With the arrival of autumn, museums around the world are launching their most anticipated exhibitions of the year. The Paper | Art Review has selected exhibitions from major international museums, showcasing works from Classicism and Realism to Impressionism, Pointillism, the Nabis, Cubism, Abstraction, Existentialist sculpture, and Conceptual photography, offering a fascinating history of Western art.
Picasso plays
Exhibition period: September 17, 2025 - April 12, 2026
Location: Tate Modern, London
Spanish painter Picasso, renowned for his Cubist portraits, also designed costumes for the Ballets Russes and adored the thrill of bullfighting. This exhibition brings together approximately 45–50 works by Picasso, including paintings, sculptures, textiles, and works on paper, many of which are being shown in the UK for the first time. It explores the dramatic side of this uncompromising artist. The iconic 1925 work "Three Dancers," a treasured piece from the Tate Modern's collection, forms the centerpiece of the exhibition.
Kiefer/Van Gogh
Exhibition period: June 28 to October 26, 2025
Location: Royal Academy of Arts, London
Featuring Vincent van Gogh's evocative landscapes alongside monumental paintings and sculptures by Anselm Kiefer that draw on history, mythology, and memory, the exhibition aims to reveal how Van Gogh's legacy continues to shape contemporary approaches to painting and Symbolism.
Mona Hatoum: Encounter - Alberto Giacometti
Exhibition period: September 3, 2025 to January 11, 2026
Location: Barbican Arts Centre, London
This is the second exhibition in the "Encounters: Giacometti" series, in which the Barbican invites contemporary artists to engage in dialogue with Giacometti's work. In this installment, Mona Hatoum presents a selection of new and existing works, alongside a selection of Giacometti's sculptures. Through this intergenerational presentation, the exhibition explores themes such as cages and confined spaces, home and hostile environments, memory, trauma, displacement, and exile, tracing how both artists translated existential concerns into sculptural form.
Miller: Life on the Land
Exhibition period: August 7th - October 19th
Location: National Gallery, London
Present representative works such as "The Evening Prayer" and "The Sower" to show the image of workers in his works.
Radical Harmony
Exhibition period: September 13, 2025 - February 8, 2026
Location: National Gallery, London
Centered around the Kröller-Müller Collection, the exhibition features works by Seurat, Signac, Van Gogh, and Pissarro, showcasing the movement’s unwavering commitment to color and light while also demonstrating how collectors and patrons shaped its artistic legacy.
Marie Antoinette: Style and Power
Exhibition period: September 20, 2025 to March 22, 2026
Location: Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A)
Explores the role of fashion and image in shaping the public image of Marie Antoinette, wife of King Louis XVI of France. Bringing together examples of court dress, portraits, and decorative arts, the exhibition examines how the queen's style both projected power and sparked controversy. It also traces the ways in which her image has been reinterpreted over the centuries, showcasing her enduring influence on fashion and culture.
Enlighten Childhood
Exhibition period: September 16, 2025 - January 25, 2026
Location: Petit Palais, Paris
Jean-Baptiste Greuze was one of the most important and groundbreaking artists of 18th-century France. In an era dominated by depictions of court life and mythology, he focused on everyday life, excelling in portraits and genre paintings. Childhood was a central theme in his paintings. His young protagonists, sometimes dreamy, sometimes mischievous, sometimes melancholic, convey his reflections and questions on topics such as education, innocence, growth, and social responsibility.
Impressions of the Nabis
Exhibition period: September 9, 2025 - January 11, 2026
Location: National Library of France
The exhibition features over 200 works including prints, posters, illustrations, books, magazines, performance catalogs, and decorations.
The Nabis were a group of young post-Impressionist artists in the 1890s. They were mostly influenced by Impressionism and decorative art, and were not bound by the media of communication. They played an important role in the transition from Impressionism to abstract art and Symbolism.
Wolfgang Tillmans' major retrospective: "We Are Not Prepared – We Are Ready"
Exhibition period: June 13 to September 22, 2025
Location: Centre Pompidou, France
In 2000, Wolfgang Tillmans became the first photographer to win the Turner Prize (and the first non-British winner). The exhibition covers the entirety of his career, from his early club photography to abstract experiments and socially charged works. It also incorporates music, performance, and video installation, transcending the limitations of a static exhibition.
Hundreds of Lifestyles at the Nakagin Capsule Tower
Exhibition period: July 10, 2025 - July 12, 2026
Location: Museum of Modern Art, New York
Designed by Japanese architect Kisho Kurokawa (1934-2007), the Nakagin Capsule Tower was completed in 1972 in Tokyo's Ginza district. It was the world's first modular capsule high-rise building, with each room measuring 10 square meters. The exhibition features the Nakagin Capsule Tower's module, "A1305," as its core exhibit, complemented by drawings, models, photographs, films, and related artifacts.
Allegory and Abstraction: A Selection from the Drawings and Prints Department
Exhibition period: until December 9
Location: Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
The Department of Prints and Drawings, home to over one million drawings, prints, and illustrated books from Europe and America, presents four rotating exhibitions annually in the Robert Wood Johnson, Jr., Wing. Commemorating the 250th anniversary of the births of Turner and Girtin, the exhibition features a selection of watercolors by both artists. Among these is a Turner landscape commissioned in 1843. Its masterful depiction of light and atmospheric effects is a hallmark of Turner's finest work. The painting showcases the mastery of his technique, a skill that has earned him both controversy and acclaim.
Drawings from the Swedish National Museum: From the Renaissance to the Baroque
Exhibition period: July 1 - September 28, 2025
Location: National Museum of Western Art, Japan
Highlights include Albrecht Dürer's "Portrait of a Young Woman with Braided Hair", Rembrandt's "The Arrest of Christ", and Annibale Carracci's "Portrait of the Painter Ludovico Cardi".
Van Gogh Exhibition: The Family's Continuation of the Painter's Dream
Exhibition period: September 12th - December 21st
Location: Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum
Focusing on the collection of the Van Gogh Museum in the Netherlands, the exhibition presents more than 30 paintings by Van Gogh, as well as four letters that are exhibited in Japan for the first time, telling the story of the important role played by Van Gogh's brother Theo and his family in the preservation and inheritance of Van Gogh's works.
Open Eyes: Impressionist Painter Camille Pissarro
Exhibition period: June 14 - September 28, 2025
Location: Barberini Museum, Germany
Bringing together over 100 works from approximately 50 institutions and collectors at home and abroad, including landscapes, cityscapes, still lifes, and portraits, the exhibition provides visitors with an overview of the artistic career of Danish-French Impressionist painter Camille Pissarro and the social utopian imagery in his works.
Back and forth: Roussel, Titian, Cézanne
Exhibition period: April 26, 2025 - April 25, 2026
Location: National Gallery of Art, Washington
Radical! Women Artists and Modernism 1910-1959
Exhibition period: June 18th - October 12th
Location: Belvedere Museum, Vienna
Featuring works by over 70 artists from 22 countries, the exhibition explores how women artists have profoundly shaped the story of modernism. From abstraction to figuration, surrealism to overt activism, the exhibition aims to highlight the individuality of each artist and highlight the new perspectives women artists have brought to the diversity of modernism.
Collective Creativity: Interwoven Creativity in Japanese Art
Exhibition period: September 10th - December 1st
Location: Humboldt Forum, Berlin
This article selects Japanese art from the Museum of Asian Art in Berlin's collection to illustrate the importance of social and cultural networks to Japanese artistic creation.
Paula Rego and Adriana Vallejo: Between Your Teeth
Exhibition period: until September 22, 2025
Location: Gulbenkian Center for Contemporary Art, Lisbon
Several years ago, Portuguese artist Paula Rego and Brazilian artist Adriana Varejão agreed to collaborate on an exhibition. However, the former's death in 2022 meant that the latter ultimately took on the bulk of the organizing work. The resulting exhibition, featuring 80 works, is described by Varejão as "a dialogue between two women who fearlessly confront the world with powerful emotions and imagination."
