PreviewThe Year Ahead 2021
The biggest art exhibitions opening around the world in 2021
The new year's must-see shows include Vermeer and Botticelli blockbusters; major Jasper Johns and Yayoi Kusama retrospectives; and sweeping surveys on Iran, slavery and queer art
NewsPublic art
New Dread Scott works critiquing power structures censored by Instagram as ‘hate speech’
The text-based pieces, installed on the façade of a New York theatre, probe American imperialism and white supremacy
NewsExhibitions
Miss an exhibition at Tate or the Hayward Gallery? Catch up on shows from the past on new digital platform for the 'phygital era'
New virtual initiative theVOV also aims to generate funds for the creative sector, potentially unlocking "new streams of income"
PreviewExhibitions
Dawoud Bey on his new show spanning 1970s street photography to poignant nocturnal landscapes
The US photographer's travelling exhibition, which opens at the Whitney Museum in New York, charts his four decades documenting the African American experience
NewsSalvator Mundi
What the Louvre’s scientific examinations of the Salvator Mundi really revealed—according to the museum’s own book
A secret booklet appears to contradict claims made in a new documentary about the painting's attribution to Leonardo
PreviewExhibitions
Eco-themed art shows to fill New York’s empty storefronts
The programme Rebound-NYC opens a major group exhibition in Union Square on Earth Day
PreviewExhibitions
Lockdown easing: the best gallery shows to see in London right now
Eerie wooden cabins, rural quiltmakers and dismembered, tentacular dolls are among our highlights from the city's commercial exhibitions
ReviewExhibitions
The Big Review: Kaws at the Brooklyn Museum
He is a global brand, but can a museum show lend Brian Donnelly’s art any credibility?
PreviewExhibitions
A flurry of Yayoi Kusama shows are about to open, but restrictions on her installations may limit their appeal—and visitor numbers
The Japanese artist's exhibitions usually draw millions of people, will they be the same in a post-pandemic world?
NewsSalvator Mundi
The real reason why the Salvator Mundi didn't make it into the Louvre's Leonardo show
A feature-length film, screening next week in France, sheds new light on the political machinations surrounding the world's most controversial painting
NewsBiennials & festivals
The 'male graze': Guerrilla Girls to put up billboards across UK reasserting women's place in art history
Anti-discriminative posters are part of festival Art Night 2021, where commissions this year will have a political tone
PreviewNew Museum Triennial
New Museum 2021 triennial will explore themes of impermanence
The show takes its title, Soft Water Hard Stone, after a Brazilian proverb about perseverance and the impact of incessant actions over time
BlogInsta’ gratification
Who needs a gallery space? Meet the people creating Instagram-only exhibitions
As physical spaces remain shut and audiences head online, Freeze Magazine and Guts Gallery explain how shows on social media could be the way forward
NewsCentre Pompidou
Centre Pompidou plans to show 120,000 works 'as much as possible' around France during three-year closure
While Paris museum undergoes renovations, Europe's biggest modern and contemporary art collection will go on tour—keeping curators employed
NewsExhibitions
Major show of Vivian Maier—a Chicago nanny who was also a secretive street photographer—is heading to the UK
Laura Knight and Ingrid Pollard exhibitions also part of year-long women artists programme at MK Gallery in Milton Keynes
ReviewExhibitions
Calder-Picasso connections are thin in San Francisco show
The De Young’s current exhibition, comparing the work of the two Modern artists, is not a perfect coupling
NewsExhibitions
Egg hunt at the V&A: rare Fabergé treasures from the Queen and Moscow Kremlin Museums included in new show
Russia's Tsar Alexander III began the most expensive Easter tradition in history in 1885 when he began gifting bejewelled eggs to his wife
InterviewExhibitions
Humboldt Forum to show Britain’s 1897 violence and plunder in Benin exhibition next year
The exhibition will include around half of Berlin’s collection of Benin bronzes as Germany lays groundwork to return them to Nigeria
NewsVisitor Figures 2020
Curate-it-yourself: French museums take to social media to ask the public what they want to see in their galleries
Spurred on by the pandemic, several institutions are inviting art lovers to choose works for display
ReviewExhibitions
An exhibition at Pioneer Works captures the 'perverse seduction' of nuclear weapons
The artist Smriti Keshari and the writer Eric Schlosser have adapted their acclaimed 2016 film into a blackbox format for the Brooklyn venue
PreviewExhibitions
Honey, we shrunk the gallery! Leading artists including Damien Hirst and Lubaina Himid to create miniature masterpieces for UK exhibition
Pallant House Gallery in Chichester's upcoming summer exhibition features scaled-down works by the UK's biggest artists
PreviewExhibitions
South Korea confronts legacy of 1980 massacre at this year's Gwangju Biennale
The biennial will highlight the conflicting narratives of the deadly uprising that paved the way for democracy
NewsExhibitions
Zito I Ellas: online exhibitions commemorate—and complicate—200 years of Greek independence
Hellenophiles can explore Greek history and contemporary culture through a selection of shows and events
PreviewExhibitions
Tschabalala Self reimagines Matisse’s Two Women as a contemporary couple
For her show at the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Harlem-born artist has responded to a sculpture by the Post-Impressionist
ReviewAllora and Calzadilla
Allora and Calzadilla create a 'haven' from the horrors of the past year at the Menil Collection
New works informed by the Houston museum founders' literature collection delve into the spiritual and social discomforts of our current time
PreviewExhibitions
Birthday Beuys: Stuttgart kicks off Joseph Beuys centenary events and exhibitions
Exhibition at Staatsgalerie revisits the artist's curated opening of the museum's new building, while 20 other institutions are planning shows on the artist
ReviewBiennials & festivals
Saudi Arabia pushes forward with plans for cultural 'renaissance' with vast light festival full of both local and big-name artists
Agencies seem to be betting that time and increased exposure to the kingdom will wear down Western qualms over its human rights record
NewsExhibitions
You can now buy a piece of a New Orleans Mardi Gras ‘house float’ to support local artists
Elements of the impromptu and extravagant holiday decorations will fund the hiring of builders, artists and musicians, as well as local Covid-19 relief
PreviewExhibitions
Sophie Taeuber-Arp survey reveals the dizzying range of work by the Swiss artist
The major travelling exhibition opens at the Kunstmuseum Basel before travelling to London's Tate Modern and the Museum of Modern Art in New York
NewsPainting
Artist Yan Pei-Ming makes vast pandemic painting inspired by plague scenes of the Isenheim altarpiece
“The viewer might be shocked. It is life today,” says the artist who created the Covid-19 works in isolation in his studio in Dijon
PreviewExhibitions
Alice Neel, two artists, and an avocado: double portrait one of the highlights of major New York show
The survey at the Metropolitan Museum of Art will shed light on Neel’s recurring subjects, from family members and lovers to the bohemians and activists she collaborated with
NewsBreonna Taylor
Amy Sherald, Kerry James Marshall, Theaster Gates, Nick Cave and others to show work reflecting on Breonna Taylor
The exhibition Promise, Witness, Remembrance opens at the Speed Art Museum in April
NewsAppointments & departures
Tate curator Mark Godfrey, who was disciplined for questioning the decision to postpone a Philip Guston show, parts ways with institution
Godfrey is taking voluntary redundancy as part of cost-cutting measures due to impact of Covid-19
FeatureBook Club
Lyrical Helen Frankenthaler biography and Joan Mitchell catalogue make a splash
New publications cast a light on two formidable women artists and place them at the heart of Abstract Expressionism
ReviewAbstract Expressionism
Jeanne Reynal, a woman Abstract Expressionist who ‘painted in stone’, gets overdue recognition
Her monochrome mosaics using cement, gemstones and sometimes teeth are now on view in New York
BlogAdventures with Van Gogh
Boris Johnson says Van Gogh’s Sunflowers 'lifts the soul'—as the London masterpiece is unveiled in Australia
Britons will have to wait a bit longer to enjoy the painting as Covid-19 delays the National Gallery’s international tour, now on its final stop in Canberra
NewsExhibitions
Blockbuster Jeff Koons survey to open in Qatar this autumn
More than 60 works will be included in the US artist’s first Middle Eastern exhibition
PreviewExhibitions
Seeing Chaïm Soutine through the eyes of Willem de Kooning
A side-by-side show at the Barnes Foundation brings together two Expressionist greats who fused the figurative and the abstract in their work
PreviewExhibitions
‘Hair is power’: Sonya Clark on her preferred material and how her Confederate flag work keeps being topical
The textile artist's retrospective at the National Museum of Women in the Arts explores the complexities around race and heritage
ReviewExhibitions
The Big Review: Goya's Graphic Imagination at the Met
This urgent and timely show of the Spanish master's works on paper illuminates the artist’s dim view of humanity and his extraordinary imagination
NewsExhibitions
'A woman painting women': major show on colourful Algerian painter Baya explores her influence on Modernism
Exhibition of more than 70 of the artist's works at Sharjah Art Museum in the UAE includes rare works from her first ever show in 1947
PreviewExhibitions
Cézanne’s drawings, watercolours and sketchbooks to get star treatment at MoMA
A major exhibition focuses on works on paper by one of the core artists in the museum’s Modern art collection
NewsFelix Gonzalez-Torres
Works by pioneering queer artist Felix Gonzalez-Torres to be displayed around Barcelona
New exhibition, organised by MACBA, aims to situate Gonzalez-Torres in relation to postcolonial discourse between Spain and the Americas
BlogExhibitions
Street viewing exhibitions provide creative comfort for art-starved Londoners
NewsSpeed Art Museum
Speed Art Museum will reflect on the death of Breonna Taylor in an exhibition
A panel of advisors including the artists Theaster Gates and Amy Sherald will explore the ways that art can address the police killing
NewsMuseums & Heritage
Beloved Smithsonian building returns to its pioneering roots
Celebrating an anniversary, Arts and Industries landmark will revisit its beginnings as an incubator of new ideas
ReviewExhibitions
The Big Review—Working Together: the photographers of the Kamoinge Workshop
An important show reflects a New York collective’s chronicles of Black life amid pervasive discrimination in the 1960s and 1970s
NewsArt market
Hauser and Wirth's Menorcan 'quarantine island' will open in July with Mark Bradford show
Warning: contains graphic images of sun-drenched Balearic art idyll
NewsArtists
After more than two decades together, artist duo Broomberg and Chanarin commit 'creative suicide'
A "posthumous retrospective" in Barcelona will divide their joint estate
BlogDiary
AI robot Ai-Da gets first major exhibition at London's Design Museum—but beware of the (lustful) critics
BlogAdventures with Van Gogh
Hockney and Van Gogh paintings meet in Houston for exhibition on the joys of nature
Despite Covid-19, the show will open with works now safely flown across the Atlantic
NewsExhibitions
As Italy’s museums reopen, visitors flock for last chance to see reunited Bologna masterpiece broken up 300 years ago
Last week of once in a lifetime exhibition displaying the Griffoni Polyptych—a 16-piece panel painting dating from 1472—at Bologna’s Palazzo Fava
NewsExhibitions
Britishness, belonging and Blackness: artists reflect on complexities of cultural identity in new London show
In the wake of Black Lives Matter movement, new exhibition at Lisson Gallery will feature 11 women and non-binary artists tackling issue of Britain’s colonial legacy
InterviewExhibitions
Mary Heilmann: My work follows 'no linear time. It's all a chunk'
As her Hauser & Wirth exhibition launches online, the 81-year-old artist tells us about her early influences, being taught by David Hockney, and why pink is punk
PreviewExhibitions
Unorthodox preacher: Leo Steinberg's prints helped explore and explain his sometimes controversial theories
An exhibition at the Blanton Museum of Art in Texas looks at the legacy of the art historian through his vast collection, which includes different takes on Leonardo's Last Supper
PreviewExhibitions
Slowing the news: artists commissioned to document a US election year through the act of drawing
The final part of an exhibition, delayed by the unprecedented events of 2020, opens at the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum
NewsExhibitions
Damien Hirst’s shipwreck treasure trove to go on show beside Galleria Borghese's classical works in Rome
Treasures from the Wreck of the Unbelievable divided the critics when the sprawling exhibition launched in Venice in 2017
PreviewExhibitions
In new exhibition, timeless favourite Frida Kahlo finds fresh relevance during a time of isolation and illness
Delayed for a year because of the coronavirus pandemic, a show of the beloved Mexican artist’s work prepares to open in the Chicago suburbs with a full slate of virtual programming
NewsExhibitions
The historic Indian Congress is reunited in Omaha by artist Wendy Red Star
The Apsáalooke artist has created a major new installation for her solo show at the Joslyn Art Museum using photographs of the 500 delegates taken in 1898
PreviewThe Year Ahead 2021
Smelly shows, fast cars and a swamp in a nightclub: the strangest art exhibitions coming up in 2021
Other highlights include a show on famous animals and the most lavish banquets in art history
BlogThe Buck stopped here
‘UK’s biggest art exhibition’ gets underway—and they want your work, too
NewsPacific Standard Time
Getty hands out more than $5m in grants for 2024 Pacific Standard Time festival
The next iteration of the region-wide exhibition series will focus on art and science
NewsExhibitions
Executed Chinese prisoners likely used in UK exhibition
Cadavers on display in 'Real Bodies' show were provided by Dalian-based firm known to have acquired corpses from police
PreviewExhibitions
Fragile yet forceful glass works by Ai Weiwei, Fred Wilson, Fiona Banner and others travel from Venice to Florida
An exhibition of contemporary glass art opens at the Boca Raton Museum of Art
NewsExhibitions
On eve of US inauguration, a chance to visit the president's office
Oval Office replica is a popular element of New-York Historical Society exhibition about the presidency
NewsExhibitions
Kara Walker's secret archive to go on show at Kunstmuseum Basel this summer
Around 600 unseen drawings, collages, studies and writings will flood the museum's ground-floor galleries, providing a window into the American artist's work
NewsPalmyra
New hope that ancient Palmyra will be rebuilt after Isis damage
Deal between the Syrian government and Russian masonry body builds on country’s research into state of archaeological site
NewsExhibitions
Death row inmate designs garden installation by instructing university students through letters
Timothy Young, currently incarcerated in San Quentin State Prison, is a key contributor to the University-led art project, Barring Freedom, that aims to put the US criminal justice system in the dock
BlogAdventures with Van Gogh
Treats for Van Gogh fans in 2021: exhibitions, museum openings and books
We look ahead at the events to enjoy this year—assuming coronavirus doesn't scupper them
ArchiveThree to see
Our picks of the must-see shows to see in New York in January
From new paintings by Ed Ruscha to Shirin Neshat’s New Mexico dreams
NewsExhibitions
Cai Guo-Qiang returns to China with a (virtual) bang in major new show at Beijing's Forbidden City Palace Museum
The Chinese artist has gone back to the mainland after a long stint in the US—but publicity for his retrospective appears muted
ReviewThree to see
Three winter art walks you can enjoy in England this weekend
From Henry Moore's sculpture garden to five miles of towering works along London's first public art walk
NewsDamien Hirst
Damien Hirst installs giant sculpture in middle of frozen St. Moritz Lake
UK artist is showing more than 40 works in his Mental Escapology exhibition in the Alpine Swiss city
PreviewExhibitions
Auckland Art Gallery’s biggest ever exhibition recounts 70 years of Maori art
Mega survey of more than 300 works forms “part of a bigger revisiting of Indigenous knowledge”
NewsStorm King Art Center
Storm King to install Sarah Sze sculpture in 2021—its first new permanent work in more than a decade
The outdoor sculpture park also plans to host an indoor show of her work, with social distancing rules in mind, and will unveil a new sculpture by Rashid Johnson that reflects on surviving a crisis
NewsExhibitions
Botticelli bonanza in Paris next year with major show of masterpieces
New exhibition at Musée Jacquemart-André presents 15th-century artist as an entrepreneur and prolific designer
NewsExhibitions
5,000 years in 350 objects: Victoria and Albert Museum reveals details about its epic 'immersive' Iran show
With ten sections covering ancient Iranian history to contemporary art, London museum plans to open delayed show in February
NewsAmedeo Modigliani
Revealed: the secrets behind Antonia, Modigliani’s ‘most complex work’
Researchers at C2RMF give an exclusive preview of their forensic study of all the artist's works in French museum collections
ReviewThree to see
Three exhibitions to see in London this weekend
From Artemisia Gentileschi at the National Gallery to a transgressive show on Tantra
NewsMuseums
French museums dismayed as reopening pushed to 7 January
Three-week delay caused by rising cases of coronavirus in the country
PreviewExhibitions
Can artists change the world? MoMA show explores political art from the early 20th-century
The works on paper from the Merrill C. Berman Collection include designs for Communist posters and salad oil advertisements
NewsInstitute of Contemporary Art, London
ICA London to reopen early 2021 after closing for almost a year
Exhibition on advocacy group Tottenham Rights—with a focus on Mark Duggan shooting—scheduled for next Spring
ReviewThe Year in Review 2020
No shows: the biggest cancelled exhibitions of 2020
From the saga over a controversially delayed Philip Guston show to an under appreciated female Old Master whose big moment never came
ReviewThree to see
Three exhibitions to see in London this weekend
From Caroline Coon's hermaphroditic footballers to Lynette Yiadom-Boakye's enigmatic portraits
NewsCensorship
Censored work showing faces of 4,000 French police officers goes on show in Berlin
Work was pulled after the intervention of France's interior minister amid protests against a new bill that would have criminalised the publication of images of law enforcement
NewsManifesta
Biennial on the beach: Barcelona to host 2024 edition of Manifesta
German city lined up for 2026 edition but the next edition will vie with Venice Biennale and Documenta
FeatureMedia & broadcast
How Spotify playlists became the new exhibition audio guides
From Lynette Yiadom-Boakye’s Tate show playlist to the MFA Boston’s Basquiat and hip-hop soundtrack, music can have a profound effect on how we view art
ArchiveThree to see
Our picks of the must-see shows to see in New York in December
From Rico Gatson’s mystical investigation of Blackness to Audrey B. Heckler’s prolific collection of Outsider art
InterviewExhibitions
‘I want to be here’: with two shows in London, Tracey Emin reflects on life, love and loneliness
The artist is paired with the Norwegian Expressionist Edvard Munch at the Royal Academy of Arts, and is showing new works at White Cube’s Mayfair gallery, as well as an installation for the online edition of Art Basel in Miami Beach
PreviewExhibitions
Buckingham Palace masterpieces hop next door for exhibition at the Queen’s Gallery
While the royal residence is under repair, some of the Royal Collection’s most famous paintings have been relocated and displayed in a more convenient setting
NewsExhibitions
Strict rules and new tech: Qatar's young artists respond to life during coronavirus
New exhibition Outbreak—organised by Doha Film Institute—has been able to go ahead in real life because the country's Covid-19 cases are low
NewsVenice Biennale
Venice Biennale pleads with Christoph Büchel to return migrant boat to Sicily
Biennale officials and Sicilian town council call on artist to honour his commitment to return controversial Barca Nostra exhibit after one year
NewsExhibitions
Vivian Maier, reclusive nanny turned photographer, gets biggest ever show in Paris next year
Unseen works and Super 8 films reveal new aspects of her practice
ReviewExhibitions
The Big Review: Howardena Pindell at The Shed in New York
This survey of the 77-year-old artist's work lulls the viewer with colourful abstraction before tackling its real subject: racial violence
PreviewExhibitions
Lynette Yiadom-Boakye’s political—with a small ‘p’—portraits finally go on show at Tate Britain
The British artist's largest exhibition to date will also be shown in Stockholm, Dusseldorf and Luxembourg
ReviewThree to see
Three online shows to see this weekend
From a sweeping survey of Kandinsky to a provocative show on the present day experience of Native American communities
NewsBritish Museum
Caffè Nero? The British Museum is looking for help with naming its blockbuster show on the Roman emperor
The survey, with suggestions including “the man behind the monster” and “emperor, tyrant, traitor?”, was sent out to members of the museum’s Friends scheme
NewsRepatriation
Artist discovers looted statue in Canadian museum and returns it to India
The 18th-century work was stolen by the museum's namesake from an active temple over 100 years ago