12-£45 from December 19th- 11th January.
South Bank Centre, Belvedere Road, SE1 8XX. 
… be inspired to decorate your own Christmas Tree. Every year Tate Britain invites a leading contemporary artist to make a Christmas tree for the gallery. Which is something like a Blue Peter Christmas special wobbly home-made glitter tree, with a far, far larger dose of credibility. This year Bob and Roberta Smith, in collaboration with Electric Pedals, will create a tree using recycled timber, bicycles and lamps. Usefully you are invited to get actively involved in this imaginative and celebratory art work, so you’ll know exactly what to do you in your own front room.
Free. 5th December – 4th January
Tate Britain, Millbank, SW1P 4RG.
