If you are looking for art exhibitions, London is the perfect place for that. There are some amazing art exhibitions coming up in 2020 that you can put in your calendar already. In this list I have gathered some interesting art exhibitions and some not very art exhibitions you should look out for in London. I’ve picked some that are going to be up late 2019 or early-mid 2020. That way you can plan ahead and not have to worry about missing out.
It may not be one of the art exhibitions you should see but it’s definitely an exhibition worth checking out so I thought I might as well put it on the list.
The National Maritime museum is celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing with the UK’s biggest exhibition dedicated to the Moon. The exhibition features over 180 objects, including artefacts from NASA’s Apollo 11 mission.
The image bellow is ‘Waxing Gibbous Moon, Two days after the first quarter’ by John Russell. Part of his ‘lunar portraits’
Read more and book tickets here.
Another anniversary is being celebrated at Saatchi Gallery. The 100th anniversary of the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb is being commemorated with an exhibition of more than 150 authentic pieces from the tomb – three times the quantity that has travelled in previous exhibitions – more than 60 of which are travelling outside of Egypt for the first time.
This is the last chance to see the treasures before they are returned to Egypt forever, so it’s one of the art exhibitions on high demand. And yes, treasures are art too.
Read more and book tickets here
This is Anna Maria Maiolino’s first retrospective in the UK, spanning six decades of work. The exhibition features works made with simple materials like clay, paper and ink. It’s definitely going to be one of the most comprehensive art exhibitions on the list.
Read more and book tickets here
Internationally renowned author Tom McCarthy presents Empty House of the Stare, a new work of fiction and exhibition. This is a free exhibition with guest curator Tom McCarthey, who builds his narrative around the work of seven artists in “la Caixa” Collection of Contemporary Art. The exhibition and McCarthey’s work look at the meditation on surveillance and control, and their malfunction and breakdown.
Read more here
Antony Gromley’s sculptures are recognised around the word and you can see both previous work and some major new installations created for the RA’s galleries at this new ambitious exhibition. Gormley’s most ambitious exhibition in more than ten years. It will explore his wide-ranging use of organic, industrial and elemental materials over the years, as well as some of his rarely-seen early work.
Image bellow is Lost Horizon I by Anthony Gromley
Read more and book the exhibition here.
Everyone has heard of Pablo Picasso, but it is his paintings that are usually in the forefront of exhibitions. With Picasso and Paper RA is focusing on how Picasso used paper (cafe tablecloths, newspapers, antique papers, etc) as an art medium, allowing Picasso to push the boundaries of thought and practice. You’ll be able to see these alongside a select number of key paintings and sculptures.
Bellow you can see Head of a Woman, which is pencil on cut and folded wove paper from an album sheet
Read more and book the exhibition here
William Blake was a painter, printmaker and poet who created some of the most iconic images in British art. With over 300 original works, including his watercolours, paintings and prints, this is the largest show of Blake’s work for almost 20 years. It will rediscover him as a visual artist for the 21st century.
Imaged bellow you see: William Blake ‘Europe’ Plate i: Frontispiece, ‘The Ancient of Days’ © The Whitworth, The University of Manchester
Read more and book the exhibition here
Rembrandt is one of the greatest painters in the world and a real master of light. This landmark exhibition celebrates 350 years since his death with 35 of his iconic paintings, etchings and drawings, including major international loans from The Louvre and Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum.
Read more and book the exhibition here
The exhibition explores British Surrealism as a fundamental movement in the history of art over a fascinating 170 year period, pre-dating the international movement’s beginnings in the early 1920s. It’s the first major exhibition to explore the origins of surrealist art in Britain. You’ll see works by Leonora Carrington, Francis Bacon, Paul Nash, Eileen Agar, Henry Moore and others.
Read more and book the exhibition here
This is an immersive exhibition looking at ‘The Virgin of the Rocks’ through four different lenses. You will be led through a painting studio, an imagined chapel and a room-sized experiment of light and shadow to try and look into the mind of Leonardo da Vinci. You will also see the original masterpiece and how it might have appeared in its original setting as part of an elaborate altarpiece
Read more and book the exhibition here.
In 1551, Prince Philip of Spain, the future King Philip II, commissioned Titian, the most famous painter in Europe, to produce a group of paintings showing Classical myths primarily taken from the Roman poet Ovid’s ‘Metamorphoses’. The exhibition reunites five of the six paintings in the series, from Boston, Madrid, and London, for the first time in over three centuries.
Read more and book the exhibition here
Maurer was at the centre of an independent community of artists, poets and musicians that championed their own culture outside of the official Hungarian system during the socialist period. They organised exhibitions in apartments and published underground journals.
And the best part is that unlike most great art exhibitions, you can see this one at Tate Modern for fee all year 5 August 2019 – 5 July 2020.
Read more here
Widely considered to be one of the most important painters of her generation, Lynette Yiadom-Boakye is a British artist and writer acclaimed for her enigmatic portraits of fictitious people. This exhibition will bring together over 80 paintings and works on paper from 2003 to the present day in the most extensive survey of the artist’s career to date.
Read more and book the exhibition here
This major exhibition will be a mesmerising riot of sights and sounds. It brings together over 200 works from throughout his five-decade career – from robots made from old TV screens, to his innovative video works and all-encompassing room-sized installations such as the dazzling Sistine Chapel 1993.
Read more and book the exhibition here
The next two art exhibitions have been quite anticipated. Let’s talk about the first one – the first major exhibition of Steve McQueen’s artwork in the UK for 20 years. This exhibition will bring together the immersive video and film installations he has made since 2000. It will include large-scale video installations including Caribs’ Leap/Western Deep 2002, alongside recent films such as Ashes 2002–15.
Read more and book the exhibition here
Tate Modern has a lot of great art exhibitions coming up. Andy Warhol is one of them as the retrospective sounds really promising. You’ll be able to see pop images of Marilyn Monroe, Coca-Cola and Campbell’s Soup Cans, play with Warhol’s floating Silver Clouds and experience the psychedelic multimedia environment of the Exploding Plastic Inevitable. The exhibition will bring together rarely seen work from the 1970s that display his skill as a painter, as well as his experiments with different forms of mass media.
Read more and book the exhibition here
As I said, Tate Modern has a busy program, they are really trying to make their memberships worthwhile. This exhibition will bring together some Abakans (towering hanging pieces, which expanded the field of sculpture) created by the Polish artist. They are set to occupy the open 64-metre-long gallery space of the Blavatnik Building at Tate Modern. This should be one of the most spectacular art exhibitions coming up.
Read more and book the exhibition here
At this point it just sounds like I’m writing an article about the exhibitions happening at Tate Modern. But it’s Zenele Muholi and their first major retrospective. Muholi is a visual activist who became popular in the early 2000s with photographs that envision black lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer and intersex lives beyond deviance or victimhood, challenging the hetero-patriarchal ideologies and representations.
The exhibition will present the full breadth of Muholi’s photographic and activist practice and it’s going to be one of the most intimate and interesting exhibitions of 2020.
Read more and book the exhibition here
With around 100 works, many rarely exhibited before in the UK, this major retrospective will highlight the abstract sculptures of Slovak artist Maria Bartuszová.
Bartuszova is known best for her plaster sculptures. She used balloons as shapes for sculptures, inspired by playing with her young daughter, creating forms which often resembled rain-drops, seeds and eggs. Her work is delicate and inspired by the natural world.
Read more and book the exhibition here
Aubrey Beardsley shocked and delighted late-Victorian London with his sinuous black and white drawings. He explored the erotic and the elegant, the humorous and grotesque, winning admirers around the world with his distinctive style. This is going to be the largest exhibition of his drawings for 50 years.
The image bellow is: Aubrey Beardsley The Kiss of Judas 1893 Victoria and Albert Museum
Read more and book the exhibition here
This major new exhibition will explore the extravagant world of the glamorous and stylish ‘Bright Young Things’ of the twenties and thirties, seen through the eye of renowned British photographer Cecil Beaton. It will bring to life a deliriously eccentric, glamorous and creative era of British cultural life, combining High Society and the avant-garde, artists and writers, socialites and partygoers.
Read more and book the exhibition here
From miniskirts and hot pants to vibrant tights and makeup, discover how Mary Quant launched a fashion revolution on the British high street, with over 200 garments and accessories, including unseen pieces from the designer’s personal archive.
Read more and book the exhibition here
Exploring its origins, adaptations and reinventions over 157 years, this immersive, theatrical show will expand ACMI’s award-winning exhibition, and chart the evolution of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland from manuscript to global phenomenon. It’s set to be one of the most exhilarating art exhibitions at the V&A and definitely a must see by lovers of fashion and specifically Alice in Wonderland’s fashion.
Read more and book the exhibition here
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