Museums

Featuring Raphael’s The Madonna of the Pinks and artists such as Cranach, Vermeer, Rossetti, Holman Hunt, Chagall, Tracey Emin, Grayson Perry, Marc Quinn and David Hockney, the Love exhibition explores love in all its complexities, from the 16th century to the present day and in a range of different styles.

Along with the main exhibition is a chance to contribute to an artwork for Yoko Ono.

Visitors are invited to bring in a photo of someone or something they love, or a love message, and stick it to a canvas. Over time the canvas will grow and when full, will be replaced by a new one.

The work, entitled Secret Piece III, is a conceptual piece of art encouraging the articulation of love. When the Bristol exhibition ends the canvases will be shipped to Yoko Ono in America.

The Love Exhibition looks at all types and stages of the emotion. An impressive sculptural work by Marc Quinn, entitled Kiss, considers the perception of couples in society, while The Good Samaritan by Jacopo Bassano sees a traveller tend to the wounds of a total stranger.

In David Hockney’s 1961 painting We Two Boys Together Clinging, meanwhile, a locked embrace suggests how love can grow stronger in a hostile world and paintings by the Singh Twins juxtapose the dissatisfaction of celebrity worship with the joy of love reciprocated.

Lord Frederic Leighton paints two women whose friendship will be ruined by their love for the same man and in Medea Anthony Frederick Sandys indicates how Jason’s rejection of the Scythian Princess will result in deception and death.

Interact with art

Alongside the exhibition visitors will also be able to use an interactive touch screen and a trail to the art galleries on the top floor of the museum. There will also be family activities taking place and Small World - the downstairs play area for 0-5 year olds - will be re-themed to Love.

On Wednesday, 13 February there is the chance to prepare for a Valentines evening to remember. Dr Nancy Ireson of the National Gallery will be holding a free winter lecture from 7-9pm and will give an overview of this extraordinary touring exhibition, which features artists ranging from Raphael to Chagall.

The following evening you can impress your loved one with your knowledge from the night before.

The Love exhibition will be open especially for all you romantics on Valentine’s evening, Thursday, 14 February, from 6-8pm. So why not arrange that rendez-vous by the Raphael? Or spend the time waiting for your table at that expensive restaurant getting all romantic and inspired by the best art exhibition in Bristol - all for free.

Love, the final touring exhibition in the partnership between the National Gallery in London, Tyne and Wear Museums and Bristol's Museums, Galleries and Archives, runs from Saturday, 19 January to Sunday, 6 April 2008.