We meet author/art critic Jennifer Higgie and Sotheby’s Chloe Stead to discuss an inspiring new exhibition which has just opened ‘London: An Artistic Crossroads’ runs until 5th July at Sotheby’s New Bond Street.

Sotheby's, in partnership with Art UK and twelve museums across the country, are staging a month-long exhibition, open to the public and free of charge, shining a spotlight on the UK as a centre of creative cross-pollination.

The exhibition, ‘London: An Artistic Crossroads’, brings together an assemblage of remarkable works by artists who passed through or settled in the UK during their lifetime. The earliest of the works is a vivacious portrait by Flemish artist Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger, who became one of the most sought-after portraitists in England during the 16th century. It is joined by a vibrant landscape by André Derain, for whom London was a place of explosive transformation, as well as an iconic

Composition by Piet Mondrian who, out of fear of German invasion and encouraged by Ben Nicholson, left Paris for Hampstead in 1938. Lucian Freud, Francis Bacon and Dame Lucie Rie are included in the line up, all émigrés, Freud from metropolitan Germany, Bacon from rural Ireland and Rie from Vienna, in addition to Frank Bowling, R.B. Kitaj and Dame Magdalene Odundo, among others.

The exhibition coincides with NG200 - the Bicentenary celebrations of London's National Gallery - which it is intended to complement. As the National Gallery launches its National Treasures programme, where 12 of the nation’s most iconic and well-loved paintings from the collection are lent to 12 venues across the UK, this exhibition does the reverse: bringing 12 works from major regional collections together in the capital city.

The National Gallery has long provided a source of inspiration for creatives, who look to its rich collection to further enhance their own practices. Many of the artists presented in Sotheby’s exhibition publicly acknowledged the museum’s influence over their own styles and practice, including Bacon, Freud (the subject of a landmark National Gallery exhibition – ‘New Perspectives’ – in 2022/23), Kitaj (who selected paintings for ‘The Artist’s Eye’ exhibition at the National Gallery in 1980), Bowling and Auerbach, who was even invited to show his interpretations of some of the National Gallery’s paintings in 1995.

Jennifer Higgie is an Australian writer. Previously the editor of Frieze magazine, and the presenter of Bow Down, a podcast about women in art history, she is the author of a 2021 book on women’s self-portraits, 'The Mirror & The Palette: Rebellion, Revolution & Resistance, 500 Years of Women's Self Portraits'. Her latest book 'The Other Side: Women, Art and the Spirit World', was published in 2023. Jennifer has been a judge of the Paul Hamlyn Award, the Turner Prize and the John Moore’s Painting Prize.

Chloe Stead is Global Head of Private Sales, Old Masters Paintings for Sotheby's. She actively works with collectors, institutions, and dealers in buying and selling works of art internationally.

Follow @Jennifer_Higgie and to learn more about the exhibition visit: @Sothebys

‘London: An Artistic Crossroads’ is open now and runs until 5th July at Sotheby’s New Bond Street.

Learn more: https://www.sothebys.com/en/articles/twelve-artistic-treasures-meet-in-london

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