Preview: best art exhibitions in Europe, early 2024

A first look at some of the most interesting art exhibitions that will be on view in Europe in early 2024

Source: Royal Academy / Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam / Belvedere, Vienna / Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam / National Gallery of Art, Washington · Image: Frans Hals, “The Lute Player”, ca. 1623. Musée du Louvre.

“Art, Colonialism and Change” at the Royal Academy, London (February 3 to April 28, 2024)

The exhibition brings together over 100 major contemporary and historic works as part of a conversation about art and its role in shaping narratives around empire, enslavement, resistance, abolition and colonialism – and how it may help set a course for the future.

“Frans Hals” at the Rijksmuseum,Amsterdam (February 16 to June 9, 2024)

Following monographic exhibitions devoted to Rembrandt (in 2015 and 2019) and Vermeer (in 2023), the Rijksmuseum is now staging its first major exhibition devoted to Frans Hals. This is the first exhibition of his work on such a scale since the 1989-1990 show which visited The Royal Academy of Arts, London, the Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem, and The National Gallery of Art, Washington.

“In the Eye of the Storm: Modernism in Ukraine” at the Lower Belvedere, Vienna (February 23 to June 2, 2024)

This exhibition is the first comprehensive presentation of Ukrainian art from the first half of the twentieth century to be shown outside Ukraine. It relates this tempestuous chapter of Ukrainian cultural history and tells of how modern artists tried to reinforce Ukrainian sovereignty and independence and establish a recognizable national style. The Belvedere is placing a focus on art from around 1900 to highlight connections to the development of Jugendstil.

 “Matthew Wong l Vincent van Gogh. Painting as a Last Resort,” at the Van Gogh Museum (March 1 to September 1, 2024)

The exhibition showcases the artistic connection between the two artists. But their life stories also reveal parallels: Wong and Van Gogh both worked hard to find their calling, which ultimately proved to be painting, and they struggled with their mental health, resulting in tragic, untimely deaths.

“Paris 1874: The Impressionist Moment” at the Musée d’Orsay (March 25 to July 14, 2024) The first exhibition of these Société anonyme artists included works by Claude Monet, Auguste Renoir, Edgar Degas, Berthe Morisot, Camille Pissarro, Alfred Sisley, and Paul Cézanne, later known as impressionists. This now-legendary event is often considered the birth of modernist painting and remains a key moment in the history of Western art.