The Art Exhibitions Blog

A lot of new shows to tell you about this month as the summer holidays end and autumn arrives, all across Europe, from medieval to digital. The big event at the National Gallery in London is  Radical Harmony: Helene Kröller-Müller's Neo-Impressionists , running from September 13 to February 8. Kröller-Müller was a major early collector of work by the likes of Signac, Seurat, van Gogh and van Rysselberghe, and the bulk of the exhibits here come from the museum she opened in 1938 in the eastern Netherlands.    The most fashionable queen in history? That'll be Marie Antoinette, according to the Victoria & Albert Museum. And from September 20 to March 22, you can see Marie Antoinette Style  at the V&A, exploring how she became a fashion icon whose influence has lasted for more than two centuries -- down to Dior, Chanel and Manolo Blahnik. The exhibition will have more than 250 objects, some of which have never been seen before outside Versailles.  There are ...

Tate Britain offers a double-header of 20th-century British artists this month with  Edward Burra -- Ithell Colquhoun . Though they were close contemporaries, it's not an obvious combination; Burra is perhaps best known for his depictions of sometimes seedy inter-war nightlife, Colquhoun for her Surrealist work. This show features more than 80 pictures by Burra and over 140 Colquhoun exhibits. On from June 13 to October 19.  At the National Portrait Gallery, you can see  Jenny Saville: The Anatomy of Painting , featuring 45 works from across the career of the contemporary British artist known for her large-scale, close-up paintings of the human body. June 20 to September 7. Another double bill, this time at the Royal Academy, where contemporary artist Anselm Kiefer is paired with one of the all-time greats, Vincent Van Gogh. As a teenager Kiefer received a travel grant to follow in Vincent's footsteps. From June 28 to October 26 Kiefer/Van Gogh  looks at the Dutchman...

Christmas is coming, and so maybe your thoughts are set on one of those German Christmas markets, your chilled hands warmed by a glass of mulled wine. Head to Hamburg, and you can take in a top-class exhibition as well.  Caspar David Friedrich: Art for a New Age  starts at the Kunsthalle on December 15, marking the 250th anniversary of the birth of the leading German Romantic painter, a major retrospective with more than 60 paintings looking at the new relationship between man and nature that Friedrich explored at the start of the 19th century. It's on until April 1. We're big Friedrich fans, and we've already enjoyed one exhibition of his work this year, in Schweinfurt in northern Bavaria.  But let's head back to London, stopping in first at the National Gallery for the first-ever exhibition dedicated to a neglected 15th-century Florentine painter. That's Francesco Pesellino: A Renaissance Master Revealed in a free show from December 7 to March 10. Pesellino work...

What are the highlights of the exhibition calendar in Europe in 2023? How about the biggest Vermeer show ever? A Frans Hals blockbuster? Or a couple of exhibitions to mark the 250th birthday (in 2024) of the great German Romantic, Caspar David Friedrich? There's quite a bit of Klimt and Van Gogh, too. Here are some of our picks for the year ahead, in more or less chronological order.  January Opening the year at London's Royal Academy is the opportunity to experience some of the highlights of the most extensive collection of Spanish art outside Spain, from the Hispanic Society of America in New York. On show will be paintings by El Greco, Velázquez and Goya, as well as Joaquín Sorolla , along with much else besides.  Spain and the Hispanic World: Treasures from the Hispanic Society Museum & Library runs from January 21 to April 10.  There's a new venue opening in London on January 25: The Lightroom in King's Cross, and until April 23 it's showing David Hockney...

"Here she comes/You better watch your step/She's going to break your heart in two/It's true." Lou Reed wrote the song ; Now the Kunsthalle in Hamburg brings you the pictures. Femme Fatale: Gaze -- Power -- Gender  looks at how painters in the late 19th and early 20th centuries -- Pre-Raphaelites, Symbolists and Impressionists among them -- developed the image, as well as how modern women artists have attempted to reinterpret it. With around 200 exhibits, it's on from December 9 to April 10.  Our preview this month is very much centred on Germany as that is where most of the openings are this December. In Berlin, the Sammlung Scharf-Gerstenberg is looking back a full century to the premiere of the seminal horror movie with Phantoms of the Night: 100 Years of Nosferatu . The curators explore how FW Murnau's 1922 film drew on sources such as Goya and Caspar David Friedrich and how this silent movie went on to influence the Surrealists as well as popular culture d...

It's the month before Christmas, and all through the house, there's not a lot stirring in terms of new exhibitions. At the Wallace Collection in London, December 4 sees the opening of Forgotten Masters: Indian Painting for the East India Company . Curated by writer and historian William Dalrymple , this is the first show in the UK of works by Indian painters for the trading company that effectively ruled large parts of the subcontinent in the 18th and 19th centuries. Until April 19. We've seen some superb exhibitions at the Kunsthalle in Hamburg in the past, and their new show brings together three really big names: Goya, Fragonard, Tiepolo . With around 100 works, the exhibition will examine the disparity of 18th-century art in an age of great political, technological and social change. December 13 to April 13. And in Italy, the Palazzo dei Diamanti in Ferrara is devoting a show to Giuseppe De Nittis , the Italian painter closely associated with the French Impressio...

It may not have escaped you that it's 500 years since the death of Leonardo da Vinci, and the big exhibition in Britain to mark the anniversary opens on May 24 at the Queen's Gallery in London. Leonardo da Vinci: A Life in Drawing  brings together more than 200 drawings from the Royal Collection for the largest show of the work of the ultimate Renaissance man in more than 65 years. Running until October 13, the display includes 144 drawings that are still on show until May 6 in 12 galleries around the UK. For something completely different, head to the Museum of London Docklands for an exhibition entitled Secret Rivers , looking at the history and the art surrounding the tributaries of the Thames such as the Tyburn and the Walbrook. May 24 to October 27, and entry is free. Another significant anniversary this year: 200 years since the birth of that most influential art critic John Ruskin. Following on from the enlightening show at Two Temple Place in London, Sheffield...

The blockbuster is Picasso 1932: Love, Fame, Tragedy at Tate Modern, which runs from March 8 to September 9. It's the first ever solo Picasso show there, and the Tate is calling it one of the most significant it's ever staged. More than 100 works will take the visitor on a month-by-month journey through a pivotal year in Picasso's life. When it was on at the Musee Picasso in Paris, this exhibition was called 1932: Année Erotique , but you can imagine the Tate might have had trouble with that for its posters on the Tube... Be warned, this show appears to set a new standard for London ticket prices at £22 (they cost half that -- 12.50 euros -- in Paris). The National Portrait Gallery offers Victorian Giants: the Birth of Art Photography   from March 1 to May 20, featuring pictures by Lewis Carroll and Julia Margaret Cameron. There's more camerawork at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich in The Great British Seaside , including new material by Martin Parr. Ta...