The Good, the Bad, and the Indefinitely Postponed: Covid plays havoc with exhibition schedules

by Alice Jaspars

Off with his head! Artemisia at the National Gallery London. Photograph: National Gallery.

This has been a year with more delays and cancellations than the District line on a standard Tuesday. With the art world one of the countless Covid casualties, forced to reschedule and reconsider with a vim and vigour it seemed to have forgotten, we explore the shows to look forward to, and remember those that simply did not outlast 2020.

The Good

Petrit Halilaj, Palacio de Cristal

For Petrit Halilaj, 2020 marks the year that almost wasn’t. With his first UK exhibition, destined for the hallowed halls of the Tate St Ives, forced to delay for the foreseeable future, the decision of the Palacio de Cristal to show his work marks a departure from the conservatism which has plagued the art world of late. Charged with creating “the piece of his life” in an almost anecdotal manner, Halilaj met the invitation with characteristic good humour, taking over the space to transform it into a considerable nest, allowing both the natural and the artificial to dominate its architecture. The work could hardly wait to be exhibited.

Flower Power from Petrit Halilaj. Photograph: Reina Sofia.

Halilaj’s central tenet of hope is seen throughout the exhibition. His 2020 History of a Hug, an allusion to his grandfather’s response upon learning of the birth of his first child, provides us with a display of familial optimism in a year that requires it more than most. Its inclusion in the Palacio de Cristal’s very first exhibition since its Covid-closure, serves to raise “hope for a possible future different to the one apparently awaiting us.”

Artemisia, The National Gallery

Thank god for Artemisia. Her show, the artistic highlight not only of 2020, but potentially of the last decade for the National Gallery, brings forth a sense of courage and resilience on canvas that we have seen in the very flesh of this year.

The first major exhibition of Artemisia’s in the UK, the National Gallery describes her work as capable of “transforming meek maidservants into courageous conspirators and victims into survivors.” With Letizia Treves’ curation complementing Artemisia’s work, we are privy to the most sublime of partnerships.

Sleep tight, Artemisia Gentileschi dated 1620. Photograph: National Gallery.

Initially expected to open in early April, the six-month extension has even allowed the museum to secure a new loan – the original transcript of the trial in which Agostino Tassi is charged with “deflowering” Artemisia, dating to 1612. One can hardly claim to notice it when the galleries are filled with other such artistic jewels. The ability to see the world through the eyes of one such as Artemisia can perhaps redeem this year in some meaningful capacity.

The Bad

Van Eyck, MSK Gent

Were it not for the pandemic, the city of Ghent would be three quarters through its year of Van Eyck, with the artist’s work exhibited across the city “plastering walls and even wastebaskets with posters about him.” On March 13th, the museum closed, another cultural casualty of the pandemic. Two months later it was announced the show would too.

OMG! Van Eyck was here. Photograph: Visit Ghent.

The exhibition’s centrepiece, Van Eyck’s Ghent Altarpiece has a history more troubled than even 2020 can lay claim to, stolen a grand total of six times since 1566, the year it was almost destroyed by Calvinists. Ultimately returned in 1945, it was vowed never to leave the church again. Dr Maximiliaan Martens had secured its departure just once more, the crowning glory of An Optical Revolution, planned to show from early February. A fortunate 130,000 were able to view Van Eyck’s works in the one-month show, but countless others will have to settle for an online viewing instead.

For Dr Martens, the closure of the show is the end of a chapter on his life’s work – it has taken some 35 years of research to bring these pieces together. It is almost certain that the pieces displayed in the exhibition will never be reassembled again. He concludes: “This wasn’t just once in a lifetime. It was only once.”

The Indefinitely Postponed

Magdalena Abakanowicz, Tate Modern

With no fixed date, the Magdalena Abakanowicz show at the Tate Modern has been postponed for the foreseeable. In her seminal work, the Abakans, textile ceases to be fabric and becomes human. It is described by the Tate composed of works which are “soft not hard; ambiguous and organic; towering works that hung from the ceiling”. Yet with their decision to extend the Warhol exhibition to November, it seems perhaps that their attention lies elsewhere.

Seeing red with Magdalena Abakanowicz. Photograph: Tate Modern.

The 64 metres worth of Blavatnik gallery is one of the few spaces that can do justice to Abakanowicz’s corpus, and we are promised that at some point we will be able to wander through a “forest-like” display, from a time when Abakanowicz  was transforming her artistic practice. We live in hope for 2021.

Philip Guston, Various Galleries

Philip Guston’s retrospective, expected to open this year, has been delayed for a further four, in the hope that the curators are better able to respond to the “urgencies of the moment.” Four museums in total, including the Tate Modern and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. have pulled the plug, albeit temporarily, on the exhibitions.

The galleries’ concern overall seems to be regarding Guston’s portrayal of members of the KKK, and a fear that his work could be misunderstood by audiences. The artist’s daughter, Musa Mayer, defended her late father, saying that: “We never see acts of hatred. We never know what is on their minds. But it is clear that they are us. Our denial, our concealment.”

See you next years Philip Guston. Photograph: National Gallery of Art.

The decision has been protested across countries and galleries, with senior curator of international art at the Tate Modern stating that “The decision was not with the curators”, a statement rejected by the museums themselves when asked.

For some, the delay of the exhibition is no bad thing. According to Aruna D’Souza, there are other exhibitions that far better fit this year. “At this point, more than ever, it’s important not to tell Black audiences what they should be looking at, but asking them what they want to see,” she said.

For some, the world is slowly moving towards a new normal, for others, it is simply too soon. Yet as we move towards the close of 2020, one can only hope that 2021 provides us with the artistic calendar this year has deprived us of.