Real love at home, virtual love that is exhibited around the world, what more could a person want for Valentine’s Day, you ask? To be honest, being able to see in person what’s shown out there wouldn’t be half bad. But I am content for now to help those who are still able to travel to visit some promising shows.

Love has, of course, been a topic for artists since time immemorial. There are some artist/wife/husband/partner relationships that have been famously immortalized.

Many paintings capture an astounding amount of details emanating from relationships.

There is photography that floors me. Every time I look at it, I am in awe of skill with which it insinuates that which is not immediately visible.

Josef and Anni Albers at Black Mountain College, circa 1935. Photographer unknown.

Here is a whole series that lovers took of each other.

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This spring offers a variety of exhibitions that are concerned with love or its trappings.

One might first travel in March to Tokyo, to see Painting Love in the Louvre Collections, a show of 73 paintings carefully selected from the vast collections of the Musée du Louvre, exhibiting Western artists from the 16th century to mid-19th century.

Alternatively, you could visit Greece and go to the National Museum of Contemporary Art Athens (ΕΜΣΤ). Modern Love (or Love in the Age of Cold Intimacies) is o display until the end of May, a major group exhibition which focuses on digital technology and its influence on intimate human relationships. In the curator’s words:

The subtitle of the exhibition is a reference to Eva Illouz’s book, Cold Intimacies: The Making of Emotional Capitalism, which argues that these relationships have become increasingly defined by economic and political models of bargaining, exchange, and equity. Modern Love (or Love in the Age of Cold Intimacies) explores the state of love and human bonds in the age of the Internet, social media, and high capitalism, probing how the digital sphere, the impact of technology giants, and neo-liberal practices have transformed love, social relations, and the way we interact with one another.

Here is a short teaser video – the show looks thought-provoking and the array of internationally curated artists is impressive.

Of course you know me. Won’t offer the joys of love without the caution of what comes after the happy – or not so happy- ending. Aiming at balanced reporting, after all…

Off to London, then, where you can take in Natasha Caruana’s Fairytale for Sale at the Centre for British Photography until April 22, 2023.

The artist connected with women advertising their used wedding dresses for sale on the internet, with photographs that block out their faces for privacy.

“ The images reveal the fantasy, performance and trophy moments of the traditional big day. The smiling faces of the bride, groom and their entourages’ are blocked out in white, cloned over, smothered in blue tac or scratched off in a bid to disguise and make anonymous their private day now in the public arena. What remains are bizarre theatres of marriage; white-faced performers have taken to the stage and act out emblematic scenes. The brides reveal that the artefacts of the big day are being discarded; sold for money to de-clutter the wardrobe, make space for births or in some cases because the dresses are now tainted with divorce. Their words punctuate the images.“

And if we want to know what happens when things really got off the rails, there is always the option of visiting Zagreb or Los Angeles to go to the Museum of Broken Relationships (MBR). On display are items that anyone can provide to express their heartbreak or to get rid of emotional burdensome artifacts. And in case you think this is a joke,” it is a global, crowd-sourced project that gathers anonymous donations and stories of experience with love and loss from around the world. While MBR has a brick-and-mortar museum in Zagreb, Croatia, MBR’s co-founders Olinka Vištica and Dražen Grubištič regularly travel to places around the world to create community-based, local exhibitions that each blend community donations and themes with those from other countries in thought-provoking ways. Each exhibition becomes a unique exploration of love, loss, and growth by merging individual, communal, and universal perspectives.”  

Indiana University’s Museum Study Department in Indianapolis is currently partnering with MBR to create an interdisciplinary project featuring an exhibition and related public programs that will open at the Herron Galleries at IUPUI and at sites around Indianapolis in early 2023. Stay tuned! (And in the meantime marvel at the artifacts in the collection, many virtually accessible. )

Wishing you, Valentine’s Day or not, a sense of connectedness, to whoever or whatever in the universe! No heels or other props required.

Brahms Liebeslieder Walzer seem appropriate today.