Last year was certainly a difficult period for global exhibition programming, and yet there are a number of new ambitious exhibitions that are both available now and expected to open in 2022. Notwithstanding any further virus-related lockdowns, this rise in new exhibition openings is likely to continue throughout the new year with a variety of landmark displays planned. Listed below are exciting new exhibition dates to add to your calendar. 

Vermeer: On Reflection

10 September 2021 – 2 January 2022, Dresden, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister

The Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister’s Vermeer exhibition includes a number of valuable pieces such as Young Woman Standing at a Virginal (around 1670-72), from London’s National Gallery, Woman in Blue Reading a Letter (around 1663), from the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, and most notably Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window (around 1659). Vermeer’s 1659 painting was one of the most famous works from the Dutch ‘Golden Age’ of painting, and is the centerpiece of the exhibition. A recent restoration of Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window revealed a hidden painting of a naked cupid that had been undiscovered within the larger painting for 250 years. In addition to 10 central works by Vermeer, some 50 other Dutch 17th century genre paintings will be on display. Paintings by Pieter de Hooch, Gerard Dou, Emanuel de Witte and Jan Steen will supplement a number of other paintings, prints, sculptures, historical furniture, and other enriching displays. 

Botticelli

10 September 2021 – 24 January 2022, Paris, Musée Jacquemart-André

The Musée Jacquemart-André’s autumn exhibition celebrates the work of Sandro Botticelli (1445-1510) through a display of approximately 40 of his works along with a number of paintings by contemporaries who were closely associated with him. The exhibition displays famous works compiled from U.S. and European collections, including The Return of Judith to Bethulia (1469-70) from the Cincinnati Art Museum, Portrait of Giuliano de’ Medici (1478-80) from the Fondazione Accademia Carrara, Judith Leaving the Tent of Holofernes (1497-1500) from the Rijksmuseum, and Madonna and Child (1467-70) from the Musée du Louvre. Botticelli’s workshop strategy, personal stylistic development, and influence on other Renaissance artists are explored through an examination of both his one-off paintings and other works.

Barbara Kruger: Thinking of You, I Mean Me, I Mean You

19 September 2021 – 24 January 2022, Art Institute of Chicago; 20 March 2022 – 17 July 2022, Los Angeles County Museum of Art; 18 July 2022 – 2 January 2023, The Museum of Modern Art, New York

Barbara Kruger’s immersive exhibitions and conceptual art explore the dynamics of consumerism, desire, and identity in a direct and humorous approach. She is widely known for her collages combining images and text, and the Art Institute of Chicago’s Thinking of You. I Mean Me. I Mean You exhibition displays the range of collage techniques she experimented with throughout her career. The presentation features Kruger’s early pasteups, vinyl works, animations, multichannel video installations, and other digital productions. The exhibition was collaboratively designed with Kruger to extend beyond the traditional exhibition space to cover the 18,000 square-foot Regenstein Hall and 8,000-square-foot Griffin Court atrium. The installation will later be available at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art from March 20, 2022 to July 17, 2022, before being shown at The Museum of Modern Art, New York from July 18, 2022 to January 2, 2023. 

Jasper Johns: Mind/Mirror

Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, 28 September – 13 February 2022; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 29 September – 13 February 2022

The comprehensive Jasper Johns’ retrospective features his immense body of work spanning across the last 70 years. The exhibition features an array of Johns’s extraordinary drawings, prints, paintings, sculptures, and even a collection of his recent and lesser-known works. The collection of displayed works is so large, that the retrospective is staged simultaneously at both the Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA) and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. Both exhibitions are chronological and have corresponding thematic galleries, which explore two of Johns’ frequently employed motifs: flags and numbers. The PMA presents Johns’ number work 0 through 9 (1961), while the Whitney has arranged a presentation of the artist’s monochromatic and coloured flag art. 

Dürer’s Journeys: Travels of a Renaissance Artist

20 November 2021 – 27 February 2022, London, National Gallery
Renaissance artist Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528) was an avid explorer and innovator of artistic theory. His travels across Europe, including the Alps, Italy, Venice, and the Netherlands facilitated a number of insightful, artistic exchanges between the Italian and Netherlandish artists and patrons during the Renaissance. The exhibition will chart his excursions as he steadily made an array of international clients and artistic contacts while improving his own intellectual scope through new techniques. The show will include Dürer’s sketches of animals, plants, landscapes and people that he encountered during his travels. Loans from a global number of museums and private collections, including Dürer’s ‘Madonna and Child’ (c. 1496/1499) from the National Gallery of Art, Washington, will be put on display for the first time in the UK.

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