Art Fund
What's On
British Design 1948–2012: Innovation in the Modern Age
V&A (Victoria & Albert Museum) | 31 March - 12 August 2012
50% off with National Art Pass | Full venue & entry details
A model wears Alexander McQueen during the autumn/winter 2009 ready-to-wear collection show in Paris,Image 1 of 5 | FRANCOIS GUILLOT/AFP/Getty Images
Jamie Reid, 'God Save the Queen', Poster promoting the Sex Pistols, 1977Image 2 of 5 | © Jamie Reid. Photograph by Victoria and Albert Museum
Brian Long, Torsion Chair, 1971Image 3 of 5 | By kind permission of Brian Long, Photograph © Victoria and Albert Museum
Zaha Hadid Architects, Design for the London 2012 Olympic Games Aquatics CentreImage 4 of 5 | Zaha Hadid Architects
Jaguar E-Type, 1961Image 5 of 5 | Jaguar Heritage
Overview
A model wears Alexander McQueen during the autumn/winter 2009 ready-to-wear collection show in Paris,Image 1 of 5 | FRANCOIS GUILLOT/AFP/Getty ImagesJamie Reid, 'God Save the Queen', Poster promoting the Sex Pistols, 1977Image 2 of 5 | © Jamie Reid. Photograph by Victoria and Albert MuseumBrian Long, Torsion Chair, 1971Image 3 of 5 | By kind permission of Brian Long, Photograph © Victoria and Albert MuseumZaha Hadid Architects, Design for the London 2012 Olympic Games Aquatics CentreImage 4 of 5 | Zaha Hadid ArchitectsJaguar E-Type, 1961Image 5 of 5 | Jaguar HeritageMore than 300 objects have been drawn from the V&A collections and elsewhere with the aim of showing how designers born, trained and working in the UK have been at the forefront of post-war and contemporary design.
From the nostalgic decadence of the Jaguar E-type and the cetacean curves of the London 2012 Aquatics Centre to posters promoting the Sex Pistols and Robin Day's Polyprop Chair, this rich, eclectic exhibition will explore themes of tradition, modernity, subversion and innovation.
What the critics say
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"the curators of the V&A's ambitious exhibition have done a sterling job. Presenting more than 350 objects in an immaculate and imaginative display, they offer an elegant survey with an overlapping narrative that develops across three galleries." Alastair Sooke - The Telegraph
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"timely and ambitious ... The show is a kind of British identity parade, a magpie's nest of evolving ideas about living, hoping, imagining, wanting, and getting. It's the first time that postwar design in Britain has been portrayed in such detail" Jay Merrick - The Independent
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"to its credit, the V&A has put together an exhibition that is about much more than just that corporate gloss. It's ambitious and complex in its selections, does not feel promotional (or at least, not totally promotional) and has some genuine surprises" Kieran Long - Evening Standard
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"British Design is a great deal more ambitious and potentially important ... the exhibition offers a colossal panorama of our collective visual memories." Fiona MacCarthy - The Guardian
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"Ambitious, beguiling and, occasionally, exasperating ... This is a compelling exhibition, but curiously inconclusive." Stephen Bayley - The Times
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"In the end there is no single story, and the exhibition delivers no more momentous message than that people do stuff, sometimes quite nicely ... It would work better as a permanent gallery ... but it's still an enjoyable romp, sometimes nostalgic, sometimes informative and occasionally provocative, through the delights and follies of the past six decades" Rowan Moore - The Observer
Venue information & entry details
Entry details
50% off with National Art Pass – £6 (Standard entry charge is £12)
Opening times
Daily, 10am - 5.45pm
Fridays, 10am - 10pm
Check the V&A website for booking details as they are announced.