NT Free Exhibitions - July to November 2009
Preview by Lizzie Guilfoyle
AS WELL as the permanent exhibition Stage by Stage, the National Theatre hosts a changing programme of exhibitions throughout the year.
The Press Photographer’s Year 09 – July 4 to August 31.
The Press Photographer’s Year is the only competition that showcases the outstanding press photography taken for and used by the UK media. This exhibition documents the world in 2009 and proves once again that even in a world of instant communication, the traditional still image burns the keenest, fastest impression on the public conscience.
Returning to the National Theatre for a fourth successive year, The Press Photographer’s Year is held in association with The British Press Photographers’ Association and sponsored by Canon cameras.
James Ravilious: An English Eye – July 13 to September 13.
A swift return to the National for this much-admired exhibition. James Ravilious (1939 – 1999) recorded everyday rural life in Devon for over 17 years, and the photographs portray in loving detail the rich landscape and its people, their hardships and their entertainments.
This exhibition celebrates his work and his beautiful, honest and warmly sympathetic images of life in the country.
Public Faces Private Places – September 7 to October 18.
Sandra Lousada grew up amidst a circle of actors, writers and artists. Through her grandfather, writer and politician A P Herbert, her mother, stage designer Jocelyn Herbert and Jocelyn’s partner George Devine, founder of the Royal Court, she had privileged access to the world of literature, the arts, the theatre and film.
The exhibition brings together a selection of her photographs which capture the insider’s view of figures including Laurence Olivier and Joan Plowright, Vanessa Redgrave, Julie Christie, Helen Mirren, Joanna Lumley and David Hockney.
Dust: Grotowski’s Last Performance, Apocalypsis cum Figuris in photographs by Maurizio Buscarino – September 21 to November 1.
Jerzy Grotowski ranks alongside Bertolt Brecht and Konstantin Stanislavsky as one of the 20th century’s leading theatre directors. He stopped making performances in 1969, spending more of his life working beyond rather than in the theatre, but the impact of his Teatr Laboratorium and ‘poor theatre’ still resonate widely today.
This exhibition captures Grotowski’s last performance and his movement away from the theatre. Shot in 1979 in Milan, it is testament to an extraordinary feat of photography, capturing legendary actors at work in the near darkness of an almost ritual-like performance.