Egon Schiele: Young Genius in Vienna 1900
Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Art, January 26th until April 9th
Egon Schiele was a talented and troubled artist who died at 28. Like other young artists of his generation, he was killed by the Spanish flu. He left behind a body of work that was incredibly intense.
An exhibition of Schiele’s works will be held at Vienna’s Leopold Museum. It will feature his early studies, self-portraits, and some of his most notable works, such as his haunting portraits of mothers with their children. The exhibition will also focus on his erotic, rough nudes and blocky landscape paintings.
Hokusai: Inspiration and Influence
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, March 26th until July 16th
The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston is the ideal venue to present the works of this prominent Japanese artist, who has been admired worldwide for over a hundred years. The exhibition features over 90 works by the master and 200 by his followers and contemporaries.
The exhibition will focus on the artist’s relationship with Katsukawa Shunshō and his connections with other Japanese artists. It will also explore how he influenced the works of European artists.
The exhibition’s second half will feature works from the 20th and 21st centuries, exploring how he became one of the most famous Japanese artists outside of Japan.
Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, May 5th through July 16th
German-born Karl Karl Lagerfeld was a prominent fashion designer who started working in the 1950s. He would go on to re-make various fashion houses, such as Chanel, while also establishing himself as an entrepreneur and philanthropist. After he died in 2019, the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute started planning an extensive survey of his career.
The exhibition features over 150 garments, accompanied by sketches that were his main creative outlet. Andrew Bolton, the curator of the show, aims to elevate the discussion by referring to the 18th-century work of William Hogarth as the central figure in the show’s title.
According to Bolton, Karl Lagerfeld was able to synthesize various opposites. He is a modernist-minimalist who is also a romantic and historicist. The show’s designer, Japanese architect, and renowned minimalist artist, Tadao Ando, helped bring this concept to life.
Remedios Varo: Science Fictions
Art Institute of Chicago, July 29th through November 27th
Like other European Surrealists who lived in Mexico after the war, Varo and her friends, Leonora Carrington and Kati Horna were known as the “three witches.” They shared an interest in magic and the occult. Varo creates enigmatic figures drawn from various rituals and investigations in her works. Some of these include a scientist studying a crystal on an abacus, a wraith-like figure juggling stars, and an explorer navigating a river with a single cup.
She studied at the University of Barcelona and worked in a style heavily influenced by the work of the artist Hieronymus Bosch. When she died in 1963, André Breton, the founder of Surrealism, referred to her as the “sorceress who left too soon.”
Michelangelo and the Consequences
Albertina, Vienna, September 15th through January 7th, 2024
The Albertina Museum in Vienna has one of the most significant collections of drawings by Michelangelo. This year, it will present nine of the artist’s works as the centerpiece of a show called Michelangelo and the Consequences. This exhibition features around 170 drawings focused on the artist’s influence on the ideas of beauty.
Several of Michelangelo’s drawings, such as his seated young male nude and studies of arms, will be compared with works by other artists, such as Dutch Mannerist Goltzius.
One of Michelangelo’s rare female nudes, part of the exhibition, is entitled Studies of a Seated Seated Female Nude, which dates back to 1530. It is complemented by works by Durer, Rembrandt, and Hans Baldung Grien, among others.
Simone Leigh
Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, From April 6th to September 4th
After several years of production and a critically acclaimed presentation at the Venice Biennale in 2022, Leigh’s first museum survey will finally be presented. It will be held at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston before traveling to various other institutions.
The museum survey will focus on Leigh’s sculptures made in various forms, such as porcelain, bronze, glass, and terracotta. It will explore how her practice has been able to combine feminine forms and domestic architecture to create monuments honoring Black womanhood. It will also feature a video collaboration between artists Madeleine Hunt-Ehrlich and Chitra Ganesh.
Vermeer
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, February 10th until June 4th
The Rijksmuseum was able to secure 28 of Johannes Vermeer’s 37 paintings. The museum’s upcoming exhibition in Amsterdam will feature only small pictures spread over ten rooms.
The exhibition will be chronological, starting with Vermeer’s earliest works until the completion of his last works in 1675. There will also be occasional breaks in the strict chronology to emphasize specific themes or the artist’s ambitions.
The Rossettis
Tate Britain, London, April 6th until September 24th
The works of Dante Gabriel Rossetti are familiar to art gallery visitors in the UK and other countries. Their emotional struggles were featured in the 2009 BBC television series Desperate Romantics. An upcoming exhibition at Tate Britain will focus on the Rossettis’ family and their complicated relationships with other individuals.