Diane Arbus and Jeff Koons—the best art in March 2019

 

Diane Arbus: In the Beginning

Hayward Gallery, 13th February to 6th May

In 1956, at the age of 33, Diane Arbus reinvented herself in New York. Tired of fashion photography, she set out to capture “the divineness in ordinary things,” turning to eccentrics, children, nudists, circus performers and female impersonators for her subjects. Within 50 rolls she had discovered her method, inviting the engagement of the people she portrayed. This exhibition, drawn from the collection in the Metropolitan Museum, introduces over 100 images from the first six years of her groundbreaking work.

 

Jeff Koons

Ashmolean Museum, 7th February to 9th June

Jeff Koons, the much-fêted, much-vilified bad boy of American neo-Pop Art, first burst on the art scene in the 1980s. Consumer goods immortalised as artworks; gleaming, mirror-polished giant replicas of banal cartoon characters; jokey reproductions of canonical masterpieces—Koons works with bravado, kitsch, irony and immaculate finish to poke serious fun at high art. This major retrospective is co-curated by Norman Rosenthal.

 

Magdalene Odundo: The Journey of Things

Hepworth Wakefield, 16th February to 2nd June

Magdalene Odundo’s burnished vessels are among the most original art works to have emerged from the British Studio Ceramics tradition. They are powerful sculptural expressions of a sensibility steeped in myriad cultural influences. For this exhibition, 50 of her works are displayed among objects she has chosen: from ancient Greek and Egyptian vessels, to historical ceramics and ritual objects from Africa and South America; from Elizabethan textiles to the sculptures of Edgar Degas, Barbara Hepworth, Henry Moore and Auguste Rodin.