High Society
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
Dates | 8 Mar-3 June
Best in show | Rembrandt
Rembrandt’s wedding portraits of Marten Soolmans and Oopjen Coppit – his only life-size, standing, full-length portraits – were jointly purchased by theRijksmuseum and the Louvre for €160m in 2016, and this is the first chance to see them – in their full glory after restoration. They are joined by portraits of society figures over four centuries by masters including Cranach the Elder, Veronese, Velázquez, Gainsborough, Reynolds, Sargent and Manet.
• €17.50, 9am-5pm daily, rijksmuseum.nl
Stay at the Art’otel Amsterdam (doubles from €175), which has artists’ studios, a two-storey “art curtain” displaying video art, an art-centred library and a gallery.
Upcoming: Grayson Perry
Kiasma, Helsinki
Dates | 13 April-2 Sep
Best in show | Kenilworth AM1
If you missed the Grayson Perry exhibition at the Serpentine in London last year, head to Kiasma, Finland’s leading contemporary art gallery, for a retrospective this spring/summer. The show includes Perry’s witty ceramics, sculptures, tapestries and dresses, tackling gender, identity, class and religion. The exhibition then moves to the revamped 11 Conti Museum at the Monnaie de Paris (from 19 Oct-3 Feb).
• €14, free on first Friday of each month, opening hours vary, closed Mondays, kiasma.fi
Stay at the new Hotel St George (doubles from €179 room-only), which opens on 1 April. It features a giant white dragon by Ai Weiwei in the lobby, while guests get 25% off at Helsinki’s museums with the hotel’s art card.
Picasso 1932
Tate Modern, London
Dates | Until 9 Sep
Best in show | Marie-Thérèse Walter nudes
Book ahead and expect queues for 1932 – Love, Fame, Tragedy. Tate Modern’s first solo Picasso exhibition is a month-by-month journey through the artist’s prolific “year of wonders”. The 100-plus works include Girl Before a Mirror, which seldom leaves New York’s MoMA, and The Dream, which has never been shown in the UK before. It also reunites three reclining nudes – of his lover Marie-Thérèse Walter – for the first time in 85 years.
• £22, 10am-6pm, 10pm Fridays and Saturdays, tate.org.uk
Stay at Green Rooms (dorms from £24, doubles from £89) in Wood Green, north London, a social enterprise with discounted rooms for artists, plus exhibitions, live music and comedy nights.
Delacroix (1798-1863)
The Louvre, Paris
Dates | 29 March-23 July
Best in show | Liberty Leading the People
In its first Eugène Delacroixretrospective since 1963, the Louvre is showing 180 artworks by the French romanticist. The exhibition brings together the gallery’s masterpieces – Liberty Leading the People, The Massacre at Chios, Women of Algiers – with loans from the National Gallery in London, the Met in New York and the National Gallery of Canada.
• €15, 9am-6pm, 9.45pm Wednesdays & Fridays, closed Tuesdays, louvre.fr
Stay at the Drawing Hotel (doubles from €154), practically next door; each floor is designed by a different artist, there is an “art concierge”, an exhibition space and art materials for sale in the lobby.
Rembrandt | Britain’s Discovery of the Master
Scottish National, Edinburgh
Dates | 7 July-14 Oct
Best in show | Self Portrait, aged 51
This exhibition examines Britain’s Discovery of the Master, which reached its climax in the late 18th century. It brings together Rembrandts from around the UK – Belshazzar’s Feast from the National Gallery in London, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man from the Walker Gallery in Liverpool – and overseas. It also showcases work from painters inspired by the Dutch master, from William Hogarth to Frank Auerbach.
• £13.50, 10am-5pm, 7pm Thursdays, nationalgalleries.org
Stay at 24 Royal Terrace (doubles from £89 B&B), a 16-room boutique hotel in a Georgian townhouse, displaying the owner’s collection of modern art, including work by Terry Frost and John Bratby.
Alberto Giacometti
Guggenheim Bilbao
Dates | 19 Oct-24 Feb 2019
Best in show | Femmes de Venise
If you missed the retrospectives at Guggenheim New York and Tate Modern London, here’s your chance to catch the work of one of Switzerland’s most famous artists at the Guggenheim Bilbao. This new exhibition of the man Jean Paul Sartre called “the perfect existentialist artist” covers his life’s sculptures and paintings, from the cubist and surrealist period up to his death in the mid-1960s.
• €16, €9 concessions, under 12 free; Tuesday to Sunday, 10am-8pm, guggenheim-bilbao.eus
Stay at the Gran Hotel Domine (from €106 B&B) right opposite the Guggenheim. It makes a suitably arty base filled with modern art and striking sculpture and furniture.
Wanderlust
Alte Nationalgalerie, Berlin
Dates | 10 May-16 Sep
Best in show | Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog by Caspar David Friedrich
Wandering – in nature, over the Alps, through life – is celebrated in this inspirational exhibition. Journeys on foot were a key subject in 19th-century European art, and are celebrated here in 100 artworks by Caspar David Friedrich, Norway’s Johan Christian Dahl, Switzerland’s Ferdinand Hodler, Paul Gauguin, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and others. Pack your hiking boots in case you get the bug.
• €12, 10am-6pm, 8pm Thursdays, closed Mondays, smb.museum
Stay at the Arte Luise (doubles from €88), where there is sculpture in the lobby, philosophy on the stairs and the 50 rooms have been designed by different artists.
Bruegel
Kunst Historisches, Vienna
Dates | 2 Oct-13 Jan 2019
Best in show | Two Monkeys
Next year is the 450th anniversary of the death of Pieter Bruegel the Elder. Just 40 of his paintings survive today – 12 of them at the Kunst Historisches Museum, including The Tower of Babel. They will be joined by precious pieces from other museums and private collections, many of which have never before been loaned.
• €20, 10am-6pm, 9pm Thursdays, closed Mondays, khm.at
Stay at the Wilhelmshof (doubles from €93 B&B), a family-run hotel where the rooms are designed by two Viennese artists, the garden is known as the gARTen, and even the underground car park is a work of art.
The New Berlin, 1912-1932
Royal Museums of Fine Arts, Brussels
Dates | 5 Oct-27 Jan 2019
Best in show | Otto Dix
Travel back in time to early 20th-century Berlin at an exhibition at Musées royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique that portrays the horrors of the first world war, the excitement of the Golden 20s and the crises thereafter. There is particular emphasis on how society was changing and the various (short-lived) utopian movements, through paintings, sculptures, photography and film by Otto Dix, Raoul Hausmann, Kazimir Malevich and others.
• €14.50, 10am-5pm, 11am-6pm weekends, closed Mondays, fine-arts-museum.be
Stay at the Pantone Hotel (doubles from €59 room-only), where everything is colour-coded by the Pantone Matching System, from the rooms to the bikes for hire and the cocktails on the terrace.
Gabriele Münter
Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk, Denmark
Dates | 3 May-19 Aug
Best in show | Portrait of Marianne von Werefkin
The experimental German painter has been overshadowed by her lover Wassily Kandinsky, but she is finally celebrated in her own right with this retrospective at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art. The show includes 130 works; as well as painting and drawing, Münter was a photographer and created stained glass. Many of the exhibits have never been displayed before.
• £15, 11am-10pm, 6pm weekends, closed Mondays, en.louisiana.dk
Stay at Ibsens Hotel in Copenhagen (doubles from £112 room-only); Humblebæk is a 35-minute coastal train ride from the capital. The hotel accepts artworks in lieu of payment, and exhibits its “artmoney” in the lobby.
Dada is Dada
Bildmuseet, Umeå, Sweden
Dates | Until 20 May
Best in show | Sonia Delaunay
There is still time to catch the Dada exhibition at the Bildmuseet in Umeå, northern Sweden. The works range from paintings and collage to objects, sound recordings and films by dozens of Dadaists, including Marcel Duchamp and Man Ray, plus a welcome number of female artists, such as Sonia Delaunay, Sophie Taeuber-Arp and Beatrice Wood.
• Free, 10am-5pm, 9pm Fridays, closed Mondays, bildmuseet.umu.se
Stay at Stora Hotellet (doubles from £79 B&B), a former seaman’s mission built in 1895 – today there are budget seaman’s bunks as well as luxury rooms, plus an “indoor square” with exhibitions, a theatre, a cinema and more.
Andy Warhol – After Munch
Kunsthall Oslo
Dates | 26 May-26 Aug
Best in show | The Scream (After Munch)
Edvard Munch was one of Andy Warhol’s favourite artists, and he visited the Munch Museum in 1983. Munchmuseet, in collaboration with Kunsthall Oslo, is returning the favour this year with Andy Warhol – After Munch, an exhibition of his take on famous Munch works, including drawings, silkscreen prints and paintings. They include his versions of The Scream, and Self-Portrait with Skeleton Arm and Madonna, plus a screening of his 1963 film Kiss.
• £3, midday-5pm, closed Monday
kunsthalloslo.no
Stay at Lysebu (doubles from £138 room-only), a hotel and cultural centre in the forest on the outskirts of Oslo. It exhibits Norwegian and Danish art; hosts concerts and plays; and sells gifts by Scandi designers.
Idea of North
Baltic, Gateshead
Dates | 11 May-30 Sep
Best in show | Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen
As part of the Great Exhibition of the North, a summer-long celebration in Newcastle and Gateshead, the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art is exploring northern imagination and identity. A series of pavilions will focus on everything from Hadrian’s Wall (via gaming and film) to Cumbria’s 1990s cave-rave scene of the 1990s. A highlight is the photography exhibition of women in the north-east, curated by Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen.
• Free, 10am-6pm daily (10.30am Tuesdays), getnorth2018.com
Stay at Malmaison Newcastle (doubles from £85 room-only), directly opposite the Baltic across the Tyne – just hop over the Gateshead Millennium Bridge.
Frida Kahlo
Hungarian National Gallery, Budapest
Dates | 6 July-4 Nov
Best in show | The Broken Column
More than 30 artworks by the great Mexican will be on display in the Hungarian National Gallery this summer, many on loan from the Museo Dolores Olmedo in Mexico City. They include Kahlo’s signature self-portraits, including one of her earliest, painted in 1926, plus other paintings, drawings and photographs. Visit from October to catch another stellar exhibition: Bacon, Freud and the School of London (from 5 Oct to 14 Jan).
• £5, 10am-6pm, closed Mondays, mng.hu
Stay at the Bohem Art Hotel (doubles from €80 B&B), an old stationery factory near the Danube in downtown Budapest – it is full of art by contemporary Hungarian artists.
Miró, a wild spirit
Miró Mallorca Fundacío, Palma
Dates | Until 2019
Best in show | TBC
This exhibition explores Joan Miró’s influences, from prehistoric cave paintings to Japanese art, before focusing on the innovative work he produced in Mallorca after settling there in 1956. The Miró Mallorca Fundacío is in Cala Major, where the artist lived and worked until his death in 1983, and includes his house, a museum and a sculpture garden. Visit from June, when Miró’s main studio reopens after restoration. Miró fans could also take a trip to Valletta in Malta, which has a Picasso/Miró exhibition this spring (7 April-30 June).
• €7.50, 10am-7pm, 3pm Sundays, closed Mondays, miromallorca.com
Stay at the Art Hotel Palma (doubles from €133 B&B), a 13-room hotel in the old town, owned by an antiques dealer and stuffed with treasures.
Allées et Venues
Museu Carmen Thyssen, Andorra
Dates | Until 10 Sep
Best in show | Paul Gauguin
The Museu Carmen Thyssen opened last year in Escaldes-Engordany, to display work from Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza’s outstanding private collection (there is also a Carmen Thyssen museum in Málaga and the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in Madrid). This year, the gallery’s Comings and Goings exhibition is focusing on Gauguin and other artists – including Emil Nolde, Alfred Sisley and Camille Pissarro – who used roads and paths as a motif in their art.
• €9, 10am-7pm, closes 2pm Sundays, closed Mondays, museucarmenthyssenandorra.ad
Stay at Hotel Exe Princep, a bright, modern option (doubles from €54 B&B) in the town’s central shopping district. Don’t expect anything luxurious – but that’s reflected in the price.
Freud Project
Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin
Dates | Until 2 Sept
Best in show | The Painter’s Mother Resting
The IMMA has 52 works by Lucian Freud on a five-year loan. The Ethics of Scrutiny centres on some of his intimate portraits, including Two Brothers from Ulster and Man in Silver Suit, to explore themes of vulnerability, longing and loss. Freud is shown alongside other artists who dealt with how we see ourselves and others, such as painters Gwen John and Marlene Dumas, and writers Emily Dickinson and John Berger.
• €8, free on Tuesdays, 11.30am-5.30pm (from 10am Saturdays and 12pm Sundays), closed Mondays, imma.ie
Stay at The Dean (doubles from €145 room-only ), Dublin’s hippest hotel, which has original Irish art on the walls, vinyl on the turntables and a late-night rooftop bar.
Rosso, Klee, Sonnier and more
Hilti Art Foundation, Vaduz, Liechtenstein
Dates | 9 Nov-17 Mar 2019
Best in show | TBC
The Hilti Art Foundation opened in 2015, next door to the Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein. Its exhibitions tend to be broad surveys of modernist artists, and this one is no exception: new acquisitions by Picasso, Matisse and Klee will be shown alongside existing work by Mondrian, Kandinsky, Giacometti and others. Tickets cover both galleries.
• £12, 10am-5pm, 8pm Thursdays, closed Mondays, kunstmuseum.li
Stay at Landhaus am Giessen (doubles from around £122), a simple, friendly hotel that offers decent value for money and a central location.
Martha Stettler
Kunstmuseum, Bern
Dates | 4 May-29 July
Best in show | Dans le Jardin du Luxembourg
Bern-born Stettler was a famous painter in her own lifetime, but after her death in 1945 she slipped into relative obscurity. This retrospective of An Impressionist Between Bern and Paris at the Kunstmuseum should help revive her reputation, introducing a new generation to her crowd-friendly paintings of children playing in Parisian parks and her gorgeous landscapes. About time, too: Stettler was a pioneer, the first woman to exhibit at the Venice Biennale, winning numerous awards and co-founding the Académie de la Grande Chaumière in Paris.
• £14, 10am-5pm, 9pm Tuesdays, closed Mondays, kunstmuseumbern.ch
Stay at AM Pavillon B&B (doubles from £110 B&B), a stylish 19th-century townhouse close to the station with high ceilings, stucco and old parquet floors, plus a library of beautiful books.
By the Sea
Gemeente Museum, The Hague
Dates | 14 July-18 Nov
Best in show | Piet Mondrian
Today, Domburg is a popular family holiday destination, with sandy beaches, watersports and campsites. A hundred years ago, it was a hotspot for Dutch artists, attracted to the landscape and the light. This exhibition brings together more than 50 seascapes by Piet Mondrian, Jan Toorop, Jacoba van Heemskerck and others who fell under the spell of the Zeeland coast.
• €15, 10am-5pm, closed Mondays, gemeentemuseum.nl
Stay at the Teleport Hotel (doubles from €76 B&B) in the Binckhorst, a former industrial area where local street artists have staged a design takeover of 10 of the rooms.
This article was amended on 19 March 2018. The closing date of the Frida Kahlo exhibition in Budapest is 4 November, not 18 November as originally stated. It was amended again on 11 May 2018 as some of the details of the Andy Warhol – After Munch exhibition in Oslo were incorrect.
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