2019 preview: I’M LOOKING FORWARD TO…

As Christmas approaches, the arts and culture world prepares for 2019. Which events are hotly anticipated? We asked Loyd Grossman, 2016 BP Portrait Award-winning artist Clara Drummond, and broadcaster and traveller Simon Reeve for their choices.

Dr Loyd Grossman
President, The Arts Society

‘I am seriously excited about Boilly: Scenes of Parisian Life, at the National Gallery in February. It will feature 20 previously unshown paintings from a private collection. The artist’s lovely, crowded views of life in late 18th- and early 19th-century Paris look like reportage, but they contain a great deal of bravura technique, editorial judgement and political comment.’

28 February–19 May; nationalgallery.org.uk

Clara Drummond
Artist and winner, First Prize, of the BP Portrait Award 2016

‘I’ll be discovering more about two English miniaturists in Elizabethan Treasures: Miniatures by Hilliard and Oliver, at the National Portrait Gallery from 21 February to 19 May (npg.org.uk). I love the jewel-like colours of these tiny masterpieces and the way that they capture the sparkle and life of the individual in so little space.’

claradrummond.co.uk; Clara’s book Drawing & Seeing: Create Your Own Sketchbook is published by Kyle Books; kylebooks.com

Image: Courtesy Kyle Books

Simon Reeve
Author, traveller and television presenter 

‘I’m hoping the Punchdrunk theatre company will be doing another immersive theatre experience. They have pioneered theatre in which roaming audiences experience storytelling inside sensory theatrical worlds. My wife went to see The Masque of the Red Death while I was away and rang me to say that we had to go, whatever the cost. She was right. It was astonishing. As was their production The Drowned Man, more recently, which, like everything they do, transports you into another world. It was intensely memorable.’

Simon is touring the UK in 2019 with his show An Audience with Simon Reeve; shootandscribble.com; punchdrunk.org.uk; Simon’s book Step by Step: The Life in My Journeys is published by Hodder & Stoughton; hodder.co.uk

Image: Ruth Mayer

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