Milano&Cars
Automotive culture and conference
31 May-2 June
Venue: Monza race track, Coppa Intereuropa x Scuderia Zagreb

Dancing around Duchamp
Venue: The Barbican, London
Until June 2013

The Barbican has announced the full programme for Dancing around Duchamp, a major, multi-disciplinary season of unmissable events across visual art, dance, theatre, film and music taking place between February and June 2013.

The season orbits around the legendary figure of Duchamp (1887–1968). It brings together key figures of the avant-garde with a shared Dadaist or absurdist sensibility who changed the course of 20th-century art: Samuel Beckett, John Cage, Merce Cunningham, Marcel Duchamp, Eugène Ionesco, Alfred Jarry, Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg, along with a host of contemporary practitioners who continue their radical legacy.

Design of the Year 2013
Design Museum, London
Until 07 July

The Designs of the Year awards, showcase the most innovative and imaginative designs from around the world, over the past year, spanning seven categories: Architecture, Digital, Fashion, Furniture, Graphics, Transport and Product. Category winners and the overall winner will be decided by a jury and announced on 16 April 2013.

From Club to Catwalk: London Fashion in the 80s
Venue: V&A Museum, London
10 July 2013 – 16 February 2014

From Club to Catwalk will explore the creative explosion of London fashion in the 1980s. It will feature the work of designers such as Betty Jackson, Timney Fowler, Wendy Dagworthy, Helen David for English Eccentrics, John Galliano and Rifat Ozbek, who became increasingly successful internationally. The display will show the creative relationship between catwalk and club wear, and the emerging theatricality in fashion, reflected in magazines such as i-D and Blitz. The display includes outfits made specifically to be worn at clubs such as Heaven and Taboo, creations designed and worn by the flamboyant clubber Leigh Bowery, glamorous dresses designed specifically for men, studded biker outfits by Pam Hogg and Katharine Hamnett, customised denim jackets by Vivienne Westwood and Richmond Cornejo and exuberant knitwear by Joseph, Artwork and Bodymap.

Treasures of the Royal Court:
Tudors, Stuarts and the Russian Tsars
Venue:  V&A in London
Until 14 July

This exhibition will examine the development of cultural diplomacy and trade between Britain and Russia from its origins in 1955 when the London Muscovy Company was founded. It will reveal the majesty and pageantry of the royal courts of Henry VIII to Charles II and Ivan IV (Ivan the Terrible) to the early Romanovs as they sought to strengthen their power against a backdrop of religious and social upheaval. Over 150 objects will be displayed including spectacular examples of British and French silver from the Tsars’ Treasury sold through British merchants or given to Russia as diplomatic gifts by successive English ambassadors from the reigns of Elizabeth I to Charles II. Tailor-made suits of armour from the Greenwich workshop, jewellery such as the Barbor jewel, sumptuous textiles, furnishings, fine clothing and portraits of ambassadors, courtiers and monarchs reveal life at the royal courts between 1509 and 1685. The exhibition is part of the V&A’s programme of exhibition exchanges with the Kremlin.

Marcel Breuer – Design and Architecture
Cité de l’architecture et du patrimoine, Paris
Until 17 July 2013

This is a must-see exhibition on the life of work of designer and architect Marcel Breuer (1902 – 1981), one of the most influential and significant creatives of the last century. The exhibition has been conceived by Vitra Design Museum.

David Bowie is
Venue:  V&A in London
Until 28 July 2013

The V&A has been given unprecedented access to the David Bowie Archive to curate the first international retrospective of David Bowie’s extraordinary career. Bowie is one of the most pioneering and influential performers of modern times and the exhibition will bring together more than 300 objects including handwritten lyrics, original costumes, photography, set designs, album artwork and rare performance material from the past five decades. Bowie’s work has both influenced and been influenced by wider movements in art, design, theatre and contemporary culture and the exhibition will focus on his creative processes, shifting style and collaborative work with diverse designers in the fields of fashion, sound, graphics, theatre and film.

Autumn 2013

Charles Correa: India’s Greatest Architect
Venue: RIBA, London
Until 4 September

A must-see exhibition as part of the ‘Out of India Season’ at the Royal Institute of British Architects.

Designers in Residence 2013
Venue: Design Museum, London
04 September – 12 January 2014

Celebrating new and emerging design talent, the Design Museum’s annual Designers in Residence programme supports designers at an early stage in their career. The selected designers are given a bursary to create new work in response to the brief. Final designs will be on display in the Designers in Residence exhibition at the museum from 11 September 2013.

London Design Festival
V&A museum and around London
14 – 22 September

The Victoria and Albert Museum will again be the hub of the Festival and host an exciting array of projects whilst landmark location St Paul’s Cathedral will showcase the mind-boggling ‘Endless Stair’, an Escher-like game of perception and circulation in timber playfully contrasting with the religious and corporate environment of stone and glass in the city. The Festival will also, for the second year, present the Global Design Forum, a one day event which will set the global agenda on design.

Pearls
Venue: V&A Museum , London
21 September 2013 – 19 January 2014

Pearls are treasured for their beauty and have been associated with wealth, royalty and glamour across cultures for centuries. This exhibition will explore the history of natural pearls from the early Roman Empire to the present. On display will be spectacular jewellery showcasing the many different shapes and colours of pearls. Highlights include a 16th-century salamander pendant, delicate art nouveau pieces, a group of magnificent tiaras worn by European royalty and a pair of drop pearl earrings owned by Elizabeth Taylor. There will also be robes embroidered in pearls worn by Far Eastern rulers. Painted portraits and photographs will document the fashion for wearing pearls and their symbolism in East and West. The exhibition will examine early experiments in developing cultured pearls and how Kokichi Mikimoto in Japan made them affordable for all women. The exhibition is organised in partnership with the Qatar Museums Authority who own the finest collection of jewels with natural pearls.