Main Image: The Renaissance of Venus 1877 by Walter Crane (c) Tate, London 2015
The Victoria and Albert Museum has today announced details of its spring 2016 exhibition, Botticelli Reimagined, which will be held from 5 March – 3 July 2016 drawing in an array of his own work and those he influenced
Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus has permeated modern culture from Ursula Andress emerging from the see in Dr No (1962) to many reinterpretations by 20th century artists not least Andy Warhol’s Details of Renaissance Paintings (Sandro Botticelli, Birth of Venus, 1482) (1984).
Now for the first time, a major new exhibition at the V&A will explore the variety of ways artists and designers from the Pre-Raphaelites to the present have responded to the artistic legacy of Sandro Botticelli (1445-1510), assembling 150 works from around the world.
Botticelli has come to be recognised as one of the greatest artists of all time and his celebrated images are firmly embedded in public consciousness and has influenced art, design, fashion and film. However, although lauded in his lifetime, Botticelli was largely forgotten for more than 300 years until his work was progressively rediscovered in the 19th century.
Gallery
Covering a period of 500 years, Botticelli Reimagined will be the largest Botticelli exhibition in Britain since 1930. Including painting, fashion, film, drawing, photography, tapestry, sculpture and print, the exhibition will explore the myriad of ways that artists and designers have reinterpreted Botticelli. It will include over 50 original works by Botticelli, alongside works by artists such as Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Edward Burne-Jones, William Morris, René Magritte, Elsa Schiaparelli, Andy Warhol and Cindy Sherman.
“Sandro Botticelli is one of the greatest artists of the Renaissance and 500 years after his death his celebrated imagery has come full circle to represent a contemporary ideal of beauty,” said Martin Roth, Director of the Victoria and Albert Museum. “This ambitious exhibition considers his legacy and shows how and why it has suffused into our collective visual memory.”
The V&A’s renowned collections and expertise will provide a broader context for understanding Botticelli as a design phenomenon and has partnered with Gemäldegalerie – Staatliche Museen zu Berlin on this exhibition (which will be showing the exhibition from 24 September), to trace the resurgence of his reputation.
Botticelli Reimagined will be divided into three major sections, entitled: Global, Modern, Contemporary; Rediscovery and Botticelli in his own Time.
