Autumn brings exciting and significant exhibitions to London’s major museums and galleries. From beloved artists such as Van Gogh, Monet and Francis Bacon to a group show featuring Renaissance giants Michelangelo, Leonardo and Raphael, there’s something to suit every taste in art. Plus, the Turner Prize exhibition returns to the capital. Here are some recommendations from Artlyst.
September
Van Gogh: Poets and Lovers
National Gallery
September 14, 2024 – January 19, 2025
Be amazed by Van Gogh’s most stunning paintings in a century-long exhibition. The National Gallery brings together some of Van Gogh’s most beloved paintings from around the world, including some that are rarely shown publicly. These paintings are paired with his extraordinary drawings. Van Gogh revolutionised his style during two years in the South of France, creating a symphony of poetic colour and texture. Inspired by poets, writers and artists, his time in Arles and Saint-Rémy was a defining period of his career.
from 24 €
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Michael Craig Martin
Royal Academy of Arts
21 September – 10 December 2024
Take a look back at the colourful career of groundbreaking artist Sir Michael Craig-Martin RA. Michael Craig-Martin was a towering figure in British conceptual art and is considered one of the most influential artists and teachers of his time. This exhibition features the largest collection of Craig-Martin’s work in the UK. Visitors will have the chance to see highlights from his remarkable career, including thought-provoking installations and colourful artworks.
£22-24.50
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Turner Prize 2024
Tate Britain
September 25, 2024 – February 16, 2025
For its 40th anniversary, the Turner Prize returns to Tate Britain.
The four artists shortlisted for the 2024 Turner Prize are Pio Abad, Claudette Johnson, Jasleen Kaur and Delaine Le Bas. They will exhibit their diverse work at Tate Britain from 25 September 2024. The winner will be announced on 3 December 2024.
The Turner Prize, named after the radical painter JMW Turner, was first awarded in 1984. Each year it is awarded to a British artist who has created an outstanding exhibition or other presentation of his or her work.
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Monet and London: View of the Thames
Courtauld Gallery
September 27, 2024 – January 19, 2025
Claude Monet (1840-1926) is known worldwide as a leading figure of French Impressionism. Less well known is the fact that some of Monet’s most remarkable Impressionist paintings were not created in France, but in London. These paintings depict extraordinary views of the Thames and reveal striking atmosphere, mysterious light and radiant colors in a way never seen before.
Monet began this series during three stays in London between 1899 and 1901, portraying Charing Cross Bridge, Waterloo Bridge and the Houses of Parliament.
The exhibition finally makes Monet’s unfulfilled wish come true: to exhibit this extraordinary group of paintings in London, just 300 metres from the Savoy Hotel, where many of them were painted.
18 €
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October
Mike Kelley: Mind and Soul
Tate Modern
October 2, 2024 – March 9, 2025
The first major exhibition of American artist Mike Kelley in the UK. This exhibition showcases the elaborate, provocative and imagined worlds Kelley created. During his career spanning the late 1970s to 2012, Kelley produced a diverse body of work including drawings, collages, performance, found objects and video. The exhibition covers Kelley’s entire career and includes his groundbreaking ‘craft’ sculptures made from textiles and soft toys, as well as his multimedia installations. Drawing on references from pop and underground culture, literature and philosophy, Kelley explores how the roles we play in society are intertwined with historical facts and imagined characters from the films and images we consume. More than a decade after his death, Kelley’s reflections on identity and memory are still relevant.
18 €
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The Imaginary Institution of India: Art 1975–1998
Barbican Art Gallery
Sat., 5 October 2024 – Sun., 5 January 202
Exhibition showcasing art in response to India’s changing cultural-political landscape from 1975 to 1998. The exhibition includes artworks by over 25 Indian artists and marks two significant events in India’s history: Indira Gandhi’s declaration of Emergency in 1975 and the Pokhran nuclear tests in 1998. This period was marked by social unrest, economic collapse and rapid urbanisation. Despite the turmoil, artists created works that captured historically significant events as well as personal and shared experiences. The exhibition features a range of media and covers themes such as friendship, love, desire, family, religion, violence, caste, community and protest. These deeply personal works provide insight into a time of significant change. This is the first institutional exhibition to cover these years and features many works that have never been shown in the UK before.
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Haegue Yang: Leap Year
Hayward Gallery
9 Oct 2024 – 5 Jan 2025
Haegue Yang’s artworks span a wide range of media, including paper collages, performative sculptures, and large-scale sensory installations. Her inspiration is equally diverse, drawing from a variety of histories and customs, such as East Asian traditions and folklore, modernism, contemporary art history, and nature.
Leap Year is the first major UK exhibition of this internationally acclaimed artist. The exhibition offers a comprehensive exploration of Yang’s work from the early 2000s to the present day, emphasising how her artworks resonate on a personal and sensory level whilst also addressing social, political and spiritual ideas.
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Francis Bacon Portraits
National Portrait Gallery
10 October 2024 – 19 January 2025
Showcasing works from the 1950s onwards, this exhibition looks at Francis Bacon’s strong connection to portraiture. It will also explore how he challenged traditional definitions of the genre. The exhibition will feature Bacon’s responses to portraits by earlier artists, as well as large-scale paintings commemorating lost lovers. The works, drawn from private and public collections, tell the story of Bacon’s life. In addition to the artist’s self-portraits, the exhibition includes portraits of figures such as Lucian Freud, Isabel Rawsthorne and Bacon’s lovers Peter Lacy and George Dyer
£23-25.50
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November
The National Gallery, London. Purchased with a special grant and contributions from the Art Fund, the Pilgrim Trust and a public appeal organised by the Art Fund, 1962.
Michelangelo, Leonardo, Raphael: Florence, around 1504
Royal Academy of Arts
November 9, 2024 – February 16, 2025
In the early 16th century, the relationships of three influential figures of the Italian Renaissance – Michelangelo, Leonardo and Raphael – briefly crossed as they vied for the favor of the most powerful patrons in republican Florence.
On January 25, 1504, the leading artists of Florence met to discuss a suitable location for Michelangelo’s almost completed sculpture of David. Among them was Leonardo da Vinci, who, like Michelangelo, had recently returned to his hometown of Florence.
This exhibition begins with Michelangelo’s famous tondo “Taddei” and examines the rivalry between Michelangelo and Leonardo and the influence they both had on the young Raphael.
View some of the finest examples of Italian Renaissance drawing, including Leonardo’s Burlington House Cartoon and the studies by Leonardo and Michelangelo for their murals commissioned by the Florentine government for the newly built Council Chamber in the Palazzo Vecchio.
19-21 €
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Photographs in Britain in the 1980s: A defining decade
Tate Britain
November 21, 2024 – May 5, 2025
Step back in time and discover 1980s Britain. This exhibition showcases the work of various photographers, collectives and publications who responded to the turbulent Thatcher era in unique ways. Set against a backdrop of race riots, miners’ strikes, Section 28, the AIDS pandemic and gentrification, you will be inspired by stories of protest and change.
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Read more
Further exhibition suggestions can be found here
Tags
Barbican Art Gallery, Courtauld Art Gallery, Hayward Gallery, Indian art, Leonard Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Mike Kelley, Monet, National Gallery, National Portrait Gallery, Raphael, Tate Britain, Tate Modern, Ten London Art Exhibitions Autumn 2024, Turne Prize 2024, Van Gogh
