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Viewing Self-Made: Reshaping Identities at The Foundling Museum

The Wick Culture - Renee So, Venus of Valdivia, 2019 © The Artist Courtesy of the artist and Kate MacGarry, London. Photo: Angus Mill

Above Renee So, Venus of Valdivia, 2019 © The Artist Courtesy of the artist and Kate MacGarry, London. Photo: Angus Mill

The Wick Culture - Matt J Smith, Notes from a Love Song (Bocage), 2022 © The Artist

Above Matt J Smith, Notes from a Love Song (Bocage), 2022 © The Artist

The Wick Culture - Self Made. Photo Fernando Manoso

Above Self Made. Photo Fernando Manoso

The Wick Culture - Self Made exhibition photo by Fernando Manoso

Above Self Made exhibition photo by Fernando Manoso

Above Renee So, Venus of Valdivia, 2019 © The Artist Courtesy of the artist and Kate MacGarry, London. Photo: Angus Mill

Above Matt J Smith, Notes from a Love Song (Bocage), 2022 © The Artist

Above Self Made. Photo Fernando Manoso

Above Self Made exhibition photo by Fernando Manoso

Self-Made: Reshaping Identities

The Foundling Museum
40 Brunswick Square
15 November 2024 – 1 June, 2025

People have been making sense of themselves through clay for centuries; one of the world’s most ancient forms of art has represented our physical connection with earth and has long articulated the way we understanding our presence here in relation to it.

Self-Made is a fresh look at an age-old subject, exploring the work of four contemporary artists who innovate with clay in different ways: Phoebe Collings-James, Rachel Kneebone, Matt Smith and Renee So. Each artist adapts the malleable medium differently but they share a sensibility, using clay as an embodied expression of the constructed self.

This beautiful exhibition touches on class, gender, sexuality, heritage and legacy as passed on through clay – a potent reminder of how we can find new forms for ourselves in a literal, physical way, moulding the material to reflect inner worlds and experiences. This show represents an exciting connection with the Foundling Museum’s long-established mission to preserve stories around identity, care and belonging – and extends an invention to consider how we can keep reinventing ourselves, a message we all need to hear in these times.

Viewing Women & Freud: Patients, Pioneers, Artists

The Wick Culture - Lou Andreas-Salomé, c.1900
© Freud Museum London

Above Lou Andreas-Salomé, c.1900 © Freud Museum London

The Wick Culture - Photograph of Anna Freud (1920s), photographer unknown
© Freud Museum London

Above Photograph of Anna Freud (1920s), photographer unknown © Freud Museum London

The Wick Culture - Photograph of Marie Bonaparte and Sigmund Freud taken in the study of Berggasse 19, Vienna, 1937
© Freud Museum London

Above Photograph of Marie Bonaparte and Sigmund Freud taken in the study of Berggasse 19, Vienna, 1937 © Freud Museum London

Above Lou Andreas-Salomé, c.1900 © Freud Museum London

Above Photograph of Anna Freud (1920s), photographer unknown © Freud Museum London

Above Photograph of Marie Bonaparte and Sigmund Freud taken in the study of Berggasse 19, Vienna, 1937 © Freud Museum London

Women & Freud: Patients, Pioneers, Artists

Freud Museum
30 October, 2024 – 5 May, 2025

Women played an important and intriguing role in the development, and dissemination of, Freud’s theories and practice. The authors of ‘Freud’s Women’, the curators Lisa Appignanesi and Bryony Davies’ have drawn on their extensive research for the exhibition Women & Freud: Patients, Pioneers, Artists, exploring the influence Freud’s female collaborators, from the early “hysterics”, the psychoanalyst referred to as ‘his teachers’, to later patients who would go on to become analysts. Several of those analysts – including Joan Riviere and Alix Strachey – worked on the translation of his Complete Works at Hogarth Press, first published 100 years ago.

Images, objects and footage bring the story of these women vividly to life. The room dedicated to Anna, Freud’s daughter, at the museum, will be brought into the dialogue of the show with new materials, and a new installation by ceramic artist Abigail Schama. Moving through the museum, Freud’s impact on artists such as Louise Bourgeois, Paula Rego, and Tracey Emin is explored, as well as other female members of Freud’s family, and important symbolic female figures, such as his female goddesses and Gradiva – the figure that inspired Freud’s influential 1907 essay.

Viewing Michelangelo, Leonardo, Raphael

The Wick Culture - Raphael, The Virgin and Child with the Infant St John the Baptist ('The Esterhazy Madonna'), c. 1508.
Tempera and oil on panel, 28.5 x 21.5 cm.
Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest

Above Raphael, The Virgin and Child with the Infant St John the Baptist (‘The Esterhazy Madonna’), c. 1508. Tempera and oil on panel, 28.5 x 21.5 cm. Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest

The Wick Culture - Raphael, after Michelangelo Buonarroti, David, c. 1505-08.
Pen and brown ink on paper, 39.6 x 21.9 cm.
© The Trustees of the British Museum

Above Raphael, after Michelangelo Buonarroti, David, c. 1505-08. Pen and brown ink on paper, 39.6 x 21.9 cm. © The Trustees of the British Museum

The Wick Culture - Michelangelo Buonarroti, Studies of Male Heads, Helmets for Soldiers and Facial Features, c.1504. Pen and brown ink and black chalk on paper, 20.5 x 25.3 cm. Hamburger Kunsthalle, Kupferstichkabinett.
Photo: © Hamburger Kunsthalle / bpk. Photography: Christoph Irrgang

Above Michelangelo Buonarroti, Studies of Male Heads, Helmets for Soldiers and Facial Features, c.1504. Pen and brown ink and black chalk on paper, 20.5 x 25.3 cm. Hamburger Kunsthalle, Kupferstichkabinett. Photo: © Hamburger Kunsthalle / bpk. Photography: Christoph Irrgang

The Wick Culture - Leonardo da Vinci, The Virgin and Child with St Anne and the Infant St John the Baptist (‘The Burlington House Cartoon’), c.1506-08. Charcoal with white chalk on paper, mounted on canvas, 141.5 x 104.6 cm.
The National Gallery, London. Purchased with a special grant and contributions from the Art Fund, The Pilgrim Trust, and through a public appeal organised by the Art Fund, 1962.

Above Leonardo da Vinci, The Virgin and Child with St Anne and the Infant St John the Baptist (‘The Burlington House Cartoon’), c.1506-08. Charcoal with white chalk on paper, mounted on canvas, 141.5 x 104.6 cm. The National Gallery, London. Purchased with a special grant and contributions from the Art Fund, The Pilgrim Trust, and through a public appeal organised by the Art Fund, 1962.

The Wick Culture - Michelangelo Buonarroti, The Virgin and Child with the Infant Saint John (The 'Taddei Tondo'), c. 1504-05.
Marble, 106.8 x 106.8 cm.
Royal Academy of Arts, London. Bequeathed by Sir George Beaumont, 1830. Photo: Royal Academy of Arts, London, Photographer: Prudence Cuming Associates Limited

Above Michelangelo Buonarroti, The Virgin and Child with the Infant Saint John (The ‘Taddei Tondo’), c. 1504-05. Marble, 106.8 x 106.8 cm. Royal Academy of Arts, London. Bequeathed by Sir George Beaumont, 1830. Photo: Royal Academy of Arts, London, Photographer: Prudence Cuming Associates Limited

The Wick Culture - Michelangelo Buonarroti, Male Nude, c. 1505-06.
Black chalk on paper, 40.4 x 22.5 cm.
Teylers Museum, Haarlem

Above Michelangelo Buonarroti, Male Nude, c. 1505-06. Black chalk on paper, 40.4 x 22.5 cm. Teylers Museum, Haarlem

Above Raphael, The Virgin and Child with the Infant St John the Baptist (‘The Esterhazy Madonna’), c. 1508. Tempera and oil on panel, 28.5 x 21.5 cm. Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest

Above Raphael, after Michelangelo Buonarroti, David, c. 1505-08. Pen and brown ink on paper, 39.6 x 21.9 cm. © The Trustees of the British Museum

Above Michelangelo Buonarroti, Male Nude, c. 1505-06. Black chalk on paper, 40.4 x 22.5 cm. Teylers Museum, Haarlem

Michelangelo, Leonardo, Raphael

Royal Academy of Arts
9 November 2024 – 16 February 2025

Three titans of the Italian Renaissance takeover the Royal Academy of Arts from this week, in a scintillating exploration of the historic ongoing rivalry between Michelangelo and Leonardo, the influence of both artists on the younger prodigy, Raphael. The exhibition brings together exceptional drawings – and plenty of salacious art history that shows another side to these major figures.

The feud between the Renaissance revolutionaries, legend has it, began when both were commissioned to create battle scenes for the Council Hall at the Palazzo Vecchio, Florence. Da Vinci’s encaustic technique was botched and caused paint to seep into Michaelangelo’s fresco; the latter responded by destroying his own work. The commission was never completed – but the exhibition includes the sketches for the murals by both artists illustrating what might have been, had the two been able to reconcile their artistic and personal differences.

The exhibition begins in Florence, in January of 1504, the moment when Michelangelo and Leonardo met, both having returned to live in their home city. Then both revered artists with powerful patrons behind them, the occasion of their meeting was to consult on where Michelangelo’s recently completed commission, the David sculpture should be placed – Da Vinci is reported to have said it would be best to cover the statue up. In September of that year, the colossal 17ft marble masterpiece would be unveiled in the public square in front of the Palazzo della Signora. Michelangelo later retorted that he felt nothing on viewing Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa.