Got two hours to spare in central London today? Then take our art hot-spot tour. Works to view and modes of travel between them recommended by Kassia la Cour.
Start at the Barbican because an early-morning encounter with Brutalist architecture can really set you up for the day. Get here by boat, plane, whatever – it really depends where you’re coming from.
Ragnar Kjartanson’s solo show is wonderfully curated, with the soft sound of guitar music following you as you go through a portal of 144 canvases showing Pall Haukur Bjornsson wearing Speedos, drinking beer and generally loitering. The humorous tone is uplifting if you ignore the deep satirical message of Kjartanson’s parents’ adultery and avoid the six-hour video of The National playing Sorrow continuously (I recommend ten minutes at most or you might cave in emotionally). It’s a wonderful compilation of Kjartansson’s work to date and should be explored slowly – but hurry up as you only have two hours for the whole tour!
The underground is the perfect place to contemplate the clichés of Western culture and the romantic melancholy of your life as evoked by Ragnar so it’s probably also the best mode of transport to get to our next stop, the Photographers’ Gallery.
Made You Look: Dandyism and Black Masculinity is beautifully but simply curated, allowing space for you to explore each image and read about its historical significance. Must-see image: Samuel Fosso’s ‘70s lifestyle’ self-portrait. I love his intense stare.
In contrast to Made You Look, Terence Donovan’s Speed of Light shouts in your face. The sheer volume of work is somewhat overwhelming so focus on a single, smaller piece such as the intense (intensity is definitely in at the Photographers’ Gallery at the moment) and beautifully composed image of Terence Stamp taken in 1966. The cumulative effect is important too, though: the men of the year head shots may not hold much substance individually but as a series they have much more power.
Avoiding crowds is impossible in Soho/Mayfair so I would rent a Boris Bike and use the bell as a positive way to release your anger and justify those scowling glares you give to pedestrians as you cycle over to Sadie Coles HQ.
Raymond Pettibon: Bakersfield to Barstow to Cucamonga to Hollywood fills the space with surging trains, waves, film-noir encounters, sexual liaisons and sports-field stand-offs. The images have a comic-book style that alternate between melodramatic close-ups and more distant views.
Ride on the sea of briefcases that is Mayfair. Walk with purpose to your next destination – Flowers Gallery, Cork Street – as if you are a very important person.
Tourist Attraction is fittingly chaotic to evoke the average sightseer experience. Before you succumb to tourist fatigue, take in Patrick Hughes’s Making Space, which plays with your head in interesting ways.
Now summon a rickshaw for the journey to Sophia Contemporary Gallery.
The summer show brings together eight artists from Europe and the Middle East exploring the human form. There’s great flow from artist to artist – Erik Saglia, Reza Yazdi, Baharam Hanafi – but it’s Ramin Shirdel’s Eshgh that provides the focal point.
The journey to Gagosian is perhaps the shortest on the itinerary so dilly-dally as much as possible. Maybe get a coffee or lean against a lamppost purposefully, just because you can.
The silver surface of Rudolf Stingel’s Untitled reflects the light beautifully, and what better way to end our tour than with Jeff Koons’s Dolphin – which may be the ideal way to get to wherever you’re going next…
