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Dream Salvador Dali

The Wick Culture - Christmas Tree of Butterflies, 1959, Salvador Dali, courtesy of Hallmark Art Collection

Dream Salvador Dali

Christmas card design for Hallmark, 1959, Salvador Dali

It’s an unlikely collaboration: the avant-garde Surrealist Salvador Dali was first invited to create a set of Christmas cards by American card manufacturer Hallmark in 1948. Dali, who had moved to the US in 1940 and had become a devout Catholic by then, didn’t have any issue producing commercial artwork – but that didn’t mean he would water down his radical ideas. His takes on the traditional festive Christian images of an angel, Madonna and Child and Three Wise Men proved too out there for Hallmark and never saw the light of day. This watercolour work was created ten years later, when Hallmark commissioned Dali again, this time to create a set of seven greeting cards for various celebrations. The Christmas tree which features a butterfly motif – found in all of the paintings he created for this series – an otherworldly symbol representing the soul. Yet despite Dali’s renown and fame, only three of the watercolours were produced as cards in the end. We think it’s time to bring them back.

The Wick Culture - Takashi Murakami, Maiko in Springtime Kyoto, Gagosian

Above Takashi Murakami, Maiko in Springtime Kyoto, Gagosian

The Wick Culture - Takashi Murakami, Rakuchu-Rakugai-zu Byobu: Iwasa Matabei RIP, Gagosian

Above Takashi Murakami, Rakuchu-Rakugai-zu Byobu: Iwasa Matabei RIP, Gagosian

The Wick Culture - Takashi Murakami, Blue Dragon Soars Through the Universe, Gagosian, London

Above Takashi Murakami, Blue Dragon Soars Through the Universe, Gagosian, London

Above Takashi Murakami, Maiko in Springtime Kyoto, Gagosian

Above Takashi Murakami, Rakuchu-Rakugai-zu Byobu: Iwasa Matabei RIP, Gagosian

Above Takashi Murakami, Blue Dragon Soars Through the Universe, Gagosian, London

Japanese Art History à la Takashi Murakami

Gagosian
20 Grosvenor Hill
10 December, 2024 – 8 March, 2025

Just opened at Gagosian is this feast of a show for art history buffs fans of the legendary, visionary Japanese artist, in which Murakami reinterprets historical, era-defining Japanese works of art. This retelling of history according to Murakami makes the viewer ponder social shifts in Japanese society and how those were eeked out in visual arts, as it opened up to the world after the long Edo period that prevented foreign entry between 1603 and 1868.

Modeled on iconic works held in Japanese national collections and inscribed in the national mindset, Murakami integrates his own responses and experiences to the collective, as well as his own kitsch Pop iconography – including smiling flower-faced figures and beloved Mr. DOB character. Some of the juxtapositions are also achieved by combining his sketches with AI generated images, continuing his interest in automation and technology.

Murakami also takes over the Gagosian’s Burlington Arcade space with new flower paintings, and at the Gagosian shop, a new limited edition T-shirt release inspired by one of the artworks in the main exhibition will be on sale. It’s a Murakami moment in London.

Viewing Jeff Wall ‘Life in Pictures’ at White Cube

The Wick Culture - 'The Thinker' by Jeff Wall, White Cube Bermondsey

Above ‘The Thinker’ by Jeff Wall, White Cube Bermondsey

The Wick Culture - Jeff Wall, After Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison the Prologue 1999-2001, White Cube Bermondsey

Above Jeff Wall, After Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison the Prologue 1999-2001, White Cube Bermondsey

The Wick Culture - Jeff Wall, Tattoos and Shadows 2000, White Cube Bermondsey

Above Jeff Wall, Tattoos and Shadows 2000, White Cube Bermondsey

Above ‘The Thinker’ by Jeff Wall, White Cube Bermondsey

Above Jeff Wall, After Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison the Prologue 1999-2001, White Cube Bermondsey

Above Jeff Wall, Tattoos and Shadows 2000, White Cube Bermondsey

Jeff Wall: Life in Pictures

White Cube Bermondsey
144 – 152 Bermondsey Street
22 November, 2024 – 12 January, 2025

“Some subjects require the absence of colour”, Jeff Wall has said. “That lack, that absence, also creates a disturbance in how you perceive. I think that disturbance does something that the pictures, when they’re successful, do – which is to be almost more lifelike than life itself.”

Over thirty years working with photography as his preferred medium, the American artist has created dazzling, rich choreographed tableaux, mixing the language of cinema and the pointed verisimilitude of photography to create a style he calls ‘cinematographic’. This major survey – timed to make three decades since Wall joined White Cube – charts the evolution of this style and method through forty works and over three decades.

This show demonstrates Wall’s level of artistic and technical mastery of the medium, from the precise staging, lighting and storytelling of the scenes he sets up to the way he manipulates images in post-production. Displayed as radiant light boxes or monumental-scale prints, this is a thrilling romp through the influential artist’s ouevre. Catch it while you can.