January 2019, No. 1390 – Vol 161

Five hundred years have passed since the death of Leonardo da Vinci at Amboise on 2nd May 1519. His reputation, which has never stood higher, might be summed up in the judgment of one famous critic: he is ranked with Phidias among artists ‘incapable in their way, of any improvement conceivable by human mind’.1 These are the words of John Ruskin, whose birth in London on 8th February 1819 is another major anniversary being celebrated this year, with a programme of exhibitions, conferences and other events scarcely smaller than that devoted to Leonardo, albeit more confined geographically.2

Elmgreen & Dragset’s exhibition at the Whitechapel Gallery, London, plunges visitors into an empty swimming pool. By way of an anticlimactic centrepiece, the duo have transformed the main gallery into a derelict municipal space titled The Whitechapel pool (Fig.28). The turquoise basin is scattered with rubble and bordered by tiled walkways. The surrounding walls are coated with flaking, filthy paintwork; there are railings, a lifebuoy and a faint whiff of chlorine in the air. And yet none of it feels quite real.