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Visual Arts

Best art exhibitions, London, 2018

By Lucy Scovell on 29/11/2018

2018 has been a remarkable year in art: from a sell-out Tate Modern Picasso exhibition to a long-overdue retrospective of Dorothea Lange photographs, London played host to some phenomenal art in 2018. As the year comes to a close, we look back at the best exhibitions of the year, the ones we're still talking about, and those to catch while you still can.

Installation images | Andreas Gursky at Hayward Gallery 25 January - 22 April 2018 | credit Linda Nylind

Andreas Gursky, Hayward Gallery, London, review ★★★★★

After a two-year refurb, Hayward Gallery London reopened in January 2018 with a phenomenal Andreas Gursky exhibition. The gallery deliberately went big with this retrospective, and we loved it.

Read more ...
WHEN
25 Jan 2018 – 22 Apr 2018, Opening times not yet confirmed
WHERE
Hayward Gallery
Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London, SE1 8XX
Anthony van Dyck (1599–1641), Charles I on Horseback with M. de St Antoine, 1633. Royal Collection Trust / © Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2018  Exhibition organised in partnership with Royal Collection Trust

Charles I: King and Collector, Royal Academy ★★★★★

2018 marked the Royal Academy's 250th anniversary. To kick off the celebrations, the museum's director, Christopher Le Brun, wanted to curate one of the greatest exhibitions of his career. Charles I: King and Collector was just that. The Royal Academy managed to reunite the majority of the greatest British art collection of all time, for the first time in 350 years. It was a total triumph.

Read more ...
WHEN
27 Jan 2018 – 15 Apr 2018, 10:00 AM – 6:00 PM
WHERE
Royal Academy
Burlington House, Piccadilly, London, W1J 0BD
Paz Errázuriz. From the series La Manzana de Adán (Adam’s Apple), 1983

Another Kind of Life, Barbican, review ★★★★★

From prostitutes to street-peddlers and cross-dressers to circus performers: the Barbican celebrated the outsider in its compelling exhibition of photography spanning the last 50 years.

Read more ...
WHEN
28 Feb 2018 – 27 May 2018, Last entry 5.30pm
WHERE
Barbican Centre
Silk Street, London, EC2Y 8DS
Lucian Freud, Girl With Dog (1950-1). Tate. © Tate

Review: All Too Human: Bacon, Freud and a Century of Painting Life, Tate Britain, ★★★★★

Life laid bare: fronted by Bacon and Freud, Tate Britain offered a striking survey of modern figurative painting. It may have required stamina, but it was bold, challenging and utterly captivating.

Read more ...
WHEN
28 Feb 2018 – 27 Aug 2018, 10:00 AM – 6:00 PM
WHERE
Tate Britain
Millbank, London, SW1P 4RG
Pablo Picasso, The Dream, 1932

Picasso 1932: Love, Fame, Tragedy ★★★★★, Tate Modern

One of the most significant shows of the year opened at Tate Modern in March. Picasso 1932, Love, Fame, Tragedy was erotic, often brutal but everything we hoped it would be.

Read more ...
WHEN
08 Mar 2018 – 10 Sep 2018, Sunday to Thursday 10.00-18.00 Friday to Saturday 10.00-22.00
WHERE
Tate Modern
Bankside, London, SE1 9TG
Embroidered silk waistcoat, France, 1780-9Image Vee Speers © V&A

Review: Fashioned From Nature ★★★★★

Showcasing the ways in which fashionable dress has drawn on the natural world over the past 400 years, the V&A's Fashioned from Nature got everyone discussing the future of sustainable fashion.

Read more ...
WHEN
21 Apr 2018 – 27 Jan 2019, 10:00 AM – 6:00 PM
WHERE
V&A
South Kensington, Cromwell Road, London, SW7 2RL
©Prosper Assouline for Alaïa: Livre de Collection, Assouline

Review: Azzedine Alaïa: The Couturier, Design Museum ★★★★★

The Design Museum London staged a blockbuster Azzedine Alaïa retrospective exploring the life and work of a modern master. Following the couturier's sudden passing in November 2017, Azzedine Alaïa: The Couturier was a timely tribute to a fashion legend.

Read more ...
WHEN
10 May 2018 – 07 Oct 2018, 10:00 AM – 6:00 PM
WHERE
Design Museum
224-238 Kensington High Street, Kensington, London, W8 6AG
Detail from Claude Monet, 'The Grand Canal (Le Grand Canal)', 1908 © Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. Gift of Osgood Hooker 1960.29​

Review: Monet & Architecture, National Gallery, London ★★★★★

The National Gallery's exhibition of Claude Monet paintings majestically illuminated a much neglected facet of the painter's work. It was a pure, and unexpected delight.

Read more ...
WHEN
09 Apr 2018 – 29 Jul 2018, Saturday - Thursday 10:00 - 18:00, Friday 10:00 - 21:00
WHERE
National Gallery
Trafalgar Square, London, WC2N 5DN
Ron Arad_Where are my Glasses -Under (Green)

Review: 250th Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy, 2018 ★★★★★

Guest curator Grayson Perry breathed new life into the Summer Exhibition – the Royal Academy of Art's longest running annual showcase of contemporary art.

Read more ...
WHEN
12 Jun 2018 – 19 Aug 2018, 10:00 AM – 6:00 PM
WHERE
Royal Academy
Burlington House, Piccadilly, London, W1J 0BD
Review: Frida Kahlo: Making Herself Up, V&A

Review: Frida Kahlo: Making Herself Up, V&A ★★★★★

We went to worship (along with the rest of the world) at the altar of Frida Kahlo in a rare exhibition showcasing her wardrobe and possessions. The exhibition was a shrine to her memory; to the great artist that she was, and to the inspiration she is now (on and off the Pinterest boards).

Read more ...
WHEN
16 Jun 2018 – 04 Nov 2018, Times TBC
WHERE
V&A
South Kensington, Cromwell Road, London, SW7 2RL
Dorothea  Lange, Detail: Migrant  Mother,  Nipomo,  California,  1936©  The  Dorothea  Lange  Collection,  the  Oakland  Museum  of  California

Review: Dorothea Lange: Politics of Seeing, Barbican Centre, London ★★★★★

Poignant, moving and utterly transfixing: this long overdue Barbican photography exhibition brought the penetrating portraits of Dorothea Lange into sharp focus.

Read more ...
WHEN
22 Jun 2018 – 02 Sep 2018, 10:00 AM – 6:00 PM
WHERE
Barbican Centre
Silk Street, London, EC2Y 8DS
An Illuminating Path, David LaChapelle, 1998. Courtesy of the artist. C. David LaChapelle

Michael Jackson: On the Wall, review, National Portrait Gallery ★★★★★

We celebrated the man in the mirror and the art he has inspired at the National Portrait Gallery. This was a well-developed and immersive show that explored the complex multi-faceted personae of Michael Jackson. There were images of the man who revolutionised pop, the man who trailblaized black power and the troubled, fragile man who fell victim to merciless consumption of mass idolatry. If you missed it in London, book a mini-break to Paris, where the exhibition is installed at the Grand Palais.

Read more ...
WHEN
28 Jun 2018 – 21 Oct 2018, Open late Thursday and Friday until 9pm
WHERE
National Portrait Gallery
St Martin's Place, London, WC2H 0HE
Claude Monet, Tree: Antibes, 1888  © The Samuel Courtauld Trust, The Courtauld Gallery, London

Courtauld Impressionists: From Manet to Cezanne, National Gallery, review ★★★★★

As the Courtauld Gallery closed for a two-year refurbishment, the National Gallery presents the creme-de-la-creme of the Courtauld Impressionist collection.

Read more ...
WHEN
17 Sep 2018 – 20 Jan 2019, 10:00 AM – 6:00 PM
WHERE
National Gallery
Trafalgar Square, London, WC2N 5DN
Oceania exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, 2018

Review: Oceania exhibition, Royal Academy, London ★★★★★

The Royal Academy Oceania exhibition made an almighty splash, as the UK's first large-scale overview of South Pacific art in over forty years.

Read more ...
WHEN
29 Sep 2018 – 10 Dec 2018, 10:00 AM – 6:00 PM
WHERE
Royal Academy
Burlington House, Piccadilly, London, W1J 0BD
Yayoi Kusama exhibition Victoria Miro: Infinity Mirrored Room, 2018

Review: Yayoi Kusama exhibition, Victoria Miro London ★★★★★

Dots, infinity nets, pumpkins and more: Yayoi Kusama returned to Victoria Miro London this autumn. With tickets more difficult to come by than gold dust, expectations were extremely high. Luckily, as ever, Kusama didn't disappoint.

Read more ...
WHEN
03 Oct 2018 – 21 Dec 2018, Closed on Sundays and Mondays
WHERE
Victoria Miro
16 Wharf Road , London, N1 7RW
Egon Schiele, Nude Self-Portrait, Squatting, 1916

Royal Academy Exhibition review: Klimt/Schiele: Drawings from the Albertina Museum ★★★★★

The Royal Academy celebrates the centenary of Austrian Modernists, Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele, with a blockbuster retrospective in collaboration with Vienna's Albertina Museum. This intimate exhibition offers an exquisite insight into the creative minds of two twentieth-century trailblazers.

Read more ...
WHEN
04 Nov 2018 – 03 Feb 2019, 10:00 AM – 6:00 PM
WHERE
Royal Academy
Burlington House, Piccadilly, London, W1J 0BD
Schiele & Basquiat, Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris

Schiele & Basquiat, Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris

Both prolific, both revolutionary, both dead at 28: Schiele and Basquiat, working at opposite ends of the 20th century, single handily changed the course of art history. In autumn 2018, to mark the centenary of Schiele's death and the 30th anniversary of Basquiat's death, the Fondation Louis Vuitton presented a major comparative showcase of their work. With many pieces never seen before in Europe, this artistic extravaganza certainly merits a trip to Paris.

Read more ...
WHEN
3 Oct 2018 - 14 Jan 2019
WHERE
Fondation Louis Vuitton, 8 Avenue du Mahatma, Paris
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2018 Highlights

Art Exhibitions

Things To Do

Contemporary Art

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