Às vezes, todos precisamos de um pouco de inspiração. Seja por passarmos tempo demais assistindo a programas ruins na TV ou por trabalharmos muito e nos divertirmos pouco, um pouco de inspiração pode fazer toda a diferença. Então saia e busque inspiração! E aonde você deve ir para encontrar essa dose de inspiração? Bem, a uma galeria de arte, obviamente! Felizmente, Londres está repleta de galerias, e essas galerias estão repletas de arte. Você deve estar se perguntando quais delas visitar? Não se pergunte mais. Com uma preparação minuciosa, pintamos a lista perfeita logo abaixo, só para você. Continue lendo e descubra as melhores galerias de arte em Londres. Destaques:
Tate Britain
Anteriormente conhecida como Tate Gallery, a Tate Britain é uma das galerias de arte mais renomadas de Londres. Entre e você encontrará uma riqueza de inspiração artística esperando para ser absorvida! A exposição Spotlights da galeria destaca obras empolgantes de artistas menos conhecidos, então não deixe de conferir! As Turner Collections também certamente trarão algum alimento para a alma.
Tate Modern
O irmão mais novo e descolado da Tate Britain, o Tate Modern é uma das principais galerias de arte moderna de Londres. Abrindo mão de artistas e estilos tradicionais, o local foca em criações estranhas e maravilhosas que a tecnologia e a sensibilidade modernas criaram. Você encontrará salas escuras com projeções de vídeo, esculturas bizarras que se revelam através da perspectiva e surrealismo suficiente para deixar qualquer um intrigado. Se você quer ter uma experiência surpreendente, vá conferir o Tate Modern; é facilmente uma das melhores galerias de arte de Londres!
National Gallery
Se você estiver com vontade de algo mais atemporal, não há opção melhor do que a National Gallery. Com mais de 2.000 pinturas do século XIII ao XIX, é um verdadeiro banquete para os olhos. Algumas das pinturas mais reconhecíveis do mundo estão dentro de suas paredes, incluindo Banhistas em Asnières de Seurat, O Casal Arnolfini de van Eyck e Sansão e Dalila de Rubens. Então, se você quer ser transportado de volta ao que muitos consideram a era de ouro da arte, faça um favor a si mesmo e confira!
Saatchi Gallery
De volta ao lado mais contemporâneo, a Saatchi Gallery é uma das mais jovens desta lista. Por mais de 36 anos, seu foco tem sido destacar talentos emergentes no mundo da arte e oferecer a eles uma plataforma para brilhar. Geralmente há algumas exposições especiais em cartaz, então vale a pena dar uma olhada em their website para ver qual é a atração do momento antes de ir para lá. No entanto, o que você pode esperar é se surpreender e se encantar com artistas dos quais nunca ouviu falar antes. Definitivamente uma das melhores galerias de arte de Londres, a Saatchi Gallery é uma visita que vale a pena para qualquer pessoa em busca de inspiração!
National Portrait Gallery
Nós, seres humanos, somos naturalmente atraídos por rostos de pessoas. Basta olhar para as miniaturas do YouTube para comprovar isso. Bem, que tal visitar um lugar que coloca os rostos em primeiro plano? A National Portrait Gallery é exatamente isso, como o próprio nome sugere. Lá dentro, você encontrará uma mistura de fotos e pinturas de rostos, alguns famosos, outros nem tanto. Cada imagem conta uma história, tanto da pessoa retratada quanto do criador. E, com um rodízio de exposições e vencedores de concursos em exibição durante todo o ano, vale a pena visitar em qualquer época!
Somerset House
Se você tem gostos variados, uma visita à Somerset House pode saciar seu apetite por inspiração. Afinal, a variedade é o tempero da vida. Com uma enorme mistura de exposições visuais, sonoras e interativas o ano todo, a Somerset House é uma ótima pedida para quem busca algo diferente. Com exposições de prêmios de fotografia, instalações de arte e até música ao vivo, é um banquete para todos os sentidos. E, como fica a poucos passos do centro, é a galeria perfeita se você estiver visitando de fora de Londres.
Royal Academy of Arts
A Royal Academy of Arts é parte centro de aprendizagem, parte espetáculo de exposições. Por quase trezentos anos, esta galeria "de artistas para artistas" recebeu alguns dos artistas mais reconhecidos de todos os tempos. Por isso, espere uma grande mistura de exposições eletrizantes de artistas de todo o mundo. E, se desejar, existe também a oportunidade de estudar lá. Só não entre esperando conseguir um assento no auditório de palestras.
Whitechapel Gallery
A Whitechapel Gallery tornou-se famosa em meados do século 20 por sua vitrine de arte do pós-guerra, incluindo a famosa — e angustiante — Guernica de Picasso. Hoje em dia, você encontrará algo mais variado, com exposições dedicadas a artistas britânicos, à contracultura e aos arredores de East London. Eles também realizam muitos eventos no local, incluindo palestras, aulas de pintura e encontros de apoio comunitário. Se você procura algo um pouco fora do comum, a Whitechapel Gallery é com certeza uma das melhores galerias de arte de Londres.
Hayward Gallery
Em seguida, temos a Hayward Gallery, situada na maravilha cultural de Southbank. Dentro do brutalista Southbank Centre, você encontrará um altar para a arte contemporânea. Com obras instigantes de artistas de todo o mundo, espere uma mistura de pinturas, esculturas e grandes exposições permanentes. Pode não ser um dos lugares mais conhecidos desta lista, mas é com certeza uma das melhores galerias de arte de Londres! Então abra a sua mente e absorva toda essa inspiração deliciosa.
Dulwich Picture Gallery
Por último, mas não menos importante, se você procura o mix perfeito entre novos artistas desconhecidos e pinturas clássicas, visite a Dulwich Picture Gallery. No interior, você encontrará obras-primas atemporais de nomes como Rembrandt, Gainsborough e Poussin, além de maravilhas modernas dos artistas mais badalados do momento. Eles também realizam eventos durante todo o ano, caso você queira um pouco mais de inspiração. E isso encerra a nossa lista das melhores galerias de arte de Londres. Não importa a sua preferência ou o seu humor, com certeza você encontrará uma que caiba como uma luva. Se alguns dos itens desta lista deixaram você com vontade de saber mais sobre a história, there's plenty of that in London too! Ou, se você quiser um tempo para relaxar e processar as obras, que tal try something relaxing quando terminar?
Tate Britain
Tate Britain
The artist formerly known as the Tate Gallery, Tate Britain is one of London's most renowned repositories of modern and contemporary art, its classical portico and dome almost as beloved as the treasures it holds inside. Step into its hushed galleries, and you'll find a wealth of artistic inspiration just waiting to be absorbed! We’re talking some of the UK’s most celebrated art from some of its most renowned painters, sculptors, photographers, and so on. Ever wanted to get up close to pieces by Hogarth, Turner and Tracey Emin? Tate Britain has your back.
Pro-tip: bag a Go City London pass to unlock a one-hour guided discovery tour of the gallery’s highlights.
Tate Modern
Tate Modern
Tate Britain's hip younger sibling, the Tate Modern sits on the south bank of the Thames, its industrial-age brick facade and towering chimney providing a cool counterpoint to the soaring dome of St Paul’s Cathedral, just across the river. Foregoing traditional artists and styles, the Tate Modern instead focuses on the weird and wonderful creations that modern technology (and sensibilities) have created. You'll find darkened rooms with projected videos, bizarre sculptures that reveal themselves through perspective, and enough surrealism to shake a strange stick at. Not to mention the massive Turbine Hall, which has hosted large-scale installations from the likes of Louise Bourgeois, Anish Kapoor and Ai Weiwei. You can of course, also seek out more ‘traditional’ art from the likes of Warhol, Dali and Picasso. So, if you're looking to have your mind blown, get yourself down to the Tate Modern. And – top news! – there’s a guided tour available for this one, too.
The King’s Gallery at Buckingham Palace
The King’s Gallery at Buckingham Palace
You probably don’t need an excuse to visit Buckingham Palace while in London, but here’s one for you anyway. The ridiculously lavish King’s Gallery (formerly known as the Queen’s Gallery while dear old ma/grandma was still with us) contains – no surprises here – one of the largest and most valuable collections of private art anywhere on the planet, amassed over a period of hundreds of years. Exhibits rotate between here and various other royal palaces, but at any given time you might expect to be able to peer at pieces from Rembrandt, Rubens, van Dyck, Vermeer, da Vinci, Hogarth and more, as well as an extensive collection of Italian Renaissance drawings and grand portraits of monarchs past. In short: quite the embarrassment of artistic riches.
Moco Museum
Moco Museum
All those graceful masterpieces sound a little too… stuffy for your liking? Then you might be better served by the Moco Museum in Marble Arch, where Old Masters are eschewed in favor of bold visionary works by the likes of Banksy, Basquiat, Warhol, Kusama and Keith Haring. There are around 100 eye-popping pieces to explore here, spanning sculpture, street art and sits-specific installation, each sure to earn itself a place in your Insta reels.
The Courtauld Gallery
If you dig a bit of Impressionism, pay a visit to the Courtauld Gallery. Set inside the magnificent Somerset House on the banks of the Thames, the Courtauld is a wonderful light-filled space with plain white walls that let the artworks adorning them speak for themselves. Cézanne fans in particular will be in clover here; the gallery contains the most significant collection of his works held anywhere in the country. But that’s not all. Far from it: you can also eyeball classics like van Gogh's Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear, Manet's A Bar at the Folies-Bergère, Seurat’s Young Woman Powdering Herself and, well, stacks more in that vein.
Guildhall Art Gallery
Guildhall Art Gallery
No ordinary gallery, the historic Guildhall contains not only an extensive collection of 17th-century portraiture, Pre-Raphaelite masterpieces and eclectic Victorian art, but also the remains of an actual Roman amphitheatre, which you can view beneath the main galleries. Much of the art elsewhere here connects back to London itself, with large-scale pieces depicting Great Fires, Frost Fairs and the like. It also places you within ambling distance of one of the city’s great pieces of architectural art – the mighty St Paul’s Cathedral – also well worth a visit while you’re in the area.
The Painted Hall
The Painted Hall
Ok, this one’s not strictly a gallery, but we’re including it here as it’s as close to the Sistine Chapel as you’re likely to find in the UK. Bonus: it also places you on the doorstep of a wealth of other Greenwich attractions (the Royal Observatory, Cutty Sark and Greenwich Park, to name just a few). Anyway, if you want to ogle the baroque bobby dazzler that is Sir James Thornhill’s Painted Hall, you should get yourself down to the Old Royal Naval College and prepare to put significant strain on your neck as you gaze skywards at the epic murals adorning the ceilings.
Saatchi Gallery
Back to the more contemporary side, the Saatchi Gallery is one of the more youthful cultural hubs on our list. For more than 40 years, its focus has been on spotlighting emerging talent in the art world, and giving them a platform to shine. They usually have a few special exhibitions on, so it's worth having a gander at their website to see what the flavour of the month is before heading there. However, what you can expect is to be disarmed and bedazzled by artists you've never heard of before. Definitely one of the most up-to-the-minute art galleries in London, the Saatchi is a worthy visit for any inspiration-hungry individual!
National Gallery
National Gallery
But, if you're in the mood for something more timeless, you can't do much better than the National Gallery on Trafalgar Square. Featuring over 2,000 paintings from the 13th to the 19th Century, it's an absolute feast for the eyes. Some of the world's most recognisable paintings live right here within its walls, including Seurat's Bathers in Asnières, van Eyck's Arnolfini Portrait, Rubens’ Samson and Delilah, Turner’s Fighting Temeraire, Constable's Hay Wain and Botticelli’s Mars and Venus. So, if you want to be transported back to what many consider the golden age of art – for free, no less! – this is surely the one for you.
National Portrait Gallery
We humans are naturally drawn to people's faces. You only need look at YouTube thumbnails to see that. Well, why not visit a place that puts faces at the forefront? LOcated right next door to the National Gallery, the National Portrait Gallery is just that… as indeed the name suggests. Inside, you'll find a mix of photos and paintings of faces, some famous, others not so much. Each image tells a story, both of the subject and the creator. And, with a rotation of exhibitions, and competition prize-winners on show throughout the year, there’s always a new selection of fizzogs to gaze upon.
Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art
The Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art is housed inside a grand, Grade II-listed Georgian townhouse just off the Holloway Road and, as the name rather gives away, showcases a selection of Italian artists from the first half of the 20th Century. Among pieces by the likes of Modigliani and Boccioni, you can expect to eyeball a substantial number of works associated with the Futurism movement, including Umberto Boccioni and visionary sculptor Medardo Rosso. Eccellente stuff.
Frameless
Frameless
Here’s an option you might want to consider if you’ve got easily distracted kids in tow but still want to immerse yourself in a bit of the good stuff. And immerse you certainly will at Frameless, where complete immersion in some of the art world’s most famous paintings is very much the name of the game. Famous masterpieces are brought to life in glorious technicolor – think van Gogh’s Starry Night transformed to a twirling, swirling, living celestial display, or Kandinsky’s canvases rendered as three-dimensional light projections. The whole thing is soundtracked by a heart-swelling contemporary musical score, adding to the drama of each and every brushstroke. It’s art like you’ve never experienced it before.
Whitechapel Gallery
Whitechapel Gallery became famous in the early-mid 20th century for its showcase of post-war art, including Picasso's famous – and famously distressing – meditation on the violence and brutality of war: Guernica. Nowadays, you'll find a very varied selection, with exhibitions dedicated to British artists, counter-culture, and the surrounding area of East London. They also hold many events there, including talks, painting classes and community support shindigs. If you want something a little leftfield, Whitechapel Gallery is definitely one of the best art galleries in London. Its location also makes a post-gallery curry on Brick Lane irresistible.
Dulwich Picture Gallery
Last but not least, if you're looking for the perfect mix of unknown new artists and classic paintings, take a trip down to south London and the Dulwich Picture Gallery. Inside, you'll find timeless masterworks from the likes of Rembrandt, Gainsborough and Poussin, as well as modern marvels from the hottest new artists on the scene. They also run various themed events on throughout the year, if that floats your particular inspiration boat. Bonus: the gallery’s just across the road from Dulwich Park – home of actual boats, plus woodland paths, kids’ playgrounds, ducks, cafés and perhaps more dog walkers than you’ve ever seen anywhere in your entire life.
Looking for more inspiration for your London vacay? Check out our pick of the finest historical attractions in town and keep things chilled with our favorite relaxing London activities.
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