The Jubilee Season

Discover the Jubilee Arts Festival

28 MAY–15 JUNE | SOTHEBY’S LONDON, 34-35 NEW BOND STREET
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Within the Jubilee Season, Sotheby’s will open its doors for an Arts Festival celebrating the alchemy of British creativity and stirring its spirit in the next generation. With exhibitions and events spanning the visual, performing, and literary, we will gather figures advancing and reinterpreting Britain’s treasured cultural legacy. Beyond unique opportunities to view artworks and jewellery loaned from some of the nation's greatest private collections, we are partnering with RADA, Intelligence Squared and Fantasia Orchestra to deliver a programme of musical and dramatic performances, cultural and historical debates and talks with contemporary artists and creatives.

Discover the Jubilee Arts Festival

  • The Queen (2022), Oluwole Omofemi © Courtesy of the Artist
    Thursday 2 June, 1:00 PM
    Artist Talk: A Commonwealth Queen: Oluwole Omofemi in conversation with Helen Rosslyn, Art Editor at Tatler
    A discussion on Oluwole Omofemi’s portrait of the Queen as featured on Tatler’s Jubilee edition cover, which captures both the Head of the Commonwealth and a pensive individual. The depiction references an archival photograph, captured ahead of the official visit to Nigeria in 1956, and introduces national symbols to lay claim to the figurehead as relevant and relatable.

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  • Fantasia Orchestra. Image Courtesy Fantasia Orchestra.
    Friday 3 June, 1:00 PM
    Fantasia Quartet Recital
    Join some of the principal players of Fantasia Orchestra for a lunchtime programme of celebratory chamber music

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  • Saturday 4 June, 2:00 PM
    A Reading with Michael Morpugo
    Join Michael Morpugo as he reads his new book, There Once Is A Queen, illustrated by Michael Foreman, telling the story of Queen Elizabeth II’s life beginning with planting an oak tree with her father as a child.

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  • Charlie Mackesy, The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and the Horse (Book Cover Sketch)
    Saturday 4 June, 12:00–4:00 PM
    Charlie Mackesy Drawing Station
    The illustrations of artist and author Charlie Mackesy are celebrated for distilling life’s fundamental truths and pleasures. To accompany a selling exhibition of original works depicting characters from his bestselling book The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse, children can express their creativity with colouring sheets created by Mackesy.

    Drop by anytime between 12:00–4:00 PM

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  • Andy Warhol, 1984
    Credit: Courtesy The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Art
    Licensed by Artists Rights Society (ARS) New York.
    Monday 6 June, 6:00 PM
    Feeding the Eye: Michael Chow on a Lifetime of Collecting and Creating
    To coincide with ‘One Breath’ – a solo exhibition of recent works at Sotheby’s Dubai – Michael Chow joins Sotheby’s Tom Eddison in conversation on art world friendships, beginning in 1960s London, and his return after a 50-year break to painting.

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  • Monday 6 & Monday 13 June, 12:00 PM, 1:00 PM & 2:00 PM
    Escaping the Canvas: RADA Immersive Performances
    Art, and its makers and subjects, will come to life with a collection of stories and readings performed by graduates of the prestigious Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.

    6 June
    12:00 PM:  Book here
    1:00 PM:  Book here
    2:00 PM:  Book here

    13 June
    12:00 PM:  Book here
    1:00 PM:  Book here
    2:00 PM:  Book here
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  • © David Dawson. All rights reserved 2022 / Bridgeman Images
    Thursday 9 June, 1:00 PM
    Sitting and Hanging: Working with Great British Artists
    Martin Gayford and Caroline Campbell, Director of Collections & Research at the National Gallery, in discussion on the nation’s great artists, using Lucian Freud’s Centenary and his magnificent portrait of Her Majesty The Queen, on loan to the much anticipated Freud exhibition at National Gallery this autumn, as a starting point to celebrate the Jubilee and British creativity.

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  • Wednesday 8 June, 3:00 PM
    Expert Talk: British Art in the 1960s with John Dunbar, founder of Indica Gallery, and Sotheby’s Frances Christie
    The legendary gallery was at the centre of the 1960s art scene, exhibiting the likes of Liliane Lijn, Boyle Family and Yoko Ono – who famously met John Lennon there in 1966.

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  • Friday 10 June, 7:00 PM (sign in at 6:45 PM)
    Poetry Workshop with Theresa Lola
    We will be writing Ode poems in this workshop. An Ode is a poem that praises, glorifies, or celebrates a person, place, experience, or thing. Whether big or small, significant, random, quirky, past or present there are things we want to appreciate. Join us to write a dedicated poem and learn techniques for using words to create striking images and memorable messages.

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  • Pauline Boty, With Love to Jean-Paul Belmondo. Estimate: £500,000–800,000.
    Monday 13 June, 1:00 PM
    Pauline Boty, Pop Artist and Woman
    Join Dr Sue Tate and Sotheby's Frances Christie to learn about the only female Pop artist, who’s important 1962 painting With Love to Jean Paul Belmondo has recently re-emerged for sale.

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  • Friday 10 June, 6:30–9:30 PM | Friday Night Late
    Join us after hours to connect with the best of British creativity in an evening of workshops and performances including a workshop with poet Teresa Lola.

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  • Image Courtesy kannehmasons.com
    Sunday 12 June, 12:00 PM | Musical performance by the Olympia Quartet with Jeneba Kanneh-Mason
    Formed of second year undergraduates at the Royal College of Music, the group will play Mozart's Piano Quartet No. 2 in E-flat major, K. 493, and Strauss’ Piano Quartet in C minor, Op. 13. The Olympia quartet comprises Jeneba Kanneh-Mason (piano), Isabella Todes (violin), Joseph Lowe (viola) and Berniya Hamie (cello).

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