Now that 2018 is nearly over, it’s time to look forward to the exciting exhibitions that will be on offer in London during 2019. From Renaissance masters through Post-Impressionist delights, doyens of fashion design and contemporary art’s finest painters, sculptors, installation artists, photographers and video pioneers, 2019 will keep you inspired and enthused. Here’s a month by month guide to the highlights of the year’s exhibitions at the major museums and art galleries.
January
London Art Fair
16-20 January 2019
Business Design Centre
The Fair is an established destination for both museum-quality modern and contemporary work, nurturing collecting at all levels, from prints and editions to major works by internationally renowned artists.
Grace Wales Bonner
Serpentine Sackler Gallery
18 January – 16 February 2019
This is the first in a new series of short presentations of unique,
interdisciplinary commissions by leading voices in the creative fields.
Pierre Bonnard: The Colour of Memory
Tate Modern
23 January – 6 May 2019
This is the first major exhibition of Pierre Bonnard’s work in the UK since the much-loved show at Tate 20 years ago. It will allow new generations to discover Bonnard’s unconventional use of colour while surprising those who think they already know him.
£18
Bill Viola / Michelangelo: Life Death Rebirth
Royal Academy of Arts
26 January – 31 March 2019
The Royal Academy brings together two artists – born centuries apart – who explore the same universal themes with works of transcendent beauty and raw emotional power.
February
Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams
V& A
2 February – 14 July 2019
Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams is the largest and most
comprehensive exhibition ever staged in the UK on the
House of Dior featuring over 500 objects and 200 rare Haute
Couture garments.
Diane Arbus: in the beginning / Kader Attia: The Museum of Emotion
Hayward Gallery
13 February – 6 May 2019
This exhibition explores the first seven years of photographer Diane Arbus’ career, from 1956 to 1962.
Kader Attia’s first UK survey exhibition traces several strands of the artist’s playful and thought-provoking work from the past two decades.
£15.50
Franz West
Tate Modern
20 February – 2 June
Ironic, irreverent, yet profoundly philosophical, Franz West was a key figure of European art in the late 20th century
£13
Don McCullin
Tate Britain
5 February – 6 May 2019
Tate Britain presents a comprehensive retrospective of the legendary British photographer Don McCullin
£18
Phyllida Barlow RA: cul-de-sac
Royal Academy of Arts
23 Feb – 23 June 2019
Phyllida Barlow’s vibrant, large-scale installations transform the environments they inhabit. In this exhibition, Barlow transforms the David Chipperfield-designed galleries.
Dorothea Tanning
Tate Modern
27 February – 9 June 2019
Over a seven-decade career, Dorothea Tanning pushed the boundaries of surrealism
£13
March
The Renaissance Nude
Royal Academy of Arts
3 March – 2 June 2019
Trace the development of the nude through some of the great masters of the Renaissance. Bringing together works by artists such as Titian, Raphael, Michelangelo, Leonardo, Dürer and Cranach, we shed light on a visual tradition at its most vital moment.
£16
Henry Moore: The Helmet Heads
The Wallace Collection
6 March – 23 June 2019
This ground-breaking exhibition reveals the untold story of Henry Moore’s lifelong fascination with armour at the Wallace Collection, inspiring the creation of his celebrated Helmet Head series.
see website for prices
Visit Here for more info
https://www.wallacecollection.org
Hito Steyerl
Serpentine Sackler Gallery
6 March – 6 May 2019
Actual Reality OS (Digital Commission) – Launches 6 March 2019. The Serpentine presents a new project by Hito Steyerl, German filmmaker, visual artist, writer and innovator of the essay documentary
Only Human: Photographs by Martin Parr
National Portrait Gallery
7 March – 27 May 2019
A major new exhibition of works by Martin Parr, one of Britain’s best-known and most widely celebrated photographers.
£16
Emma Kunz
Serpentine Gallery
23 March – 19 May 2019
The first UK solo exhibition by the late Swiss healer, researcher and artist Emma Kunz (1892–1963)
Van Gogh and Britain
Tate Britain
27 March – 11 Augusts 2019
This major exhibition brings together 45 works by Vincent van Gogh to reveal how he was inspired by Britain and how he inspired British artists.
£22
April
Mary Quant
V&A
6 April 2019 – 16 February 2020
This exhibition will be the first international retrospective on the revolutionary fashion designer in nearly 50 years. It will focus on the years between 1955
and 1975, when Quant revolutionised the high street with her subversive and playful designs for a younger generation.
Edvard Munch: love and angst
British Museum
11 April – 21 July 2019
This April, the British Museum will present a major new exhibition on the work of Norwegian artist Edvard Munch (1863-1944). Edvard Munch: love and angst will focus on Munch’s remarkable and experimental prints – an art form which made his name and at which he excelled throughout his life – and will examine his unparalleled ability to depict raw human emotion. It will be the largest exhibition of Munch’s prints in the UK for 45 years.
Chihuly at Kew: Reflections on Nature
Kew Gardens
13 April – 27 October 2019
The world’s most celebrated contemporary glass artist will bring his work to the stunning backdrop of Kew Gardens, in a major exhibition of his work.
32 unique art installations will be situated across the Gardens in a wide variety of locations.
Adults £13.75* / £12.50 members go free
Sea Star: Sean Scully at the National Gallery
13 April – 11 August 2019
See new work by Sean Scully inspired by the National Gallery Collection and Joseph Mallord William Turner’s ‘The Evening Star’.
Free
May
Luchita Hurtado
Serpentine Sackler Gallery
23 May – 8 September 2019
The first exhibition of work by Venezuelan born artist Luchita Hurtado in an institution.
Manga
The British Museum
23 May – 26 August 2019
Enter a graphic world where art and storytelling collide in the largest exhibition of manga ever to take place outside of Japan.
Manga is a visual narrative art form that has become a multimedia global phenomenon, telling stories with themes from gender to adventure, in real or imagined worlds.
Lee Krasner: Living in Colour
Barbican Art Gallery
30 May – 1 September 2019
This exhibition celebrates the work and life of Lee Krasner (1908–1984), a pioneer of Abstract Expressionism.
Frank Bowling
Tate Britain
31 May – 26 August 2019
The first solo exhibition covering the entirety of Guyanan born artist Frank Bowling’s long and distinguished career.
June
Michael Rakowitz
Whitechapel Gallery
3 June – 25 August 2019
Iraqi-American artist Michael Rakowitz’s (b. 1973, USA) first major European survey presents a sequence of installations drawing on architecture, cultural artefacts and cuisine to tell stories of social ritual, conflict and loss.
Faith Ringgold
Serpentine Gallery
6 June – 8 September 2019
Faith Ringgold (b. 1930, Harlem, New York) is an artist, activist, educator and author whose work consistently challenges the perceptions of American identity and gender inequality through the lenses of the feminist and civil rights movements.
Visit Here for more info
https://www.serpentinegalleries.org/
Natalia Goncharova
Tate Modern
6 June – 8 Sept 2019
Tate Modern will present the largest retrospective of Natalia Goncharova ever held in the UK. Many of the works have never been seen outside Russia before.
Summer Exhibition
Royal Academy of Arts
10 June – 12 August 2019
Annual world-famous exhibition like no other where works by leading artists, Royal Academician’s and household names are displayed alongside emerging talent in the largest open submission exhibition in the world.
Kiss My Genders
Hayward Gallery
12 June – 8 Sept 2019
A group exhibition celebrating more than 30 international artists whose work explores and engages with gender fluidity, as well as non-binary, trans and intersex identities.
Cindy Sherman
National Portrait Gallery
27 June – 15 September 2019
A major new retrospective of works by leading contemporary artist Cindy Sherman. Including the ground-breaking series, Untitled Film Stills, 1977-80, this major new exhibition will explore the development of Sherman’s work from the mid-1970s to the present day,
£18
Felix Vallotton
Royal Academy of Arts
30 June – 29 September 2019
Magnetic, provocative, daring: meet Félix Vallotton (1865–1925). the Royal Academy reveals the vision of a masterful painter and printmaker who captured the emotional undercurrents of Paris at the turn of the last century.
Visit Here for more info
https://www.royalacademy.org.uk
July
Olafur Eliasson
Tate Modern
11 July 2019 – 5 January 2020
Explore Eliasson’s deep engagement with social and environmental issues through immersive installations.
September
Antony Gormley
Royal Academy of Arts
21 September – 3 December 2019
Acclaimed sculptor Antony Gormley presents his most significant solo exhibition for over a decade. A conversation between old works and new, it will span his wide-ranging practice and exploit the scale and light of the RA’s architecture.
Mark Leckey
Tate Britain
24 Sept 2019 – 5 Jan 2020
Turner Prize-winning Mark Leckey’s work is often concerned with under-represented or overlooked aspects of British culture and explores ideas about both collective and personal history.
William Blake: The Artist
Tate Britain
11 Sept 2019 – 2 Feb 2020
The most comprehensive survey of William Blake’s work to be held since 2001, William Blake: The Artist will rediscover him as a visual artist for the 21st century.
October
Rembrandt’s Light
Dulwich Picture Gallery
4 October 2019 – 2 February 2020
2019 is The Year of Rembrandt with celebrations taking place throughout Europe to mark 350 years since the artist’s death (1669).
Rembrandt’s Light’ will bring together 35 carefully selected international loans that focus on Rembrandt’s mastery of light and visual storytelling, concentrating on his greatest years from 1639-1658, when he lived in his ideal house at Breestraat in the heart of Amsterdam (today the Museum Het Rembrandthuis).
Price: tbc
Gauguin Portraits
The National Gallery
7 October 2019 – 26 January 2020
The first ever exhibition devoted to the portraits of Paul Gauguin. Spanning the later years of his life and focusing solely on his portraits, this exhibition follows Gauguin’s move away from Impressionism towards Symbolism.
Nam June Paik: The Future is Now
Tate Modern
17 October 2019 – 9 February 2020
This major retrospective of this pioneer of video will be a mesmerising riot of sounds and sights, reflecting Paik’s vision of a multidisciplinary future.
Bridget Riley
Hayward Gallery
23 October – 26 January 2020
A major retrospective exhibition devoted to the work of celebrated British artist, Bridget Riley.
Lucian Freud: The Self Portraits
Royal Academy of Arts
27 October – 26 January 2020
See more than 50 paintings, prints and drawings in which this modern master of British art turns his unflinching eye firmly on himself.
November
Dora Maar
Tate Modern
20 November 2019 – 15 March 2020
During the 1930s, Dora Maar’s provocative photomontages became celebrated icons of surrealism.
Young Bomberg and the Old Masters
The National Gallery
27 November 2019 – 1 March 2020
Marking just over a century since David Bomberg’s (1890–1957) first solo show at the onset of war in 1914, in another first, this exhibition displays some of his earliest paintings alongside the works that inspired him.
Free