NOVEMBER 28-MARCH 10. PICTURING BLACKNESS IN BRITISH ART (1760 TO THE PRESENT). Exhibition at the Tate Gallery, London SW1, exploring how images of black people and “race” have been employed creatively. It includes Sir Joshua Reynolds’s portrait of a gentlemanly black servant (a rare depiction at the time), William Powell Frith’s black musician in Derby Day, and Thomas Jones Barker’s painting of Queen Victoria presenting a bible to an African prince. Free admission. Details: 0171 887 8000.
DECEMBER 1-MARCH 24 THE LURE OF THE LIMELIGHT: JAMES ABBE, PHOTOGRAPHER OF CINEMA AND STAGE This free exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, St Martin’s Place, London WC2, starts with the photographer’s documentation of the American battleship fleet’s visit to England in 1910 and ends with his exclusive sitting with Stalin in the Kremlin in 1932, and his work on the rise of fascism in Hitler’s Germany in 1933 and the Spanish Civil War. Among the celebrities he photographed were Charlie Chaplin, Rudolph Valentino, Dorothy and Lillian Gish. There is an accompanying education programme and pack. Details: 0171 306 0055.
