By Cindy Brzostowski, for Museum Spotlight Europe (March 2021)
Looking for Europe’s best museum exhibits for fall of 2021? While travel and tourism may not be back to normal just yet, there are still plenty of exciting things happening in Europe’s museum scene. Taking place from London to Paris to Lisbon, these special exhibits are the ones to put on your radar for mid-summer and fall of 2021. Just remember to double-check opening and closing dates, which may shift due to changing COVID protocols in each country.
In Paris …
“The Morozov Collection: Icons of Modern Art” at the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris, France is this season’s can’t-miss exhibition. At the landmark show, visitors will get the chance to see one of the world’s most prominent collections of Impressionist and Modern art. Notably, it’s the first time the collection has traveled outside of Russia since it was created in the 20th century. The 200 masterpieces hail from the collection of brothers Mikhaïl and Ivan Morozov, and they include works by French and Russian artists, including Manet, Rodin, Monet, Repen, Vrubel, and Korovin. Mark your calendars: This major exhibit takes place from May 12 to October 10.
If you miss getting to see the “Georgia O’Keeffe” temporary exhibition at Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in Madrid, don’t worry—you have another chance to catch it this year in Paris at Centre Pompidou. Open from September 8 to December 6, the exhibit surveys O’Keeffe’s career as one of the most influential 20th-century artists through around 80 pieces. When the exhibit leaves Paris, it’ll be moving once more to the Fondation Beyeler in Basel, Switzerland.
Elsewhere in Paris, there’s another special exhibit for your itinerary. Sandro Botticelli, master painter and one of the most renowned Renaissance artists, will be celebrated in the “Botticelli” exhibit at Musée Jacquemart-André. From September 10 to January 24, visitors can view around 40 of Botticelli’s works alongside paintings by some of the contemporaries he influenced. Altogether, the special exhibit will offer a nice opportunity to better understand Botticelli’s workshop strategy, stylistic development, and impact.
As if it wasn’t clear already that Paris has a stacked calendar this season, there’s one more exhibit to consider if you have any more time left in the season: “Martin Margiela” at Lafayette Anticipations. Taking place from October 20 to Jan 2, this is the boundary-pushing fashion designer’s first solo art show. The exhibit centers on the idea of transformation and features some previously unseen works, including sculptures and photographs.
Initially supposed to be opened in 2020 to coincide with Helmut Newton’s 100th birthday, “Helmut Newton. Legacy” will now be open to visitors at the Museum für Fotografie in Berlin, Germany from October 31, 2021 to January 23, 2022. Featuring a mixture of previously unknown, forgotten, and iconic images, the retrospective celebrates the prolific German-American photographer’s fashion photography as well as his work in portraiture and nudes.
And on to Germany!
Germany has even more noteworthy special exhibitions going on—one being “Johannes Vermeer: On Reflection” at the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister in Dresden. This exhibit will take place from June 4 to September 12, and its centerpiece is the restoration of “Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window,” one of Vermeer’s early masterpieces. After recent research revealed that an extensive portion of the overpainting wasn’t done by Vermeer, this area was removed during restoration, revealing a painting of Cupid on the room’s rear wall that radically changes the overall work. This piece is joined by nine other Vermeer paintings plus around 50 works of Dutch genre painting from the late 17th century.
Another exhibit in Germany to note this season is “Dürer’s Journeys: A Journey Becomes Legend” at the Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum in Aachen. Considered one of the great German Renaissance artists (if not the greatest), painter and printmaker Albrecht Dürer spent a critical year traveling from Nuremberg to Netherlands, and this exhibit examines that journey through 140 works he produced during that time alongside reference works by contemporaries. The exhibit was initially timed to open 500 years to the day Dürer arrived in Aachen (October 7, 2020), but now you can see it from July 18 to October 24.
England’s Exhibits!
From May 27 to October 24, head to the British Museum in London, England to see “Nero” (title still to be confirmed), a major special exhibition on the infamous Roman emperor. The story of Nero’s rise and fall is told through approximately 200 objects, allowing visitors a chance to contrast the different sides of the controversial historical figure. Let’s see what you think about the last male descendent of the first Roman emperor Augustus after your visit…
Also in London, The Dulwich Picture Gallery is hosting the first major U.K. exhibition of woodcuts by trailblazing American artist Helen Frankenthaler in “Helen Frankenthaler: Radical Beauty.” During this retrospective, which is open May 27 to November 28, you can see 30 diverse works on loan from the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, including her first woodcut from 1973, her last work published in 2009, and her masterpiece “Madame Butterfly” from 2000.
And back to the Continent …
During the spring, the Kunstmuseum in Basel, Switzerland offered the chance to see “Sophie Taeuber-Arp: Living Abstraction,” and in the summer, the exhibit moves to the Tate Modern in London, England. From July 15 to October 17 you’ll be able to appreciate the Swiss abstract artist’s influential multidisciplinary works through around 400 pieces that range widely in medium and form. It’s the first retrospective of Taeuber-Arp’s work in the UK.
Travel north up from London to check out “Ad Minoliti” at the BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art in Gateshead, England. Running from July 24, 2021 to May 8, 2022, this marks painter Minoliti’s first institutional presentation in the UK and their largest exhibition so far in Europe. The exhibit is described as “an ‘alien lounge’ – a space away from terrestrial existence, where non-binary gender and a non-human centered approach to art and living is reality.” There will also be bi-weekly workshops open to the public.
The Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum in Madrid, Spain is putting on the city’s first retrospective of Belgian surrealist artist René Magritte in the exhibit “The Magritte Machine.” Visitors can examine the painter’s repetition of themes across 90 paintings and a selection of photographs and films. You have a bit of time to catch the exhibit, which runs from September 14 to January 30, 2022.
From June 4 to November 28, the historic exhibition center Cordoaria Nacional in Lisbon, Portugal hosts “Ai Weiwei: Rapture.” Here, you can view a curated selection of some of Chinese contemporary artist and activist Ai Weiwei’s most iconic works (including “Snake Ceiling” from 2009) alongside original works produced in the country. This exhibit is the first time the influential figure in contemporary art is exhibiting in Portugal.
You Might Also Want To See These Special Exhibits: From now until November 7, the Benaki Museum in Athens, Greece is showing “1821 Before and After.” Through 1,200 objects, this major special exhibit celebrates the bicentenary of 1821, the pivotal year when the revolution which led to Greece’s independence was declared. From May 1 to September 12, the Centro Botín in Santander, Spain will put on “Picasso Ibero,” which examines the influence of Iberian art on Pablo Picasso. At the Modemuseum Hasselt in Hasselt, Belgium, you can see how sportswear has increasingly become an important part of the fashion industry in the special exhibit “Activewear” from June 6 to December 30. Scheduled for June 25 to October 10, “The Artist: Anna Bilińska 1854–1893” at the National Museum in Warsaw in Warsaw, Poland follows the career of one of the first Polish female artists to gain international recognition.
