The best European exhibitions to see in 2021
For the world of art and culture, 2020 was a year of cancellations and postponements. Due to the Corona pandemic, art fairs, biennials and many large museum exhibitions have been postponed, including major art happenings such as the Venice Architecture Biennale or Art Cologne. Things can surely only get better and while we’re dreaming of a future without travel restrictions and strolling through museums again, let’s take a look at the art year 2021. The art world calendar is full of exceptional solo exhibitions by women artists.
In Vienna, the Albertina Museum dedicates a major retrospective to the Italian painter and sculptor Amadeo Modigliani to mark his death's 100th anniversary (September 17, 2021 - January 9, 2022). Modigliani is best known for his portraits of women and as a bohemian addicted to alcohol who died of tuberculosis far too young. But the exhibition "Modigliani - Picasso. Revolution of Primitivism" takes a closer look at the artist and highlights his role as a leading artist of the avant-garde who carried the revolution of Primitivism far into the twentieth century.
A highlight for Berlin is the upcoming Yayoi Kusama retrospective at the Gropius Bau (March 19 to August 1, 2021). From giant spotted pumpkins to immersive installations that embody the artist's hallucinations that she had as a child, Kusama has been creating magnificent art since the 1960s. Today, she is one of the world’s most important contemporary artists and an icon of the avantgarde. The exhibition offers an overview of the creative periods in her oeuvre, which spans more than 70 years, and presents a newly realised Infinity Mirror Room.
At the Berlinische Galerie, recent and unusual works by Berlin sculptor Alicja Kwade will be on display. Entitled “In Abwesenheit (In Absence)”, the exhibition will feature self-portraits by the artist for the first time. Kwade explores ways to describe a person’s physical presence in space: with a heartbeat, the DNA code or a combination of chemical elements.
In Paris, Centre Pompidou devotes a large overview exhibition entitled "I will survive" (February 3 to June 7, 2021) to German-Japanese multimedia artist Hito Steyerl. The show was developed in cooperation with K21 in Düsseldorf, where the first part will run until the end of January. The exhibition focuses on Steyerl's examination of how the ever faster and more intelligent technologies affect us humans as well as the social roles of art and museums. From April 2021, German artist Anne Imhof, who worked with Burberry's Riccardo Tisci for SS21, will transform the Palais de Tokyo Paris into her own art space: "Nature Mortes". For this first large-scale exhibition in France, she will combine performance, painting, music and installation works.
In Paris, the long-awaited opening of a new exhibition space for the Fondation Pinault in the historic Bourse de Commerce is also coming up. For three and a half years, the listed Belle Époque building with its beautiful domed roof was extensively restored and redesigned by star architect Tadao Ando. Pinault, whose collection of contemporary art is one of the world's largest, adds this as the third private museum to his portfolio alongside the Palazzo Grassi and the Punta della Dogana in Venice. Seen through the prism of the collection, Bourse de Commerce will present thematic displays and monographic exhibitions, as well as performances and workshops. The official opening is planned for January 23, 2021.
"Sophie Tauber-Arp: Living Abstraction", a major travelling survey will highlight the profoundly innovative work of a sometimes overlooked women artists. Associated with Dada and her husband, the German-French artists Hans Arp, Sophie Tauber-Arp’ striking work hasn’t yet received enough recognition internationally. The exhibition aims to highlight Taeuber-Arp’s pioneering contribution to the history of abstraction. Beginning at the Kunstmuseum Basel (March 20 - June 20, 2021), it will travel to London’s Tate Modern (July 15 - October 17, 2021), before ending at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York (November 21, 2021 - March 12, 2022).
And yet another great women artist is travelling this year: Georgia O'Keeffe is considered one of the most important representatives of American art of the 20th century, but her paintings have so far only rarely been shown in Europe. A travelling exhibition with around 80 works gives art lovers in Europe the opportunity to immerse themselves in the visual universe of this pioneer of American modernism. Starting at the Thyssen Bornemisza National Museum in Madrid (March 23 to August 1, 2021), the exhibition will head to Centre Pompidou in Paris (September 8 to December 6, 2021) and the Fondation Beyeler in Riehen (spring 2022).
In London, the Royal Academy hosts "Francis Bacon: Man and Beast" (January 30 to April 18, 2021), which explores the painter’s fascination with animals and the animal nature of humans. The exhibition shows 45 paintings - including Bacon's very last canvas - that often blur the line between humans and animals. Another highlight is the postponed exhibition "Alice: Curiouser and Curiouser" at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London (opening on March 27, 2021). Lewis Carroll's curious fairy tale "Alice in Wonderland" still enchants young and old, and many of the wondrous motifs have been taken up in art, fashion or photography. The exhibition presents paintings by the American surrealist Dorothea Tanning, photographs by Tim Walker and fashion by Vivienne Westwood, all based on the story.
