Stanley Kubrick’s youthful photos go on show in Brussels, Vienna kicks off a year-long tribute to Gustav Klimt, and Tunisian artists in Paris take stock of the year-old jasmine revolution. Denmark delves into the treasures of the late brewing magnate, Carl Jacobsen, Gerhard Richter is honoured in Berlin as the artist turns 80 – and Paris’s Crazy Horse cabaret hosts shoe guru Christian Louboutin as guest director. Following is a selection of what’s on in Europe in March.
Austria
Art: The ball gets rolling for a year of major exhibitions of Gustav Klimt’s work to celebrate 150 years since the Austrian artist’s birth, with Vienna’s Kunsthistorisches Museum giving visitors a close-up of a magnificent series of murals painted in 1890, by spanning its main staircase with a specially-built bridge. To May 6.
Klimt: Up Close and Personal at the Leopold Museum meanwhile shows hundreds of postcards, photos and letters sent by Klimt to his lifelong companion Emilie Floege, as well as telegrams and numerous pieces of correspondence fired off to his family and friends in Vienna while on his travels, giving an insight into his relationship with collectors and patrons – as well as his illegitimate children. To August 27.
www.khm.at/en/
www.leopoldmuseum.org/en
www.wien.info/en/sightseeing/museums-exhibitions/klimt2012
Prehistoric fashion: An unusual exhibition at Vienna’s Natural History Museum showcases how even 2,500 years ago, humans took a keen interest in how they dressed. Using hundreds of textile fragments found amazingly well preserved in an Austrian salt mine, researchers have been able to show that a surprising amount of effort went into making clothes and particularly dyeing them into attractive colours. To January 2013.
www.nhm-wien.ac.at/en/museum
Belgium
Film/photography: Before turning his hand to moving pictures, Stanley Kubrick worked as a photographer from 1945 to 1950 for New York magazine Look. An exhibition at Brussels’ Musee Royal des Beaux-Arts brings together shots portraying post-war America that also highlight Kubrick’s innate cinematic talent.
Stanley Kubrick Photographer runs from March 21 to July 1.
www.fine-arts-museum.be
Art: As Denmark takes over the rotating EU presidency, leading Brussels arthouse, the Palais des Beaux Arts – aka Bozar – is holding a giant retrospective of the work of 73-year-old Danish artist Per Kirkeby, variously painter, sculptor, architect and writer.
More than 180 of his often immense works are on show until May 20.
www.bozar.be
Germany
Art: One of contemporary art’s most sought-after figures, Gerhard Richter, who turned 80 on February 9, is honoured with a major retrospective at Berlin’s Neue Nationalgalerie.
Running until May 13, the show features 130 paintings and a dozen sculptures by the German artist.
www.smb.museum/smb/home/index.php?lang=en
Books: Central and European literature, along with first-time writers are spotlighted at the Leipzig Book Fair, as the east German city brings authors, publishers and the public together for four days of events and debates.
From March 15 to 18.
www.leipziger-buchmesse.de
Britain
Art: English painter J.M.W. Turner caused a sensation when he emerged in the early 19th century, but his revolutionary free painting technique owed much to 17th century French artist Claude Gellee.
A contemporary recorded how Turner “burst into tears” on seeing the artist’s “Seaport with Embarkation of the Queen of Sheba”, and now The National Gallery in London will examine the debt the Englishman owes in detail.
Turner Inspired: In the Light of Claude runs from March 14 to June 5.
www.nationalgallery.org.uk
Musical: The incredible story of Susan Boyle, the humble Scottish singer who became a global star, is told through a new musical which opens at the Theatre Royal in Newcastle, north-eastern England.
Ms Boyle, whose rendition of I Dreamed A Dream on a television talent show in 2009 won her millions of fans around the world, will make a guest appearance in the show, which features songs from her multi-platinum selling albums.
I Dreamed A Dream runs at the Theatre Royal from March 23 to March 31, before going on tour around Britain and Ireland.
www.theatreroyal.co.uk or www.susanboylemusical.com
Spain
Dance: Eclectic Flemish choreographer Alain Platel stages his new theatrical dance and opera creation C(h)oeurs at the national Teatro Real in Madrid.
Inspired by choruses from opera masterpieces by the likes of Verdi and Wagner and performed by Belgian troupe Ballets C de la B and a 72-voice choir.
March 12 to 25.
www.teatro-real.com
Art: Barcelona’s CaixaForum art venue presents a retrospective of 100 works by the 18th-19th century Spanish master Francisco de Goya, including the non-nude version of his celebrated pair of “Maja” female portraits.
From March 16 to June 24.
www.agendacentrosobrasociallacaixa.es
Italy
Art: Rome plays host to a major exhibition honouring 16th-century Venetian master Tintoretto. The show runs until June 10 at the city’s prestigious Papal Stables, and includes 40 works based around religion, mythology and portraiture.
www.scuderiequirinale.it
Norway
Devotional music: Churches across the Norwegian capital host 10 days of Christian music concerts, with works by Bach or Haydn as well as contemporary Norwegian composers. Runs from March 9 to 18.
www.kirkemusikkfestivalen.no
Portugal
Dance: Guimares, the northern Portuguese town named European Capital of Culture for 2012, hosts an exhibit on cities and their identity, with giant illustrations posted across the town.
Running from March 10 to May 20, the event is part of a year-long programme of more than a thousand shows, films and concerts.
www.guimaraes2012.pt
France
Cabaret: Shoe guru Christian Louboutin – known for his coveted red-soled stilettos – takes over the Paris temple of erotic chic, the Crazy Horse, as guest show director at the upmarket cabaret.
From tomorrow to May 31, the Crazy Girls will perch on Mr Louboutin’s trademark dizzying heels for four strip pieces conjured up by the French designer, inspired as much by hip hop as by classical painting.
www.lecrazyhorseparis.com/en
Arab Spring: One year after the Tunisian revolt that kick-started the Arab Spring, two dozen artists from the North African country take a critical look at the upheaval in an exhibit at Paris’ Arab World Institute.
Running until April 1, photographs, graffiti, videos and sculpture explore the issues spotlighted with the ouster of dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, from regional identities to free speech, democracy building and resurgent Islamism.
www.imarabe.org