The Barbican’s big autumn 2019 show will take you to the cabaret

While October 2019 might seem like an eternity away, we guarantee that it’ll catch up with you quicker than Usain Bolt in his prime. Happily, the fine folks at everyone’s favourite Brutalist estate have got something ready to be plonked into a diary ASAP.

Opening on 4 October and running through until 19 January 2020 (yep, 2020 which really is the actual literal future, right?) _Into the Night: Cabarets and Clubs in Modern Art will explore “a dynamic and multi-faceted history of artistic production,” featuring work by the likes of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Josephine Baker, and Wyndham Lewis.

It is, the Barbican says, the “first major show staged on this theme,” bringing together over 200 works rarely seen in the UK with a wild combination of paintings, drawings, prints, photographs, films and archival material filling the institution’s much-loved gallery space.

Into the Night “casts a spotlight on some of the most electrifying cabarets and clubs of the modern era. Whether a creative haven, intoxicating stage or liberal hangout, all were magnets for artists, designers and performers to come together, collaborate and express themselves freely,” in the words of Jane Alison, head of visual arts at the Barbican.

For those of you reading this who like an experiential approach to gallery-going, Into the Night is set to feature a daily programme of live performances and full-scale recreations of selected spaces, letting you live out all those cabaret fantasies you’ve been harbouring over the years.