The 10 biggest art exhibitions to book tickets for in Spring 2024
Ranjit Singh: Sikh, Warrior, King
He beat Churchill in a recent BBC poll, to be crowned the greatest leader of all time. But chances are you won’t be familiar with the founder of the Sikh Empire, former owner of the Koh-i-noor diamond – before Queen Victoria got her hands on it. From jewels to armour, this show transports you to the Maharaja’s court.
Wallace Collection, London W1 (wallacecollection.org), April 10 until Oct 20
Expressionists: Kandinsky, Münter and the Blue Rider
In her day, she was seen as little more than a “side-dish” to her teacher and lover Kandinsky. But is Gabriele Münter actually the forgotten founder of German expressionism? This brilliant artist’s time may have finally come.
Tate Modern, London SE1 (tate.org.uk), April 25 until Oct 20
Bloomin’ Brilliant: The Life and Work of Raymond Briggs
The Snowman creator’s special gift lay in his ability to talk about loss, loneliness, and the fear of death – in something as apparently simple as a children’s book. This intimate show draws on more than 100 artworks from the late author’s 60-year career.
Ditchling Museum of Art+Craft, East Sussex (ditchlingmuseumartcraft.org.uk), April 27 until Oct 27
Michelangelo: The Last Decades
What does a great artist produce in the autumn of their life? Beethoven’s late style was tragic, thorny and transcendent. For Michelangelo, as this exhibition proves, the final years demanded a similar reckoning with mortality – and salvation.
British Museum, London WC1 (britishmuseum.org), May 2 until Jul 28
National Treasures
Turner’s The Fighting Temeraire sets sail for Newcastle; in Edinburgh, you can hear the tinkle of Vermeer’s Young Woman Standing at a Virginal. The National Gallery celebrates its 200th anniversary, by loaning a dozen of the nation’s most-loved paintings to museums across the UK.
Various venues (nationalgallery.org.uk), 10 May until September
Dame Magdalene Odundo
Odundo’s curvaceous ceramics – in burnished black and orange – are deeply expressive. This retrospective traces a 30-year career through her painstakingly-produced vessels – and includes a new work inspired by the potter, entrepreneur – and leading abolitionist of his day – Josiah Wedgwood.
Houghton Hall, Norfolk (houghtonhall.com), 12 May until Sept 29
Judy Chicago: Revelations
Chicago’s best known for serving up The Dinner Party: a banquet set on a triangular table with ceramic place settings (that resemble vulvas) for 39 women – from Sappho to Hildegard of Bingen to Virginia Woolf. Now an elder stateswoman of the art world, this is the feminist trailblazer’s first solo show at a major London gallery.
Serpentine North, London W2 (serpentinegalleries.org), May 23 until Sept 1
Zanele Muholi
It’s hard to look away from the photographer and activist’s sumptuous monochrome pictures – graceful portraits of gay, lesbian and transgender people in South Africa that glow in black-and-white.
Tate Modern, London SE1 (tate.org.uk), June 6 until Jan 26
Summer Exhibition
Snobby critics love to hate it. But perhaps it’s so bad, it’s good. After all, every year, the great British public find something to enjoy in this sprawling open-submission show (held since 1769), in which Sunday painters jostle for space with household names.
Royal Academy of Arts, London W1 (royalacademy.org.uk), June 18 until Aug 18
Six Lives: The Stories of Henry VIII’s Queens
Photographer Hiroshi Sugimoto has resurrected Henry’s wives, lighting a set of Tussauds waxworks in just the right way to mimic Holbein’s original paintings – shown alongside in this study of historic portraiture, and the afterlives of the six women.
National Portrait Gallery, London WC2 (npg.org.uk), June 20 until Sept 8
