- Good Morning, Midnight will feature works from The Courtauld Collection and the David and Indré Roberts Collection that explore nightlife, light, entertainment and spectacle.
- The exhibition is a first-time collaboration with the Roberts Institute of Art.
Press images available to download
Press preview: Friday 24 May, 12:00 – 15:00This summer, iconic works from The Courtauld’s Post-Impressionist collection will be presented in dialogue with a selection of artworks from the David and Indrė Roberts Collection dating between 1972 and 2023. Good Morning, Midnight will be the first time several of the artworks from the David and Indrė Roberts Collection are exhibited in a public institution, including two works from contemporary painters Anthony Cudahy and Louise Giovanelli.
Good Morning, Midnight will open in The Courtauld Gallery’s Katja and Nicolai Tangen 20th Century Gallery from 25 May – 7 July 2024. It is curated by The Courtauld’s 2023-24 MA Curating the Art Museum students. Visitors can preview the exhibition as part of The Courtauld Lates, 18:30 – 22:30, Friday 24 May.
The exhibition finds its beginnings in depictions of entertainers in fin de siècle Paris in The Courtauld’s collection and compares how contemporary artists have responded to different experiences of entertainment culture, particularly that related to nightlife.
Featured artists from The Courtauld’s collection include Jean-Louis Forain, Georges Seurat, and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.
Artists from the David and Indrė Roberts Collection include Anthony Cudahy, Philip-Lorca diCorcia, Louise Giovanelli, Celia Hempton, Harry Gruyaert, Susan Meiselas, Marlo Pascual, Prem Sahib, Pádraig Timoney, and Rose Wylie.
While Impressionism is often associated with the artistic endeavour to capture natural light, Good Morning, Midnight shifts focus to the seedy, newly electrified Paris nightlife frequented by Post-Impressionist masters, including Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and Georges Seurat. The artists from the David and Indrė Roberts Collection are similarly concerned with both old and new modes of entertainment and leisure, and how our changing experiences of these are mediated by technology. From bars to clubs, stages to screens, this exhibition speculates on the underlying power dynamics in places of leisure and entertainment, particularly those of the observer and observed.
Taking its name from the 1939 modernist novel by Jean Rhys, Good Morning, Midnight addresses the disorienting experience of nightlife, entertainment culture, and the fleeting intimacy these provide, similar to that felt by Rhys’ protagonist as she wanders through Paris. Many of the contemporary works from the David and Indrė Roberts Collection evoke this feeling of intimacy in relation to modern technologies, such as television, the film industry, and more recently, online chat rooms. Our sources of entertainment and leisure become less to do with in-person socialising and are instead increasingly mediated by our image-saturated world.
Good Morning, Midnight is accompanied by a scheduled programme of public events including curator-led tours. Visitors can also visit the exhibition at The Courtauld Lates on Friday 14 June.
STATEMENTS
Barnaby Wright, Deputy Head of The Courtauld Gallery and Daniel Katz Curator of 20th Century Art, said: “The Courtauld’s students are creating a compelling and exciting exhibition by bringing together Post-Impressionist paintings and prints from our collection with contemporary works from the David and Indrė Roberts Collection. The result promises to be an exhibition that encourages us to find thought-provoking and unexpected connections between artworks that span more than a century. All the artists represented explore new ways of depicting their own experiences of nightlife, entertainment, and spectacle, often playing with the strange effects of light after nightfall. We are delighted that Good Morning, Midnight has been such a fruitful collaboration with the Roberts Institute of Art.”
Kate Davies, Director of the Roberts Institute of Art, said: “This collaboration goes to the heart of the Robert Institute of Art’s mission as stewards of the David and Indrė Roberts Collection. We work to make the collection more publicly accessible so are delighted to have opened it up to The Courtauld’s MA students to research and
interrogate. This partnership is an opportunity for us to bring new perspectives on the collection and fresh readings of it in dialogue with The Courtauld’s superlative Post-Impressionist collection. We are excited to see how the students will draw links between these artworks in what promises to be a fascinating exhibition.”
Good Morning, Midnight
25 May – 7 July 2024
The Courtauld Gallery (Katja and Nicolai 20th Century Gallery)
Included with Gallery Entry.Friends get unlimited entry to all exhibitions, access to presale tickets, priority booking to selected events, advance notice of art history short courses, exclusive events, discounts, and more.
Join at courtauld.ac.uk/friendsThe Courtauld Gallery
Somerset House, Strand
London, WC2R 0RNOpening hours: 10:00 – 18:00 (last entry 17:15)
Weekday tickets from £10; weekend tickets from £12
Temporary Exhibition tickets (including entry to our Permanent Collection) – Weekday tickets from £13; Weekend tickets from £15. Friends and under-18s go free. Other concessions available.
MEDIA CONTACTS
Florence Duchet-Tournier
Maya Fletcher-Smith
goodmorningmidnight@courtauld.ac.uk
The Courtauld press office
media@courtauld.ac.uk
courtauld.ac.uk/gallery/press
SOCIAL MEDIA
Facebook @TheCourtauld
Instagram: @macurating and @courtauld and @therobertsinstituteofart
NOTES TO EDITORS
About The Courtauld
The Courtauld works to advance how we see and understand the visual arts, as an internationally-renowned centre for the teaching and research of art history and a major public gallery. Founded by collectors and philanthropists in 1932, the organisation has been at the forefront of the study of art ever since. Through advanced research and conservation practice, innovative teaching, the renowned collection and inspiring exhibitions of its gallery, and engaging and accessible activities, education and events.
The Courtauld cares for one of the greatest art collections in the UK, presenting these works to the public at The Courtauld Gallery in central London, as well as through loans and partnerships. The Gallery is most famous for its iconic Impressionist and Post-Impressionist masterpieces, such as Van Gogh’s Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear and Manet’s A Bar at the Folies-Bergère. It showcases these alongside an internationally renowned collection of works from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance through to the present day.
Academically, The Courtauld faculty is the largest community of art historians and conservators in the UK, teaching and carrying out research on subjects from creativity in late Antiquity to contemporary digital artforms with an increasingly global focus. An independent college of the University of London, The Courtauld offers a range of degree programmes from BA to PhD in the History of Art, curating and the conservation of easel and wall paintings. Its alumni are leaders and innovators in the arts, culture and business worlds, helping to shape the global agenda for the arts and creative industries.
Founded on the belief that everyone should have the opportunity to engage with art, The Courtauld works to increase understanding of the role played by art throughout history, in all societies and across all geographies–as well as being a champion for the importance of art in the present day. This could be through exhibitions offering a chance to look closely at world-famous works; events bringing art history research to new audiences; accessible and expert short courses; digital engagement, innovative school, family and community programmes; or taking a formal qualification.
The Courtauld’s ambition is to transform access to art history education by extending the horizons of what this is and ensuring as many people as possible can benefit from the tools to better understand the visual world around us.
The Courtauld is an exempt charity and relies on generous philanthropic support to achieve its mission of advancing the understanding of the visual arts of the past and present across the world through advanced research, innovative teaching, inspiring exhibitions, programmes and collections.
The collection cared for by The Courtauld Gallery is owned by the Samuel Courtauld Trust.
About The Roberts Institute of Art
The Roberts Institute of Art is a non-profit contemporary arts organisation. RIA commissions pioneering performance art, runs a residency programme in Scotland, and collaborates with national partners on exhibitions to research and share the David and Indrė Roberts Collection.
The David and Indrė Roberts Collection features nearly 2,500 works by over 850 artists, dating from the mid-20th century to today. The collection is rooted in a passion for contemporary art and an ambition to share extraordinary work by some of the world’s most influential artists and to support artists at different stages of their careers. International in scope, the collection focuses on modern and contemporary works spanning a variety of disciplines and media, including sculpture, painting, photography, video and installation.