Here’s our monthly round-up of new events and exhibitions coming to London this March. The biggest ‘blockbuster’ exhibition is The Ugly Duchess at the National Gallery, followed by the After Impressionism exhibition. And the most exciting thing is that the Boat Race is back later this month.
Nalini Malani: My Reality is Different
2 March – 11 June 2023
National Gallery
Nearest Station: Charing Cross
New video animations featuring famous paintings in the National Gallery and the Holburne Museum, Bath, have been created by Nalini Malani. The project is the culmination of Malani’s selection in 2020 as the first artist to receive the National Gallery’s Contemporary Fellowship, supported by Art Fund. The two-year research and production program has allowed Malani to work in close collaboration with specialists from both galleries to study the institutions and their collections, with the aim to create a new artwork.
The Ugly Duchess: Beauty and Satire in the Renaissance
16 March-11 June 2023
National Gallery
Nearest Station: Charing Cross
One of the most unforgettable faces in the National Gallery’s Collection, An Old Woman is better known as ‘The Ugly Duchess’ because she inspired John Tenniel’s hugely popular illustrations for Alice in Wonderland. As a result, she has long been associated with the world of fairy tale. For the first time, an exhibition moves away from the painting’s afterlife to focus instead on its original context, in particular, its key role in the development of secular and satirical art during the Renaissance – two areas that Massys pioneered.
Souls Grown Deep Like the Rivers
17 March – 18 June 2023
Royal Academy
Nearest Station: Piccadilly Circus
For generations, black artists from the American South, have created artworks whose subjects and materials often reverberate with its painful history – the inhuman practice of enslavement, the cruel segregationist policies of the Jim Crow era, and institutionalized racism. Largely excluded from museums and galleries and burdened by poverty and a lack of resources, artists were often deprived of traditional art materials and would use local, recycled materials to realize their artworks. This exhibition brings together around 60 works from the early 20th century to the present, in various media including sculpture, paintings, reliefs, drawings, and quilts.
After Impressionism
25 March – 13 August 2023
National Gallery
Nearest Station: Charing Cross
A ground-breaking new exhibition of over 100 paintings and sculptures by artists such as Cézanne, Van Gogh, Rodin, Picasso, Matisse, Klimt, Kandinsky, and Mondrian. With loans from museums and private collections around the world, the exhibition includes some of the most important works of art created between 1886 and around 1914.
The Boat Race
26 March 2023
This annual contest between two rowing crews from Oxford and Cambridge Universities plays out on the stretch of The Thames from Putney to Mortlake in southwest London. The Championship Course is 4 miles, 374 yards or 6.8 km long. This course was first used for The Boat Race in 1845 and has been used for every Race since; apart from 1846, 1856, and 1863 when the race was held in the opposite direction between Mortlake and Putney.
MORE MARCH 2022 EVENTS
St Patrick’s Day Parade: Sunday 19 March 2023 (Parade followed by performances in Trafalgar Square). Mother’s Day: Sunday 19 March 2023 (While Mothering Sunday is in May for much of the world, it is celebrated in March in the UK).
Author: Laura Porter
Laura Porter writes AboutLondonLaura.com and contributes to many other publications while maintaining an impressive afternoon tea addiction. You can find Laura on Twitter as @AboutLondon, on Instagram as @AboutLondon and @AboutLondon Laura on Facebook.