Five cultural events to enjoy this month

Black artists' visions of the future, seafaring delights and a rare Picasso are all on our list for July

Eric Ravilious, Tea At Furlongs (Fry Art Gallery). Photo © www.foxtrotfilms.com

Relive the wonderful career of Eric Ravilious

This enlightening new documentary tells the life story of Eric Ravilious, the great modernist artist who died in a plane crash while on duty as Official War Artist in Iceland, in 1942. Despite his incredible oeuvre, which captured the wonders of the British landscape and the minutiae of the high street, as well as the realities of war, he has been largely forgotten. This film features never-before-seen footage of the artist himself, as well as testimony from famous contemporary artists such as Grayson Perry and Ai Weiwei.

Eric Ravilious: Drawn to War, in cinemas from 1 July

Lina Iris Viktor, Eleventh, 2018. © Courtesy the Artist

Experience Black artists’ futuristic vision 

A major new exhibition curated by Ekow Eshun brings together Black artists from around the world who grapple with ideas of Afrofuturism, mythology and magic to tackle the realities of social injustice, racial inequality, and the climate crisis. Wangechi Mutu’s beautiful cut-ups consider the treatment of the Black female body, Nick Cave’s incredible wearable Soundsuits speak of police brutality, and Lina Iris Viktor’s gilded paintings imagine alternate dream-based realities. It is a stunning show that is as much about joy and strength as it is inequality and oppression. 

In the Black Fantastic, at the Hayward Gallery, until 18 September

Peter de Francia, The Emigrants 

Look out to sea in Hastings 

Peter de Francia (1921–2012) was the Anglo-Italian artist who painted this powerful three-metre-high triptych, The Emigrants. It shows a scene he witnessed when travelling around Algeria in the 1960s, of an on-board storyteller sharing a story with a group of North Africans. It is just one of some 50 works – including those by Turner, Frink, Delacroix and Ravilious – on display in Seafaring, an exhibition that explores, in diverse media, the drama, beauty and strangeness of life at sea. Included are tales of shipwreck, migration, war and peace. 

Seafaring, at Hastings Contemporary until 25 September

David Hockney, Beach Umbrella, 1971, © Private Collection

Catch a Hockney show before it closes 

There’s been resounding applause for Hockney’s Eye: The Art and Technology of Depiction, at The Fitzwilliam Museum and The Heong Gallery, Downing College, Cambridge. It explores the ways of seeing and depicting art through David Hockney’s eyes. Expect a dive into art history, scientific discovery and glorious Hockney works, such as this, his Beach Umbrella, 1971. This is not just a sandy scene but, says curator Martin Gayford, a portrait of a shadow, creating visual drama. ‘I’ve always noticed shadows,’ says the artist, ‘simply because there weren’t many in Bradford.’

Hockney’s Eye: The Art and Technology of Depiction, at the Fitzwilliam Museum and The Heong Gallery, Downing College, until 29 August

Pablo Picasso, Woman with a Book, 1932. © Succession Picasso/DACS 2021 / photo The Norton Simon Foundation 

See a rare Picasso and its inspiration

In a first for London’s National Gallery, the Picasso masterpiece, Woman with a Book (1932) is being shown next to Madame Moitessier (1856) by Jean-Auguste- Dominique Ingres. The latter work was the inspiration for Picasso; he saw Madame Moitessier in an exhibition in 1921 and it became emblazoned on his memory. This is a chance to view the two together, and spot the evidence of Picasso’s enduring fascination with Ingres’s approach and style. 

Picasso Ingres: Face to Face, at the National Gallery until 9 October