9 must-see art exhibitions in London in 2023
Let’s say you can visit just one art show each month this year. Where should you go?
Hermenegildo Anglada Camarasa, Girls of Burriana (Falleras), 1910-11. Oil on canvas, 166 x 208 cm. On loan from The Hispanic Society of America, New York, NY. Part of the Spain and the Hispanic World at the Royal Academy of Arts.
Obviously, you’d want to prioritise the best art exhibitions in London – and given tickets are typically around £20 per adult and shows take approximately 2 hours to see (if you plan to read any of the wall text, that is) it’s a serious decision to make.
But don’t worry – here are my must-see shows for 2023, plus some alternatives. There’s nine in all because, in the UK, we leave July and August for swimming in ponds and December for eating mince pies.
You are most welcome to visit these exhibitions too, and let’s discuss afterwards!
January: Spain and the Hispanic World
Francisco de Goya y Lucientes, The Duchess of Alba, 1797. Oil on canvas, 210.3 x 149.3 cm. On loan from The Hispanic Society of America, New York, NY. Part of the Spain and the Hispanic World at the Royal Academy of Arts
It’s only the largest collection of Spanish and Hispanic art outside Spain! And traces the history of Spanish culture as envisioned by the Hispanic Society Museum & Library in New York. You’ll see a wide variety of artefacts ranging from 4000-year-old bowls to Vespucci’s 1526 World Map, to paintings by Goya, Velázquez, el Greco and others. How will they deal with the extensive borrowing/influence from other cultures as well as the implications of colonialism? You need to go and find out.
Spain and the Hispanic World: Treasures from the Hispanic Society Museum & Library, Royal Academy of Arts, 21 January – 10 April
February: Donatello
Donatello, Pazzi Madonna, marble, courtesy of Skulpturensammlung und Museum für Byzantinische Kunst der Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin. Photo by Antje Voigt, Berlin. Part of Donatello at the Victoria and Albert Museum
The greatest sculptor of all time? V&A certainly wants you to think so. It’s their first major show dedicated to Donatello and is set to be a blast. The exhibition will present him as an innovator who worked in a range of materials and techniques and united classical and contemporary styles. With works travelling from Florence, Pisa, Padua, and Boston among others, this is certainly not one to miss – especially if you are a Renaissance fan.
Donatello: Sculpting the Renaissance, Victoria and Albert Museum, 11 February – 11 June
Alternatives for February: The Morgan Stanley Exhibition: Peter Doig at the Courtauld Institute of Art, 10 February – 29 May; Beyond the Streets London at Saatchi, 17 February – 9 May.
March: Berthe Morisot: Impressionism and the 18th Century
Berthe Morisot, Self-portrait, 1885 © Musée Marmottan Monet, Paris. Part of Berthe Morisot at Dulwich Picture Gallery
A trailblazer, a founding member of the Impressionist group… an admirer of Gainsborough? Yes. And of French 18th century art too. This will be a new look at Impressionism – examining the influence of ancienregime art on an artist of the following century. Juxtaposing works from Dulwich’s own collection with those from Musée Marmottan Monet, the exhibition will also highlight the social changes evident in comparing the perspective of artists from different epochs and different genders.
Berthe Morisot, Dulwich Picture Gallery, 31 March – 10 September
Alternatives for March: Souls Grown Deep Like the Rivers, Black Artists from American South at Royal Academy of Arts, 17 March – 18 June. After Impressionism: Inventing Modern Art at the National Gallery, 26 March – 13 August
April: Isaac Julien
Installation view, Lessons of the Hour–Frederick Douglass, Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester, 2019. Photo: Andy Olenick/Fotowerks Ltd. © Isaac Julien. Courtesy the artist and Victoria Miro. Part of Isaac Julien at Tate Britain
Forty years of experimentation and investigation funnelled into one rollercoaster show. Julien has been breaking barriers in the ways in which art is shown and seen – and in what art can show. Political films and immersive multi-screen videos – referencing dance, photography, music, theatre – will take us on a journey of engaged image making. From Diaspora and Black British experience in the 1980s, to LGBTQIA+ history, to migration – this is about art that makes one think, and then think again.
Isaac Julien, Tate Britain, 26 April – 20 August
Alternatives for April: The Rossettis at Tate Britain, 6 April – 24 September; Hilma af Klint & Piet Mondrian at Tate Modern, 20 April – 3 September
May: The Offbeat Sari
Photo by John Angelillo UPIAlamy Live News. Part of The Offbeat Sari at the Design Museum
Quilted sari? Sari and steel? Sari as protest? Yes, yes, and yes. Just as modern India, modern sari is acombination of convention and innovation. The Design Museum’s exhibition will keep you up to date with the most recent reinventions of this traditional garment. Layers of cultural meaning, search for identity, a renewed attention to craftsmanship – all come together in a form of garment that from the start was designed to adapt and transform.
The Offbeat Sari, The Design Museum, 19 May – 17 September
Alternative for May: Luxury and Power: Persia to Greece at the British Museum, 4 May – 13 August
June: The National Portrait Gallery Reopening
National Portrait Gallery. © Photo David Parry
A complete re-display of the whole collection, renovated buildings, new entrance. Already excited? If there is one gallery where you can learn a great deal about British history, this is it. From Tudors to today – portraits of the great and the good and possibly of the less great, but still good too. They claim they have done a re-think – previously missing or hidden stories are finally coming to display. The re-hang is intended to make their collection of paintings and photographs relevant to a diverse modern audience.
National Portrait Gallery reopens 22 June
Alternatives for June and July : Capturing the Moment at Tate Modern, 14 June – 28 January 2024; Summer Exhibition at Royal Academy of Arts, 13 June – 20 August; Diva at Victoria and Albert Museum, from 24 June; A World in Common: Contemporary African Photography at Tate Modern, 6 July – 14 January 2024; Herzog & de Meuron at Royal Academy of Arts, 14 July – 15 October
September: Frans Hals
X11695. Frans Hals, The Laughing Cavalier, 1624. Oil on canvas, 83 x 67 cm. © Trustees of the Wallace Collection, London. Part of Frans Hals at the National Gallery.
Have you ever seen The Laughing Cavalier? I am almost certain you have – if not at the Wallace Collection (its place of residence – which has allowed the first ever (!) loan of the work), then maybe on a pillow in the shape of a cat, or on your Instagram feed in one of those early pandemic dress-up-as-art photos. Now, take note: there is a whole exhibition of portraits of laughing, lively, relaxed 17th century people coming to town. Frans Hals’s works were quite unusual for his time, they are quite necessary for ours. Dopamine, anyone?
The Credit Suisse Exhibition: Frans Hals, The National Gallery, 30 September - 21 January 2024
Alternatives for September: Sarah Lucas at Tate Britain, 28 September – 14 January 2024; Marina Abramović at Royal Academy of Arts, 23 September – 10 December; Gabrielle Chanel: Fashion Manifestoat Victoria and Albert Museum, from 16 September.
October: Philip Guston
Philip Guston, Painting, Smoking, Eating, 1973. Oil on canvas, 196.85 × 262.89 cm. Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam © The Estate of Philip Guston. Part of Philip Guston at Tate Modern
A journey of one artist from abstraction to figuration in a bid to reflect on humanity’s vices through art. Racism, politics, war… these works, created half a century ago, are still unnervingly relevant. Where some artists work through their own psychological traumas in art, Guston worked through society’s ones. If you want to escape the turbulence and desperation of the outside world, this is not an exhibition to go to. But if you need an example and an inspiration of how to address it, this is possibly the best place to be.
Philip Guston, Tate Modern, 5 October – 25 February 2024
November: Women in Revolt!
Helen Chadwick, In the Kitchen (Stove), 1977. © The Estate of the Artist. Courtesy Richard Saltoun Gallery, London and Rome. Part of Women in Revolt! at Tate Britain
Women artists. Lots and lots of them. In one place. Finally. These ones changed not only the face of art, but the structure of society. The 1970s was the decade that brought art and activism firmly together. This exhibition looks at the two decades that followed – two decades when making art pretty was no longer an option. Presenting both work and the experiences of over a hundred women artists, the show will celebrate what has for a long time been left out of museums’ official narratives.
Women in Revolt! Tate Britain, 8 November – 7 April 2024
Alternatives for November: Impressionists on Paper: Degas to Toulouse Lautrec, Royal Academy of Arts, 25 November – 10 March 2024