Must-see Autumn Exhibitions

Must-see Autumn Exhibitions

From pop-culture icons to contemporary art tackling big issues, here are 10 of the best new shows to visit around the world
From pop-culture icons to contemporary art tackling big issues, here are 10 of the best new shows to visit around the world
Two men standing in a square with a large building in the background
Andy Warhol, Andy Warhol and Chris Makos, 1982. Photo: The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. / Licensed by Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

UCCA, Beijing

Becoming Andy Warhol

Through 10 October

Becoming Andy Warhol, the most comprehensive retrospective of the iconic artist’s work to be displayed in China, is entering its final weeks. On display are close to 400 exhibits from the collection of The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, with some of the artist’s greatest hits featuring alongside lesser-known pieces including his films and photographs, some of which have never been shown outside of The Warhol. Patrick Moore, director of The Warhol, says that the exhibition shows “Warhol as a photographer – not just to make source material for his paintings, but having a standalone photography practice.”

Famed for his Pop Art paintings and silkscreen prints, Andy Warhol worked with a wide range of media, including print publications, music and commercial television for MTV – an aspect of his practice that cemented his relevance today. “The multiplicity of Warhol’s platforms and interests really fits well with a younger audience,” says Moore.

Warhol’s light-hearted and commercially successful multimedia works are shown alongside others that convey his fixation with death, a potential side effect of his strict Catholic upbringing and the childhood illnesses he endured, and the poverty he lived through growing up as part of an immigrant family in 1930s America. Moore says that Warhol’s “ability to mix three things together – huge mass-market appeal, a seemingly light touch and an undercurrent of darkness – have always been magic to me.”

To learn more about the Becoming Andy Warhol exhibition, click here.

Platform with a yellow circle in the middle
Charlotte Prodger, BRIDGIT (still), 2016. Photo: Hollybush Gardens and Kendall Koppe

Kunstmuseum Winterthur, Switzerland

Charlotte Prodger: Blanks and Preforms

Through 4 November

This is the first comprehensive museum show dedicated to the Turner Prize-winning artist. Primarily using video and film as a medium, Prodger also integrates sound, sculpture and installation in works such as Orange Film to explore the impact of nature and society on the human body and self-image.

To learn more about the Charlotte Prodger: Blacks and Preforms exhibition, click here.

Abstract painting in blue, green, yellow and other colours
Joan Mitchell, No Rain, 1976. Photo: Estate of Joan Mitchell

San Francisco Museum Of Modern Art (SFMOMA), California

Joan Mitchell

Through 17 January

More than 80 works will feature in this comprehensive retrospective of the American abstract painter’s work, organised in collaboration with the Baltimore Museum of Art. Touching on themes such as nature, music, gender and social status, the show will reveal an artist who “contended with and remade the possibilities of abstraction, personal expression and landscape,” says co-curator Sarah Roberts.

To learn more about the Joan Mitchell exhibition, click here.

Two women wearing white tops and leather trousers, and with their arms around each other
Claudia Schiffer and Cindy Crawford photographed by Bruce Weber for Revlon in New York, 1992. Photo: Bruce Weber

Kunstpalast, Germany

Captivate! Fashion Photography from the ’90s

Through 9 January

Renowned supermodel Claudia Schiffer has curated a varied collection of 120 images relating to the world of fashion in the 1990s, including magazine prints, billboard photography, polaroids and unseen material from fashion shows and afterparties. Photos by Ellen von Unwerth, Juergen Teller and Karl Lagerfeld will be among the exhibits.

To learn more about the Captivate! Fashion Photography from the ’90s exhibition, click here.

Painting of a man with a paint brush and palette
Suzanne Valadon, Portrait of Maurice Utrillo, 1921. Photo: Stéphane Pons / © 2021 Artist Rights Society (ARS), New York

Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia

Suzanne Valadon: Model, Painter, Rebel

26 September 2021–9 January

Approximately 55 paintings, drawings and prints by the groundbreaking French artist will be displayed in the first exhibition of her work in a major US arts institution. It will tackle the difference in notoriety between Valadon and her male peers, and celebrate her trailblazing portraits that defied social norms.

To learn more about the Suzanne Valadon: Model, Painter, Rebel exhibition, click here.

Balloon-like sculpture in the form of Marvel figure the Hulk holding a large brass instrument
Jeff Koons, Hulk (Tubas), 2004–2018. Photo: Jeff Koons

Palazzo Strozzi, Italy

Jeff Koons: Shine

2 October–30 January

This exhibition, organised in close collaboration with Koons, will bring together a host of international loans collectively exploring the reflective nature of the artist’s sculptures and how that interacts with perceptions of self and reality.

To learn more about the Jeff Koons: Shine exhibition, click here.

A woman standing on a street with birds in the sky and one hovering over her hand
Chim↑Pom, Black of Death, 2008. Photo: ANOMALY and MUJIN-TO Production

Mori Museum of Art, Tokyo

Chim↑Pom

21 October–30 January 2022

Over the past 16 years, artist collective Chim↑Pom have used their activist projects to address issues ranging from Japan’s nuclear legacy and the state of border control between the US and Mexico. This show traces their history through key works: from their earliest outings to new pieces specially commissioned for the Mori.

To learn more about the Chim↑Pom exhibition, click here.

Room with sofa, rug and other objects
Hrair Sarkissian, Last Seen (one of 50 prints), 2018–2021. Photo: commissioned by Sharjah Art Foundation

The Sharjah Art Foundation, United Arab Emirates

Hrair Sarkissian: The Other Side of Silence

30 October–30 January 2022

The first mid-career survey of the Syrian-born artist’s work will explore how images are used to convey the multiple narratives involved in conflict. Photographs, sculptures, installations, sound works and more spanning the artist’s career will be accompanied by two fresh commissions: Last Seen, 2021, and Little Apple (working title), 2021/2022.

To learn more about the Hrair Sarkissian: The Other Side of Silence exhibition, click here.

Black and white photograph of a young girl
Gillian Wearing, Self-Portrait at Three Years Old, 2004. Photo: © Gillian Wearing

Solomon R Guggenheim Museum, New York

Gillian Wearing: Wearing Masks

5 November–4 April

More than 100 pieces, including Wearing’s photographs, videos, paintings and sculptures, will analyse the disparity between the authentic self and the fabricated identity that is presented to a world shaped by the media.

To learn more about the Gillian Wearing: Wearing Masks exhibition, click here.

Joseph E Yoakum, Mt Grazian in Maritime Alps near Emonaco Tunnel France and Italy by Tunnel, circa 1960s. Photo: Robert Gerhardt

MoMA, New York

Joseph E. Yoakum: What I Saw

28 November–19 March

The first major museum exhibition of Yoakum’s work in 25 years will include over 100 of his vivid interpretative drawings depicting semi-abstract and otherworldly landscapes, which he began aged 71. These works were inspired by locations and experiences both real and imagined and were influenced by his Christian faith.

To learn more about the Joseph E. Yoakum: What I Saw exhibition, click here.

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