LONDON.- Last October London Art Week introduced a new series of interim online events: Art History in Focus. Another impressive line-up of insightful and lively talks will be taking place this March.

16 March – The Female Artists, Actresses, and Playwrights of Strawberry Hill Theatricals

This webinar will explore the role of female artists, actresses, and playwrights involved with theatre at Horace Walpole’s Strawberry Hill; present illustrations of Walpole’s scandalous gothic play The Mysterious Mother by the artist Diana Beauclerk and the closet built to house them at Strawberry Hill and will also touch on Walpole’s literary executor Mary Berry’s play Fashionable Friends, performed at Strawberry Hill with sets designed by her sister Agnes and with herself and the sculptor Anne Damer in the leading roles. Damer had a close relationship with the famous actress Eliza Farren, re-imagined in Emma Donoghue’s historical novel Life Mask.

23 March – Medieval Women: Subjects and Makers of Art

Arranged with Sam Fogg in conjunction with their online exhibition, Medieval Women: Subjects and Makers of Art (25 February – 31 March 2021), enjoy a tour of the exhibition in its gallery setting, accompanied by commentary and an in-depth look at select individual works, and watch a pre-recorded expert panel in discussion on the subject.

24 March – Dürer’s Journeys

An in-depth discussion of the much-heralded National Gallery exhibition, Dürer’s Journeys: Travels of a Renaissance Artist (opening soon) with Dr. Imogen Tedbury (National Gallery), Anthony Crichton-Stuart of Agnews and Katrin Bellinger, Collector and Founder, Tavolozza Foundation.

25 March – Thomas Lawrence: Coming of Age

Amina Wright, author of a new book on Thomas Lawrence’s first twenty-five years, discusses the early works of this young prodigy with LAW dealers Lowell Libson (Lowell Libson & Jonny Yarker Ltd) and Ben Elwes of Ben Elwes Fine Art. Both galleries have recently handled early works by Lawrence that will feature in a forthcoming online exhibition at the website of the Holburne Museum in Bath entitled Thomas Lawrence: Coming of Age. Registrants to this talk can benefit from a discount on the book of the same title written by Amina Wright (Philip Wilson Publishers).

29 March – Women Artists

Florrie Evans, director of The Fine Art Society London, in conversation with Jo Baring, Director of the Ingram Collection of Modern British & Contemporary Art.

More details on the talks will be announced on the website; they are all free to attend, just register online to take part. Written articles will spotlight individual works of art for sale from London Art Week dealers on a variety of subjects. A series on Women Artists continues a thread that LAW started in October 2020; and whilst we are still unable to travel in real life, London Art Week lets the artists do the travelling for us, presenting works on the theme of A Place in Time – views and locations captured by artists across the centuries that we might like to imagine ourselves in and the travels we could enjoy to reach them.

London Art Week Summer 2021, 1-16 July

London Art Week will take place as a dual aspect event, online in a Digital format allowing participants from across the globe to take part, and as physical exhibitions in galleries as local guidelines allow.

A new introduction to LAW Digital Summer 2021 will be Revolution and Renewal, an online themed exhibition. London Art Week is delighted to welcome as guest curator the art historian, curator and academic scholar Dr. Arturo Galansino, Director General of the Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi in Florence. Well-known among the London Art Week community, Arturo Galansino has been invited to curate this special exhibition by the LAW Board who have long admired his exceptional track record in curating and co-curating incredible shows spanning Old Masters to contemporary art: from Moroni, Giorgione and Rubens at the Royal Academy to Ai Weiwei, Bill Viola and Marina Abramović at the Palazzo Strozzi. “It will be interesting to see what thread, narrow or broad, he weaves from the submitted works to Revolution and Renewal,” comments Amelia Higgins, Director, London Art Week.

“The online exhibition will have its own section on the LAW website”, explains Luce Garrigues, Director, London Art Week Digital, “and all participants will be invited to submit a work on the theme for consideration by Dr. Galansino. As a collegial, curator-led exhibition, Arturo will select his highlights and write his own introduction on the theme. To give our dealers greater voice, we will be asking each participant to explain why they submit their chosen work.”

On opening night, Thursday 1 July, VIPs will preview a curatorial talk about Revolution and Renewal.

Among exhibitors at LAW Summer 2021 will be first-time participants The Fine Art Society and Elliott Fine Art (Director Will Elliott, formerly at Colnaghi), alongside returning galleries such as Didier Aaron, Benappi Fine Art, Ben Elwes Fine Art, Georg Laue Kunstkammer Ltd, Lullo•Pampoulides, Stephen Ongpin Fine Art, Karen Taylor Fine Art, Tomasso Brothers Fine Art, Guy Peppiatt Fine Art, Trinity Fine Art, Sotheby’s and Christie’s. The LAW Board is delighted to welcome back Philip Mould & Company, Agnews and Sladmore Gallery all of whom re-joined the event in 2020. Eminent Old Master paintings dealer Johnny van Haeften also returns. Confirmed exhibitions include Portraiture 1800-1950 (Elliott Fine Art), an 80th birthday retrospective of renowned South African artist-potter Hylton Nel (The Fine Art Society), Italian Renaissance featuring museum quality sculpture and painting at Colnaghi and Medieval Treasury Objects (Sam Fogg).