Rodin and Dance: the Essence of Movement, at the Courtauld Gallery (until 22 January), is a small exhibition on Mouvements de danse (Dance movements)—a group of works the artist began late in life. The show presents a series of drawings along with terracotta and plaster figures of models in various acrobatic poses that stretch the limits of the human body’s natural capabilities. Be sure not to miss the photograph of Alda Moreno—the absurdly bendy acrobat and model who inspired Rodin’s Dance movements series—in mid-pose.
The fashion photographer Juergen Teller has turned curator at Alison Jacques Gallery for an exhibition tribute to the work of the late Robert Mapplethorpe, who would have been 70 this year. Teller on Mapplethorpe (until 7 January) has many of the explicit homoerotic images that stoked the US culture wars of the late 1980s and early 1990s. But they are mixed to playful effect with Mapplethorpe’s lesser-known portraits, still-lifes and pictures of animals (so a kitten on a sofa gazes at a blurred close-up of double anal fisting). Teller also reveals a less composed Mapplethorpe in some of the early Polaroids, including a nostalgic nod to his relationship with Patti Smith when they were “Just Kids”.
Fret not if you missed the exhibition Books, Camera, Ubu at the Camden Arts Centre this summer, there is another chance to see works by the Polish artist Franciszka Themerson. While the Camden show focused on films, print publications and stage designs by the multidisciplinary artist and her husband Stefan, the solo show at the l'étrangère gallery (Franciszka Themerson, Lines and Thoughts, until 21 January) concentrates on Franciszka's paintings and drawings. Best-known for the experimental films she made with Stefan, Franciszka Themerson was also a cartographer for the Polish government-in-exile after settling in London when the Second World War broke out.