Ten (and more) must-see exhibitions in Europe in 2023
Johannes van der Meer (Jan Vermeer), Girl in the red hat1665-1667, oil on panel, National Gallery of Art, Washington
In Amsterdam, to admire Jan Vermeer’s paintings live in an unprecedented exhibition. Or in London, to experience the emotions of a performance by Marina Abramovic, protagonist and co-curator of a long-awaited project? For those who want to travel following the suggestions of art, the 2023 calendar is truly generous with proposals: from the contemporary to the old masters, passing through the legends of the modern, there is something for everyone. Barcelona, Vienna, Paris, Oslo, Basel, Bilbao are among the destinations to keep an eye on for the next twelve months. Here are the appointments we have selected for you.
Wayne Thiebaudfrom 29 January to 21 May at the Fondation Beyeler in Basel
American painter Wayne Thiebaud is ready to conquer Europe with his icing and sugar still lifes. The Fondation Beyeler will consecrate him at the end of January in a retrospective that promises surprises: in addition to delicious slices of cake painted in pastel colours, in Basel we will find portraits, landscapes and multi-perspective urban views, testimony to Thiebaud’s versatile talent. Graphic designer and animator at Disney Studios before devoting himself full time to painting, Thiebaud draws a world on the borderline between the visible and the invisible, between irony and nostalgia, sadness and jokes. After him, the Fondation Beyeler calendar includes other important appointments: from 19 February Picasso: the artist and the model will celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the maestro’s death, while from 11 June a surprising project will reveal a little-known – and all-Italian – page in the career of Jean-Michel Basquiat.
Wayne Thiebaud, Pie Rows, 1961, Oil on toile, 55.9 x 71.1 cm, Collection de la Wayne Thiebaud Foundation © Wayne Thiebaud Foundation/2022, ProLitteris, Zurich. Photo: Matthew Kroening
Klimt inspired by Van Gogh, Rodin and Matissefrom 3 February to 29 May at the Belvedere in Vienna
Fascinating, dazzling, irresistible: an artist of many talents and a strong personality, Klimt invented a unique style, still recognizable today even by those who are not art experts. But who inspired him in his enterprise? This is the question of a major exhibition scheduled at the Belvedere in Vienna, which in collaboration with the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam goes in search of the origins of the Secession master’s art. Starting in February, Klimt’s masterpieces will dialogue with the works of illustrious colleagues such as Van Gogh, Matisse, Rodin.
For those who prefer contemporary art, the Austrian capital has two other prestigious appointments in store: from 3 March to 29 May the overwhelming energy of Alex Katz will star in the halls of Albertina Modern, while in the summer George Baselitzone of the greatest living painters, he will celebrate his 85th birthday with a substantial donation (and related exhibition) to the Albertina.
Gustav Klimt, Water Snake II, 1904, reworked 1906/07, Oil on canvas, 145 x 80 cm, Private collection, Courtesy of HomeArt, Hong Kong
Jan Vermerfrom 10 February to 4 June at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam
It will be the largest exhibition ever organized on Jan Vermeer at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam for next spring. Preparations are in full swing: loans from all over the world are preparing to leave for the Netherlands, while experts are busy investigating the Dutch master’s paintings to offer the public new information. According to current knowledge, the painter of light created just 37 works, or at least that many are the ones we know today: at the Rijksmuseum we will see as many as 28, including masterpieces such as the Girl with a Pearl EarringThe Geographerthere Woman writing a letter and the maidthere milkmaid. Some paintings will return home for the first time, others will show themselves in all their glory after the restoration, still others, like the Girl with flutethere Pearl weigher and the Girl in the red hat of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, will tell unexpected news about their author.
Jan Vermeer, Girl Reading a Letter in Front of an Open Window, c.1657 I Courtesy Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Dresden
Oscar Kokoschkafrom 17 March to 3 September at the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao
After the celebrations for its first 25 years, the Guggenheim in Bilbao returns to the roots of the modern with a retrospective dedicated to Oskar Kokoschka. Throughout the spring and summer, a full immersion in the art of the famous Viennese painter awaits museum visitors: the exhibition will retrace Kokoschka’s steps in parallel with the great events of the 20th century, from his early Jugendstil in vibrant Vienna to the development of his dramatic and personal language, up to Prague and London, which welcomed him when the Nazis branded him a “degenerate” artist. And finally in Switzerland, where after the war he became one of the staunchest supporters of united Europe: here for the Austrian master began a creative season little known to the general public, which inspired a generation of artists eager to rediscover the power of painting .
Degas and Manet, from March 28 to July 23 at the Musée d’Orsay in Paris
The exclusive, silent, secret one; the other open, sociable, brilliant: Edgar Degas and Edouard Manet were different in everything, but without their encounter modern art probably would not have been the same. A project created by the Musée d’Orsay in collaboration with the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Musée de l’Orangerie in Paris has been telling it since the end of March. Complicity and rivalry between two great protagonists of the impressionist season emerge from the dialogue of their respective paintings, but also from stories that shed new light on the spectacle of painting. From artistic affinities to the vicissitudes of collecting, from taste to friendships, the fruit of the bond between Degas and Manet is an art that arises from confrontation and contrasts, made up of “wonderful coexistences” and dissonant agreements, as the poet Paul Valery wrote just talking about the two Parisian friends.
Édouard Manet, The balcony, 1868-1869, Oil on canvas, 125 x 170 cm, Paris, Musée d’Orsay | © René-Gabriel Ojéda / RMN-Réunion des Musées Nationaux/ distr. Alinari
Ai Weiwei: make sensefrom 7 April to 30 July at the Design Museum in London
Among the most beloved protagonists of the contemporary scene, the dissident Chinese artist Ai Weiwei does not distinguish between disciplines: his work ranges from photography to installations, from cinema to architecture, passing through activism. This year, for the first time, his works stage a discourse on design and what it reveals about our way of living and thinking. At the Design Museum in London, recent works will mix with pieces commissioned from the artist for the occasion, in a journey that draws on Ai Weiwei’s attraction for Chinese craftsmanship, towards stories and skills that are ignored or canceled today. The result is a journey into the tensions between past and present, technology and craftsmanship, construction and destruction, to discover what is truly valuable to each of us.
Hilma by Klint and Piet Mondrianfrom 20 April to 3 September at the Tate Modern, London
During their lifetime Hilma af Klint and Piet Mondrian never met, but something in their paintings seems to suggest the urgency of a dialogue. is the thesis adopted by the Tate Modern, which this spring will present the works of the two artists together for the first time. For those who don’t know her, Hilma af Klint is a Swedish painter of the same generation as Mondrian. Both began as landscapers, elaborating an abstract – and at the time revolutionary – language starting from nature. Both have cultivated an interest in spirituality, science and philosophy in innovative forms. The London exhibition will be an opportunity to discover the work of two visionary artists in a new light: the famous Mondrian grids will be confronted with the little-known paintings of flowers that the Dutch painter created throughout his life, alongside the enigmatic works of Af Klint, in which the forms of nature are transfigured in a journey towards abstraction.
Hilma af Klint, The Ten Largest, Group IV, No. 3 Youth 1907 I Courtesy Hilma af Klint Foundation
Luisa Borghesefrom 6 May to 6 August at the Nasjonaalmuseet Oslo
The lady of contemporary sculpture lands in Oslo: disturbing, enigmatic, surreal, Louise Bourgeois will tell her story at the Nasjonalmuseet in a journey that touches on the sensitive themes of a long career. In comparison with her works we will find the works of pillars of the twentieth century such as Pablo Picasso and Alberto Giacometti, of contemporary protagonists such as Nan Goldin and the genius of the house Edvard Munch. The year of the Norwegian museum will continue with a program of notable variety, in which there is also a bit of Italy: from 26 May to 1 October, in fact, the design studio Ghostform will conquer the scenes in Oslo, while from 9 June to 10 September it will be the turn of great Flemish art with the exhibition From Rubens to Bruegel.
Marina Abramovićfrom 23 September to 10 December at the Royal Academy of Arts, London
The queen of performance are preparing to go on stage in a long overdue exhibition. Traveling along a 50-year career, at the Royal Academy we will review historical works such as Rhythm 0 of ’74, when Abramovic found herself with a gun pointed at her head, and more recent actions such as The artist is present, created at the MoMa in New York in 2010. A pioneer of performance art that pushed the limits of her physical and psychological resistance, Abramovic collaborated closely in the creation of the London exhibition to re-propose to visitors that intense encounter experience for which it’s known. Performers guided and instructed by herself, for example, will return to the stage Imponderabiliaone of his most famous interventions made in Bologna in ’77 with his former partner Ulay.
Marina Abramović, Artist Portrait with a Candle (A), from the series With Eyes Closed I See Happiness, 2012. Color, pigment fine art print I Courtesy of the Marina Abramović Archives © Marina Abramović
Miro – Picassofrom 19 October 2023 to 25 February 2024 at the Museu Picasso and Joan Mirò Foundation in Barcelona
2023 marks an important anniversary for two great Spanish artists: in addition to the fiftieth anniversary of the death of Pablo Picasso, in fact, it is the forty years since the death of his friend Joan Mirò. For the occasion, Barcelona will be the scene of an unprecedented exhibition, which sees the Museu Picasso and the Fundaciò Joan Mirò join forces in view of a common goal: to celebrate the friendship that bound the two to each other throughout their lives giants of the modern and the intense relationship that both entertained with the Catalan city, today guardian of a conspicuous legacy. For Mirò fans, another unmissable destination in 2023 will be the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, which from 10 February will dedicate a substantial retrospective to the artist. More than 50 exhibitions will inaugurate instead between Europe and the United States to be celebrated the year of Picasso: the complete program is already available on the website celebrationpicasso.es.
Read also:
• Eight photography exhibitions to see in 2023
• From the Futurists to Duchamp, eight exhibitions to see in Italy in 2023
• A year with Picasso: the fiftieth anniversary exhibitions
• A century-long friendship: Amedeo Modigliani and Paul Guillaume soon on show in Paris
• The Prado restarts from the Baroque. And bet on Guido Reni
• Lucian Freud from another perspective. A major exhibition coming to Madrid
• The last Van Gogh in a double appointment between Amsterdam and Paris
• In Ghent an exhibition tells Theodoor Rombouts, the Flemish Caravaggio
• Invitation to the Louvre. The extraordinary journey of the treasures of Capodimonte
• In London, David Hockney’s universe becomes an immersive show