Trace the legacy of Sandro Botticelli
Next week, more than 50 works by the great Renaissance painter Sandro Botticelli will go on display at Berlin's Gemäldegalerie as part of a major exhibition about the Florentine artist's legacy. Largely forgotten soon after his death in 1510, Botticelli was rediscovered by the English Pre-Raphaelites in the nineteenth century and his reputation restored. Since then the imagery he used, in particular his representation of Venus, has become a currency. The Botticelli Renaissance examines the ways in which his work has been borrowed, cited and transformed by artists as diverse as Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Edgar Degas, René Magritte, Cindy Sherman and Bill Viola. The Botticelli Renaissance runs from September 25 to January 24 at Gemäldegalerie. • Visit www.smb.museum for details
Experience the scent of Singapore’s past
The permanent galleries of the National Museum of Singapore are reopening today as the city-state marks 50 years since it became an independent nation. The new galleries have 1,700 new artefacts on display to better tell the islands’ history over the past 700 years, including a a fully-operational replica of a Japanese tank used in the Second World War. Known for its use of interactive technology, the museum is using scent for the first time to evoke the past; visitors can enjoy the fragrance of the Tembusu flower and rather less delicate, a combination of fish, diesel oil and sewage meant to simulate the smell of Singapore River before efforts to clean it up began 1977. Singapore National Museum, 93 Stamford Road.
• For more information, visit nationalmuseum.sg
Broaden your horizons as pop art goes global
Not simply a celebration and examination of western consumer culture epitomised by the US artist Andy Warhol in the 1960s, a new exhibition at Tate Modern claims to reveal that pop art was a language of protest used by artists worldwide. From Latin America to Asia and from Europe to the Middle East, this major London exhibition of up to 160 artworks also includes work by less well-known female artists such as Kiki Kogelnik, which were produced during the 1960s and 1970s. The show explores the relationship between consumerism and pop, the impact of folk art on pop, and the changes in society triggered by counter-cultural and feminist movements. The World Goes Pop opened this week at Tate Modern, London, and runs until January 17.
• For further information, visit www.tate.org.uk
