Courtauld Gallery Reopening Review
One of London's best-loved galleries finally re-opens its doors after a three-year refurbishment
By
Adam Wells
November 22, 2021
Having been closed for a three-year transformation project, the reopening of London’s Courtauld Gallery stands as an event which has been greatly anticipated by UK art-lovers. With the space housing one of the country’s greatest art collections, the temptation may have been to create an equally grand space apparently befitting of the works. What the gallery has instead opted to do is to ensure that the focus remains on the art itself rather than where it is housed, striking a balance between a clean, modern space, and one which feels like a natural fit for the collection on display.
This is not to say that the gallery lacks spectacle; from the ceiling of the Blavatnik Fine Rooms an angelic fresco stares down at visitors, at the top of the gallery’s historic staircase resides a newly-commissioned five metre-long painting by contemporary artist Cecily Brown entitled Unmoored from her reflection (2021), and entering the Katja and Nicolai Tangen 20th Century Gallery to be met with Oskar Kokoschka’s room-filling triptych The Myth of Prometheus (1950)- on display to the public for the first time in over a decade - is nothing short of breathtaking.
Still, the space goes to great lengths to ensure that the art itself remains the focal point of the gallery. The first floor displaying medieval and early Renaissance art is characterised by its low ceilings and soft lighting, perfectly fitting the gilded religiosity of the artworks and artifacts on display. Similarly, with the second floor displaying European Art from 1400-1800, the setting is grand enough to compliment the art, but not so opulent as to distract from such works as Botticelli’s altarpiece The Holy Trinity with Saints Mary Magdalen and John the Baptist (1491-94).
It is, however, the third floor that serves as the real draw for art-lovers, featuring the enormous LVMH Great Room and its display of Impressionism and Post-Impressionism. The room is overwhelming not just by virtue of the quality of the art on display, but because of the sheer quantity of iconic artwork in one room. Housing major works by some of the twentieth century’s greatest artists, every wall practically demands attention. Van Gogh’s Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear (1889) and Peach Trees in Blossom (1889) hang opposite a wall of eight small, pointillist Seurat paintings. Behind this hang two Monet landscapes, Autumn Effect at Argenteuil (1873) and Antibes (1888), and sequestered in a nearby corner is a clustered collection of Cézanne canvases. All this is to say nothing of the paintings by Boudin, Pissarro, Manet, Degas, and Modigliani along with other artists too numerous to mention.
The gallery also includes intimate spaces such as the multipurpose Project Space, compact but with diverse potential, currently housing a collection of rarely-seen images of 1940s Kurdistan by photographer Anthony Kersting. The intimacy of the gallery is best embodied, however, in the space dedicated to the Bloomsbury Group. In a low-lit room big enough to fit only twelve people at a time, visitors are free to view works by Duncan Grant, Vanessa Bell, and Roger Fry. The room perhaps best distils the appeal of the Courtauld Gallery’s redesign; at once intimate and overwhelming with both quality and quantity.
Having been closed for a three-year transformation project, the reopening of London’s Courtauld Gallery stands as an event which has been greatly anticipated by UK art-lovers. With the space housing one of the country’s greatest art collections, the temptation may have been to create an equally grand space apparently befitting of the works. What the gallery has instead opted to do is to ensure that the focus remains on the art itself rather than where it is housed, striking a balance between a clean, modern space, and one which feels like a natural fit for the collection on display.
This is not to say that the gallery lacks spectacle; from the ceiling of the Blavatnik Fine Rooms an angelic fresco stares down at visitors, at the top of the gallery’s historic staircase resides a newly-commissioned five metre-long painting by contemporary artist Cecily Brown entitled Unmoored from her reflection (2021), and entering the Katja and Nicolai Tangen 20th Century Gallery to be met with Oskar Kokoschka’s room-filling triptych The Myth of Prometheus (1950)- on display to the public for the first time in over a decade - is nothing short of breathtaking.
Still, the space goes to great lengths to ensure that the art itself remains the focal point of the gallery. The first floor displaying medieval and early Renaissance art is characterised by its low ceilings and soft lighting, perfectly fitting the gilded religiosity of the artworks and artifacts on display. Similarly, with the second floor displaying European Art from 1400-1800, the setting is grand enough to compliment the art, but not so opulent as to distract from such works as Botticelli’s altarpiece The Holy Trinity with Saints Mary Magdalen and John the Baptist (1491-94).
It is, however, the third floor that serves as the real draw for art-lovers, featuring the enormous LVMH Great Room and its display of Impressionism and Post-Impressionism. The room is overwhelming not just by virtue of the quality of the art on display, but because of the sheer quantity of iconic artwork in one room. Housing major works by some of the twentieth century’s greatest artists, every wall practically demands attention. Van Gogh’s Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear (1889) and Peach Trees in Blossom (1889) hang opposite a wall of eight small, pointillist Seurat paintings. Behind this hang two Monet landscapes, Autumn Effect at Argenteuil (1873) and Antibes (1888), and sequestered in a nearby corner is a clustered collection of Cézanne canvases. All this is to say nothing of the paintings by Boudin, Pissarro, Manet, Degas, and Modigliani along with other artists too numerous to mention.
The gallery also includes intimate spaces such as the multipurpose Project Space, compact but with diverse potential, currently housing a collection of rarely-seen images of 1940s Kurdistan by photographer Anthony Kersting. The intimacy of the gallery is best embodied, however, in the space dedicated to the Bloomsbury Group. In a low-lit room big enough to fit only twelve people at a time, visitors are free to view works by Duncan Grant, Vanessa Bell, and Roger Fry. The room perhaps best distils the appeal of the Courtauld Gallery’s redesign; at once intimate and overwhelming with both quality and quantity.
Having been closed for a three-year transformation project, the reopening of London’s Courtauld Gallery stands as an event which has been greatly anticipated by UK art-lovers. With the space housing one of the country’s greatest art collections, the temptation may have been to create an equally grand space apparently befitting of the works. What the gallery has instead opted to do is to ensure that the focus remains on the art itself rather than where it is housed, striking a balance between a clean, modern space, and one which feels like a natural fit for the collection on display.
This is not to say that the gallery lacks spectacle; from the ceiling of the Blavatnik Fine Rooms an angelic fresco stares down at visitors, at the top of the gallery’s historic staircase resides a newly-commissioned five metre-long painting by contemporary artist Cecily Brown entitled Unmoored from her reflection (2021), and entering the Katja and Nicolai Tangen 20th Century Gallery to be met with Oskar Kokoschka’s room-filling triptych The Myth of Prometheus (1950)- on display to the public for the first time in over a decade - is nothing short of breathtaking.
Still, the space goes to great lengths to ensure that the art itself remains the focal point of the gallery. The first floor displaying medieval and early Renaissance art is characterised by its low ceilings and soft lighting, perfectly fitting the gilded religiosity of the artworks and artifacts on display. Similarly, with the second floor displaying European Art from 1400-1800, the setting is grand enough to compliment the art, but not so opulent as to distract from such works as Botticelli’s altarpiece The Holy Trinity with Saints Mary Magdalen and John the Baptist (1491-94).
It is, however, the third floor that serves as the real draw for art-lovers, featuring the enormous LVMH Great Room and its display of Impressionism and Post-Impressionism. The room is overwhelming not just by virtue of the quality of the art on display, but because of the sheer quantity of iconic artwork in one room. Housing major works by some of the twentieth century’s greatest artists, every wall practically demands attention. Van Gogh’s Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear (1889) and Peach Trees in Blossom (1889) hang opposite a wall of eight small, pointillist Seurat paintings. Behind this hang two Monet landscapes, Autumn Effect at Argenteuil (1873) and Antibes (1888), and sequestered in a nearby corner is a clustered collection of Cézanne canvases. All this is to say nothing of the paintings by Boudin, Pissarro, Manet, Degas, and Modigliani along with other artists too numerous to mention.
The gallery also includes intimate spaces such as the multipurpose Project Space, compact but with diverse potential, currently housing a collection of rarely-seen images of 1940s Kurdistan by photographer Anthony Kersting. The intimacy of the gallery is best embodied, however, in the space dedicated to the Bloomsbury Group. In a low-lit room big enough to fit only twelve people at a time, visitors are free to view works by Duncan Grant, Vanessa Bell, and Roger Fry. The room perhaps best distils the appeal of the Courtauld Gallery’s redesign; at once intimate and overwhelming with both quality and quantity.
Having been closed for a three-year transformation project, the reopening of London’s Courtauld Gallery stands as an event which has been greatly anticipated by UK art-lovers. With the space housing one of the country’s greatest art collections, the temptation may have been to create an equally grand space apparently befitting of the works. What the gallery has instead opted to do is to ensure that the focus remains on the art itself rather than where it is housed, striking a balance between a clean, modern space, and one which feels like a natural fit for the collection on display.
This is not to say that the gallery lacks spectacle; from the ceiling of the Blavatnik Fine Rooms an angelic fresco stares down at visitors, at the top of the gallery’s historic staircase resides a newly-commissioned five metre-long painting by contemporary artist Cecily Brown entitled Unmoored from her reflection (2021), and entering the Katja and Nicolai Tangen 20th Century Gallery to be met with Oskar Kokoschka’s room-filling triptych The Myth of Prometheus (1950)- on display to the public for the first time in over a decade - is nothing short of breathtaking.
Still, the space goes to great lengths to ensure that the art itself remains the focal point of the gallery. The first floor displaying medieval and early Renaissance art is characterised by its low ceilings and soft lighting, perfectly fitting the gilded religiosity of the artworks and artifacts on display. Similarly, with the second floor displaying European Art from 1400-1800, the setting is grand enough to compliment the art, but not so opulent as to distract from such works as Botticelli’s altarpiece The Holy Trinity with Saints Mary Magdalen and John the Baptist (1491-94).
It is, however, the third floor that serves as the real draw for art-lovers, featuring the enormous LVMH Great Room and its display of Impressionism and Post-Impressionism. The room is overwhelming not just by virtue of the quality of the art on display, but because of the sheer quantity of iconic artwork in one room. Housing major works by some of the twentieth century’s greatest artists, every wall practically demands attention. Van Gogh’s Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear (1889) and Peach Trees in Blossom (1889) hang opposite a wall of eight small, pointillist Seurat paintings. Behind this hang two Monet landscapes, Autumn Effect at Argenteuil (1873) and Antibes (1888), and sequestered in a nearby corner is a clustered collection of Cézanne canvases. All this is to say nothing of the paintings by Boudin, Pissarro, Manet, Degas, and Modigliani along with other artists too numerous to mention.
The gallery also includes intimate spaces such as the multipurpose Project Space, compact but with diverse potential, currently housing a collection of rarely-seen images of 1940s Kurdistan by photographer Anthony Kersting. The intimacy of the gallery is best embodied, however, in the space dedicated to the Bloomsbury Group. In a low-lit room big enough to fit only twelve people at a time, visitors are free to view works by Duncan Grant, Vanessa Bell, and Roger Fry. The room perhaps best distils the appeal of the Courtauld Gallery’s redesign; at once intimate and overwhelming with both quality and quantity.
Having been closed for a three-year transformation project, the reopening of London’s Courtauld Gallery stands as an event which has been greatly anticipated by UK art-lovers. With the space housing one of the country’s greatest art collections, the temptation may have been to create an equally grand space apparently befitting of the works. What the gallery has instead opted to do is to ensure that the focus remains on the art itself rather than where it is housed, striking a balance between a clean, modern space, and one which feels like a natural fit for the collection on display.
This is not to say that the gallery lacks spectacle; from the ceiling of the Blavatnik Fine Rooms an angelic fresco stares down at visitors, at the top of the gallery’s historic staircase resides a newly-commissioned five metre-long painting by contemporary artist Cecily Brown entitled Unmoored from her reflection (2021), and entering the Katja and Nicolai Tangen 20th Century Gallery to be met with Oskar Kokoschka’s room-filling triptych The Myth of Prometheus (1950)- on display to the public for the first time in over a decade - is nothing short of breathtaking.
Still, the space goes to great lengths to ensure that the art itself remains the focal point of the gallery. The first floor displaying medieval and early Renaissance art is characterised by its low ceilings and soft lighting, perfectly fitting the gilded religiosity of the artworks and artifacts on display. Similarly, with the second floor displaying European Art from 1400-1800, the setting is grand enough to compliment the art, but not so opulent as to distract from such works as Botticelli’s altarpiece The Holy Trinity with Saints Mary Magdalen and John the Baptist (1491-94).
It is, however, the third floor that serves as the real draw for art-lovers, featuring the enormous LVMH Great Room and its display of Impressionism and Post-Impressionism. The room is overwhelming not just by virtue of the quality of the art on display, but because of the sheer quantity of iconic artwork in one room. Housing major works by some of the twentieth century’s greatest artists, every wall practically demands attention. Van Gogh’s Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear (1889) and Peach Trees in Blossom (1889) hang opposite a wall of eight small, pointillist Seurat paintings. Behind this hang two Monet landscapes, Autumn Effect at Argenteuil (1873) and Antibes (1888), and sequestered in a nearby corner is a clustered collection of Cézanne canvases. All this is to say nothing of the paintings by Boudin, Pissarro, Manet, Degas, and Modigliani along with other artists too numerous to mention.
The gallery also includes intimate spaces such as the multipurpose Project Space, compact but with diverse potential, currently housing a collection of rarely-seen images of 1940s Kurdistan by photographer Anthony Kersting. The intimacy of the gallery is best embodied, however, in the space dedicated to the Bloomsbury Group. In a low-lit room big enough to fit only twelve people at a time, visitors are free to view works by Duncan Grant, Vanessa Bell, and Roger Fry. The room perhaps best distils the appeal of the Courtauld Gallery’s redesign; at once intimate and overwhelming with both quality and quantity.
Having been closed for a three-year transformation project, the reopening of London’s Courtauld Gallery stands as an event which has been greatly anticipated by UK art-lovers. With the space housing one of the country’s greatest art collections, the temptation may have been to create an equally grand space apparently befitting of the works. What the gallery has instead opted to do is to ensure that the focus remains on the art itself rather than where it is housed, striking a balance between a clean, modern space, and one which feels like a natural fit for the collection on display.
This is not to say that the gallery lacks spectacle; from the ceiling of the Blavatnik Fine Rooms an angelic fresco stares down at visitors, at the top of the gallery’s historic staircase resides a newly-commissioned five metre-long painting by contemporary artist Cecily Brown entitled Unmoored from her reflection (2021), and entering the Katja and Nicolai Tangen 20th Century Gallery to be met with Oskar Kokoschka’s room-filling triptych The Myth of Prometheus (1950)- on display to the public for the first time in over a decade - is nothing short of breathtaking.
Still, the space goes to great lengths to ensure that the art itself remains the focal point of the gallery. The first floor displaying medieval and early Renaissance art is characterised by its low ceilings and soft lighting, perfectly fitting the gilded religiosity of the artworks and artifacts on display. Similarly, with the second floor displaying European Art from 1400-1800, the setting is grand enough to compliment the art, but not so opulent as to distract from such works as Botticelli’s altarpiece The Holy Trinity with Saints Mary Magdalen and John the Baptist (1491-94).
It is, however, the third floor that serves as the real draw for art-lovers, featuring the enormous LVMH Great Room and its display of Impressionism and Post-Impressionism. The room is overwhelming not just by virtue of the quality of the art on display, but because of the sheer quantity of iconic artwork in one room. Housing major works by some of the twentieth century’s greatest artists, every wall practically demands attention. Van Gogh’s Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear (1889) and Peach Trees in Blossom (1889) hang opposite a wall of eight small, pointillist Seurat paintings. Behind this hang two Monet landscapes, Autumn Effect at Argenteuil (1873) and Antibes (1888), and sequestered in a nearby corner is a clustered collection of Cézanne canvases. All this is to say nothing of the paintings by Boudin, Pissarro, Manet, Degas, and Modigliani along with other artists too numerous to mention.
The gallery also includes intimate spaces such as the multipurpose Project Space, compact but with diverse potential, currently housing a collection of rarely-seen images of 1940s Kurdistan by photographer Anthony Kersting. The intimacy of the gallery is best embodied, however, in the space dedicated to the Bloomsbury Group. In a low-lit room big enough to fit only twelve people at a time, visitors are free to view works by Duncan Grant, Vanessa Bell, and Roger Fry. The room perhaps best distils the appeal of the Courtauld Gallery’s redesign; at once intimate and overwhelming with both quality and quantity.
Having been closed for a three-year transformation project, the reopening of London’s Courtauld Gallery stands as an event which has been greatly anticipated by UK art-lovers. With the space housing one of the country’s greatest art collections, the temptation may have been to create an equally grand space apparently befitting of the works. What the gallery has instead opted to do is to ensure that the focus remains on the art itself rather than where it is housed, striking a balance between a clean, modern space, and one which feels like a natural fit for the collection on display.
This is not to say that the gallery lacks spectacle; from the ceiling of the Blavatnik Fine Rooms an angelic fresco stares down at visitors, at the top of the gallery’s historic staircase resides a newly-commissioned five metre-long painting by contemporary artist Cecily Brown entitled Unmoored from her reflection (2021), and entering the Katja and Nicolai Tangen 20th Century Gallery to be met with Oskar Kokoschka’s room-filling triptych The Myth of Prometheus (1950)- on display to the public for the first time in over a decade - is nothing short of breathtaking.
Still, the space goes to great lengths to ensure that the art itself remains the focal point of the gallery. The first floor displaying medieval and early Renaissance art is characterised by its low ceilings and soft lighting, perfectly fitting the gilded religiosity of the artworks and artifacts on display. Similarly, with the second floor displaying European Art from 1400-1800, the setting is grand enough to compliment the art, but not so opulent as to distract from such works as Botticelli’s altarpiece The Holy Trinity with Saints Mary Magdalen and John the Baptist (1491-94).
It is, however, the third floor that serves as the real draw for art-lovers, featuring the enormous LVMH Great Room and its display of Impressionism and Post-Impressionism. The room is overwhelming not just by virtue of the quality of the art on display, but because of the sheer quantity of iconic artwork in one room. Housing major works by some of the twentieth century’s greatest artists, every wall practically demands attention. Van Gogh’s Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear (1889) and Peach Trees in Blossom (1889) hang opposite a wall of eight small, pointillist Seurat paintings. Behind this hang two Monet landscapes, Autumn Effect at Argenteuil (1873) and Antibes (1888), and sequestered in a nearby corner is a clustered collection of Cézanne canvases. All this is to say nothing of the paintings by Boudin, Pissarro, Manet, Degas, and Modigliani along with other artists too numerous to mention.
The gallery also includes intimate spaces such as the multipurpose Project Space, compact but with diverse potential, currently housing a collection of rarely-seen images of 1940s Kurdistan by photographer Anthony Kersting. The intimacy of the gallery is best embodied, however, in the space dedicated to the Bloomsbury Group. In a low-lit room big enough to fit only twelve people at a time, visitors are free to view works by Duncan Grant, Vanessa Bell, and Roger Fry. The room perhaps best distils the appeal of the Courtauld Gallery’s redesign; at once intimate and overwhelming with both quality and quantity.
Having been closed for a three-year transformation project, the reopening of London’s Courtauld Gallery stands as an event which has been greatly anticipated by UK art-lovers. With the space housing one of the country’s greatest art collections, the temptation may have been to create an equally grand space apparently befitting of the works. What the gallery has instead opted to do is to ensure that the focus remains on the art itself rather than where it is housed, striking a balance between a clean, modern space, and one which feels like a natural fit for the collection on display.
This is not to say that the gallery lacks spectacle; from the ceiling of the Blavatnik Fine Rooms an angelic fresco stares down at visitors, at the top of the gallery’s historic staircase resides a newly-commissioned five metre-long painting by contemporary artist Cecily Brown entitled Unmoored from her reflection (2021), and entering the Katja and Nicolai Tangen 20th Century Gallery to be met with Oskar Kokoschka’s room-filling triptych The Myth of Prometheus (1950)- on display to the public for the first time in over a decade - is nothing short of breathtaking.
Still, the space goes to great lengths to ensure that the art itself remains the focal point of the gallery. The first floor displaying medieval and early Renaissance art is characterised by its low ceilings and soft lighting, perfectly fitting the gilded religiosity of the artworks and artifacts on display. Similarly, with the second floor displaying European Art from 1400-1800, the setting is grand enough to compliment the art, but not so opulent as to distract from such works as Botticelli’s altarpiece The Holy Trinity with Saints Mary Magdalen and John the Baptist (1491-94).
It is, however, the third floor that serves as the real draw for art-lovers, featuring the enormous LVMH Great Room and its display of Impressionism and Post-Impressionism. The room is overwhelming not just by virtue of the quality of the art on display, but because of the sheer quantity of iconic artwork in one room. Housing major works by some of the twentieth century’s greatest artists, every wall practically demands attention. Van Gogh’s Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear (1889) and Peach Trees in Blossom (1889) hang opposite a wall of eight small, pointillist Seurat paintings. Behind this hang two Monet landscapes, Autumn Effect at Argenteuil (1873) and Antibes (1888), and sequestered in a nearby corner is a clustered collection of Cézanne canvases. All this is to say nothing of the paintings by Boudin, Pissarro, Manet, Degas, and Modigliani along with other artists too numerous to mention.
The gallery also includes intimate spaces such as the multipurpose Project Space, compact but with diverse potential, currently housing a collection of rarely-seen images of 1940s Kurdistan by photographer Anthony Kersting. The intimacy of the gallery is best embodied, however, in the space dedicated to the Bloomsbury Group. In a low-lit room big enough to fit only twelve people at a time, visitors are free to view works by Duncan Grant, Vanessa Bell, and Roger Fry. The room perhaps best distils the appeal of the Courtauld Gallery’s redesign; at once intimate and overwhelming with both quality and quantity.
Having been closed for a three-year transformation project, the reopening of London’s Courtauld Gallery stands as an event which has been greatly anticipated by UK art-lovers. With the space housing one of the country’s greatest art collections, the temptation may have been to create an equally grand space apparently befitting of the works. What the gallery has instead opted to do is to ensure that the focus remains on the art itself rather than where it is housed, striking a balance between a clean, modern space, and one which feels like a natural fit for the collection on display.
This is not to say that the gallery lacks spectacle; from the ceiling of the Blavatnik Fine Rooms an angelic fresco stares down at visitors, at the top of the gallery’s historic staircase resides a newly-commissioned five metre-long painting by contemporary artist Cecily Brown entitled Unmoored from her reflection (2021), and entering the Katja and Nicolai Tangen 20th Century Gallery to be met with Oskar Kokoschka’s room-filling triptych The Myth of Prometheus (1950)- on display to the public for the first time in over a decade - is nothing short of breathtaking.
Still, the space goes to great lengths to ensure that the art itself remains the focal point of the gallery. The first floor displaying medieval and early Renaissance art is characterised by its low ceilings and soft lighting, perfectly fitting the gilded religiosity of the artworks and artifacts on display. Similarly, with the second floor displaying European Art from 1400-1800, the setting is grand enough to compliment the art, but not so opulent as to distract from such works as Botticelli’s altarpiece The Holy Trinity with Saints Mary Magdalen and John the Baptist (1491-94).
It is, however, the third floor that serves as the real draw for art-lovers, featuring the enormous LVMH Great Room and its display of Impressionism and Post-Impressionism. The room is overwhelming not just by virtue of the quality of the art on display, but because of the sheer quantity of iconic artwork in one room. Housing major works by some of the twentieth century’s greatest artists, every wall practically demands attention. Van Gogh’s Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear (1889) and Peach Trees in Blossom (1889) hang opposite a wall of eight small, pointillist Seurat paintings. Behind this hang two Monet landscapes, Autumn Effect at Argenteuil (1873) and Antibes (1888), and sequestered in a nearby corner is a clustered collection of Cézanne canvases. All this is to say nothing of the paintings by Boudin, Pissarro, Manet, Degas, and Modigliani along with other artists too numerous to mention.
The gallery also includes intimate spaces such as the multipurpose Project Space, compact but with diverse potential, currently housing a collection of rarely-seen images of 1940s Kurdistan by photographer Anthony Kersting. The intimacy of the gallery is best embodied, however, in the space dedicated to the Bloomsbury Group. In a low-lit room big enough to fit only twelve people at a time, visitors are free to view works by Duncan Grant, Vanessa Bell, and Roger Fry. The room perhaps best distils the appeal of the Courtauld Gallery’s redesign; at once intimate and overwhelming with both quality and quantity.
Having been closed for a three-year transformation project, the reopening of London’s Courtauld Gallery stands as an event which has been greatly anticipated by UK art-lovers. With the space housing one of the country’s greatest art collections, the temptation may have been to create an equally grand space apparently befitting of the works. What the gallery has instead opted to do is to ensure that the focus remains on the art itself rather than where it is housed, striking a balance between a clean, modern space, and one which feels like a natural fit for the collection on display.
This is not to say that the gallery lacks spectacle; from the ceiling of the Blavatnik Fine Rooms an angelic fresco stares down at visitors, at the top of the gallery’s historic staircase resides a newly-commissioned five metre-long painting by contemporary artist Cecily Brown entitled Unmoored from her reflection (2021), and entering the Katja and Nicolai Tangen 20th Century Gallery to be met with Oskar Kokoschka’s room-filling triptych The Myth of Prometheus (1950)- on display to the public for the first time in over a decade - is nothing short of breathtaking.
Still, the space goes to great lengths to ensure that the art itself remains the focal point of the gallery. The first floor displaying medieval and early Renaissance art is characterised by its low ceilings and soft lighting, perfectly fitting the gilded religiosity of the artworks and artifacts on display. Similarly, with the second floor displaying European Art from 1400-1800, the setting is grand enough to compliment the art, but not so opulent as to distract from such works as Botticelli’s altarpiece The Holy Trinity with Saints Mary Magdalen and John the Baptist (1491-94).
It is, however, the third floor that serves as the real draw for art-lovers, featuring the enormous LVMH Great Room and its display of Impressionism and Post-Impressionism. The room is overwhelming not just by virtue of the quality of the art on display, but because of the sheer quantity of iconic artwork in one room. Housing major works by some of the twentieth century’s greatest artists, every wall practically demands attention. Van Gogh’s Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear (1889) and Peach Trees in Blossom (1889) hang opposite a wall of eight small, pointillist Seurat paintings. Behind this hang two Monet landscapes, Autumn Effect at Argenteuil (1873) and Antibes (1888), and sequestered in a nearby corner is a clustered collection of Cézanne canvases. All this is to say nothing of the paintings by Boudin, Pissarro, Manet, Degas, and Modigliani along with other artists too numerous to mention.
The gallery also includes intimate spaces such as the multipurpose Project Space, compact but with diverse potential, currently housing a collection of rarely-seen images of 1940s Kurdistan by photographer Anthony Kersting. The intimacy of the gallery is best embodied, however, in the space dedicated to the Bloomsbury Group. In a low-lit room big enough to fit only twelve people at a time, visitors are free to view works by Duncan Grant, Vanessa Bell, and Roger Fry. The room perhaps best distils the appeal of the Courtauld Gallery’s redesign; at once intimate and overwhelming with both quality and quantity.
Having been closed for a three-year transformation project, the reopening of London’s Courtauld Gallery stands as an event which has been greatly anticipated by UK art-lovers. With the space housing one of the country’s greatest art collections, the temptation may have been to create an equally grand space apparently befitting of the works. What the gallery has instead opted to do is to ensure that the focus remains on the art itself rather than where it is housed, striking a balance between a clean, modern space, and one which feels like a natural fit for the collection on display.
This is not to say that the gallery lacks spectacle; from the ceiling of the Blavatnik Fine Rooms an angelic fresco stares down at visitors, at the top of the gallery’s historic staircase resides a newly-commissioned five metre-long painting by contemporary artist Cecily Brown entitled Unmoored from her reflection (2021), and entering the Katja and Nicolai Tangen 20th Century Gallery to be met with Oskar Kokoschka’s room-filling triptych The Myth of Prometheus (1950)- on display to the public for the first time in over a decade - is nothing short of breathtaking.
Still, the space goes to great lengths to ensure that the art itself remains the focal point of the gallery. The first floor displaying medieval and early Renaissance art is characterised by its low ceilings and soft lighting, perfectly fitting the gilded religiosity of the artworks and artifacts on display. Similarly, with the second floor displaying European Art from 1400-1800, the setting is grand enough to compliment the art, but not so opulent as to distract from such works as Botticelli’s altarpiece The Holy Trinity with Saints Mary Magdalen and John the Baptist (1491-94).
It is, however, the third floor that serves as the real draw for art-lovers, featuring the enormous LVMH Great Room and its display of Impressionism and Post-Impressionism. The room is overwhelming not just by virtue of the quality of the art on display, but because of the sheer quantity of iconic artwork in one room. Housing major works by some of the twentieth century’s greatest artists, every wall practically demands attention. Van Gogh’s Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear (1889) and Peach Trees in Blossom (1889) hang opposite a wall of eight small, pointillist Seurat paintings. Behind this hang two Monet landscapes, Autumn Effect at Argenteuil (1873) and Antibes (1888), and sequestered in a nearby corner is a clustered collection of Cézanne canvases. All this is to say nothing of the paintings by Boudin, Pissarro, Manet, Degas, and Modigliani along with other artists too numerous to mention.
The gallery also includes intimate spaces such as the multipurpose Project Space, compact but with diverse potential, currently housing a collection of rarely-seen images of 1940s Kurdistan by photographer Anthony Kersting. The intimacy of the gallery is best embodied, however, in the space dedicated to the Bloomsbury Group. In a low-lit room big enough to fit only twelve people at a time, visitors are free to view works by Duncan Grant, Vanessa Bell, and Roger Fry. The room perhaps best distils the appeal of the Courtauld Gallery’s redesign; at once intimate and overwhelming with both quality and quantity.
