10 Must-See Museum Exhibitions This Fall
Giorgio de chirico, Le chant d’amour, 1914. Courtesy of Centre Pompidou.
Elizabeth Catlett. My right is a future of equality with other Americans, 1946–47. © 2024 Mora-Catlett Family / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY. Courtesy of Brooklyn Museum.
Summer (brat or otherwise) is over. Nonetheless, the art world is preparing for another busy fall season with the newly renamed Art Basel Paris, and the London and Seoul editions of Frieze, as well as Manifesta and Gwangju Biennale all on the horizon. Meanwhile, museums across the globe are unveiling some of their highest-profile exhibitions of the year.
From debut institutional solo shows to those focusing renewed attention on overlooked artists, here are some of the most anticipated exhibitions opening this fall.
Magdalena Suarez Frimkess, Untitled, 1972. © Magdalena Suarez Frimkesshoto. Photo © Museum Associates/LACMA. Courtesy of LACMA.
Magdalena Suarez Frimkess, XXL Minnie Mouse, 2009. © Magdalena Suarez Frimkess. Photo © Museum Associates/LACMA. Courtesy of LACMA.
“The Finest Disregard” celebrates the prolific career of the Venezuelan-born, Los Angeles–based artist Magdalena Suárez Frimkess in her first museum exhibition. A beloved figure in Californian art circles for decades, Frimkess burst onto the national and international stage in 2014 at the age of 84. Her charming, hand-built and hand-glazed vessels and figurines merge traditional pottery techniques with playful, unexpected imagery. Whether drawing on folk art, Chilean landscapes, family life, pre-Columbian imagery, or Mickey Mouse, Frimkess crafts pieces that are as expressive as they are complex, reflecting her rich heritage and life experiences. The LACMA exhibition will feature around 40 works, including recent creations. Several pieces are on loan from the collections of L.A. artists, underscoring Frimkess’s impact on the local community.
Elizabeth Catlett, “A Black Revolutionary Artist and All That It Implies”
Brooklyn Museum, New York
Sep. 13, 2024–Jan. 19, 2025
Elizabeth Catlett. Sharecropper, 1952. © 2024 Mora-Catlett Family / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY
Elizabeth Catlett. Sharecropper, 1946. Photo by Wes Magyar © 2024 Mora-Catlett Family / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY.
The most comprehensive presentation of Elizabeth Catlett’s work in the U.S. to date, “A Black Revolutionary Artist and All That It Implies” showcases over 150 pieces by the influential artist and activist. Throughout her six-decade career, Catlett was driven by a fierce commitment to “put art in the service of the people.” Drawing on her experiences as an African American woman and her political exile in Mexico, Catlett created prints and sculptures that address themes of violence, labor rights, and liberation. Her wood and stone sculptures feature strong, elongated figures, while her prints are distinguished by their bold use of light and dark contrasts. The exhibition will highlight Catlett’s artistic achievements and underscore how her work remains relevant today as it echoes ongoing struggles for equality and justice.
“Arte Povera: From Process to Presence”
Pinault Collection, Paris
Oct. 9, 2024–Jan. 20, 2025
Michelangelo Pistoletto, Venere degli stracci [“Venus of the Rags”], 1967. Courtesy of the Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, Rivoli-Turin.
In the 1960s, a group of Italian artists abandoned oil on canvas, bronze, and marble in favor of lightbulbs, potatoes, wool, and coal—which sparked the Arte Povera movement, or “poor art.” Amid economic downturn in Italy and the rise of Pop art in America, these artists created simple, poetic, and radical work that challenged the concept of what art could be. For them, art was not a static object, but something constantly transforming. This fall, the Pinault Collection will bring together over 250 works by key figures such as Luciano Fabro, Giuseppe Penone, and Marisa Merz, as well as new commissions, and works from related international movements. Focusing on the processual nature of the movement, the exhibition will emphasize Arte Povera’s bold redefinition of materiality and challenge to the commodification of art.
Haegue Yang, Red Broken Mountainous Labyrinth, 2008, in “In the Cone of Uncertainty,” The Bass Museum of Art, Miami Beach, 2019. © Haegue Yang. Photo Zachary Balber. Courtesy The Bass Museum of Art, Miami Beach.
“Leap Year” marks Haegue Yang’s first major U.K. survey, showcasing her inventive, interdisciplinary practice through more than 50 works. Spanning her career from the early 2000s to the present, the exhibition showcases Yang’s signature series like “Light Sculptures” and “The Intermediates,” alongside recent collages and three major new commissions. Known for transforming everyday objects such as drying racks, pom-poms, bells, and yarn into immersive, multisensory installations, Yang engages with themes of cultural identity, spirituality, and history in her work. The show’s centerpiece, Star-Crossed Rendezvous after Yun (2024), is a new large-scale installation from Yang’s acclaimed “Venetian Blinds” series. Featuring ascending layers of the titular blinds in varying formations and colors, the work will guide visitors through the exhibition space.
Medardo Rosso, Enfant malade, post 1895 (1893–1895) © Galleria d’Arte Moderna, Milano Photo copyright Comune di Milano - all rights reserved - Galleria d'Arte Moderna, Milano.
Medardo Rosso, Bambino malato, 1895 © Museo Medardo Rosso, Barzio. Photo courtesy of Archivio Medardo Rosso.
This extensive retrospective at mumok celebrates Medardo Rosso, an influential figure in the development of modern sculpture. Presenting around 50 of his works alongside photographs and drawings, the exhibition reveals how Rosso used materials like wax and plaster to capture fleeting moments and ephemeral sensations—a radical departure from the traditional sculptures of his time. Rosso’s ability to convey transient moments earned him the admiration of his contemporaries, including Auguste Rodin. Rosso’s impact, however, extends far beyond his own era, resonating deeply with later artists such as Louise Bourgeois, Robert Morris, Lynda Benglis, Phyllida Barrow, and Eva Hesse. “Inventing Modern Sculpture” not only revisits Rosso’s pioneering techniques but also places his work in direct conversation with these artists, highlighting his profound impact on 20th- and 21st-century sculpture.
Tacita Dean, Hooker’s Green, 2024. © Tacita Dean. Photo by Fredrik Nilsen Studio. Courtesy of the artist.
“Blind Folly” is the first major U.S. survey of the British artist Tacita Dean, featuring her renowned chalk drawings, films, and photographs. Dean’s work often revolves around the themes of chance and unpredictability, ideas that lie at the heart of this exhibition. The title reflects Dean’s embrace of the unexpected, allowing the behavior of her mediums to guide the outcome. “Blind Folly” features new works inspired by Dean’s time in Houston, which she visited several times to prepare for the exhibition, and includes her iconic chalk drawings on blackboards. These monumental drawings depict natural phenomena such as clouds, mountains, and icebergs. With fluid lines and delicate erasures (partly inspired by Cy Twombly), the intricate works highlight the tactile and process-driven aspects of Dean’s practice.
Portrait of Kim Lim with Steps © Estate of Kim Lim All Rights Reserved, DACS 2024
Kim Lim, Pegasus 1962. © Estate of Kim Lim. All Rights Reserved, DACS 2024
“The Space Between” celebrates the legacy of the U.K.–based, Singaporean-born artist Kim Lim with the most comprehensive exhibition of her work in Asia to date. Featuring over 100 pieces, including sculptures, prints, and drawings, the exhibition traces Lim’s four-decade-long exploration of form, rhythm, and light. In her sculptures, Lim meticulously carves stone, wood, and marble into clean, geometric forms that nonetheless maintain a sense of movement and flow. Her elegant, rhythmic patterns resemble natural forms like rippling water and undulating landscapes. Characterized by smooth surfaces and harmonious proportions, her minimalist works evoke the interplay between positive and negative space. “The Space Between” promises to showcase the quiet intensity of Lim’s work, reaffirming her as a key figure in global modernism.
“Surréalisme”
Centre Pompidou, Paris
Sep. 4, 2024–Jan. 13, 2025
Max Ernst. L’ange du foyer (Le triomphe du surréalisme), 1937. Courtesy of Centre Pompidou.
Celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Surrealist movement, this exhibition will bring together over 200 works by key figures like Salvador Dalí, Leonora Carrington, Max Ernst, and Dora Maar. The show (the Paris iteration of a traveling exhibition drawn from the Pompidou’s exceptional collection of French Surrealism) will explore the political and cultural circumstances that led these artists to challenge realism and logic in favor of dreamlike and irrational themes. Emerging in the wake of World War I and influenced by the rise of psychoanalysis, Surrealism was first introduced in 1924 through André Breton’s “Surrealist Manifesto.” The movement shattered traditional artistic norms by focusing on the unconscious mind and the bizarre juxtapositions of everyday objects. With its labyrinthine design and Breton’s manifesto at the center, the Pompidou exhibition (later to travel to Hamburg, Madrid, and Philadelphia) will offer an immersive exploration of the themes and ideas that made Surrealism a defining movement of the 20th century.
Donald Rodney, installation view of The House That Jack Built, 1987 in “The Place Is Here,” Nottingham Contemporary, 2017. Courtesy of Museums Sheffield. Photo Andy Keate.
This major retrospective at Nottingham Contemporary revisits the incisive work of the late British artist Donald Rodney, who explored the intersections of racial identity, chronic illness, and Britain’s colonial history. The exhibition (which will travel to the Whitechapel in London) takes its name from a 1990 piece featuring heraldic plaques linked by medical tubes pumping fake blood—a metaphor for colonialism as a societal disease. A founding member of the BLK Art Group, Rodney used his battle with sickle cell anemia as a symbol of broader social ills, often incorporating his own skin and scars into his tender yet politically charged work. This exhibition, which brings together all surviving works and archival materials, will offer a comprehensive view of Rodney’s exploration of Black identity and British history.
“Siena: The Rise of Painting, 1300–1350”
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Oct. 13, 2024–Jan. 26, 2025
Duccio di Buoninsegna, The Virgin and Child with Saints Dominic and Aurea, ca. 1312–1 © The National Gallery, London
The Met presents the first major U.S. exhibition dedicated to early Sienese painting, a period often overshadowed by the Florentine Renaissance. “Siena: The Rise of Painting, 1300–1350” brings together over 100 masterpieces by important figures such as Duccio, Simone Martini, and the Lorenzetti brothers. The exhibition will notably single out one significant development of this era: the creation of narrative altarpieces. These were made of multiple panels depicting scenes from the lives of religious figures. Each panel told a part of the overall story, creating a compelling visual narrative that guided the viewer through the religious tale. With rare loans and the historical reunifications of dispersed altarpieces, this exhibition celebrates Siena’s profound influence on Western painting, reaffirming its place alongside Florence as a vital artistic center in the 14th century.
Correction: A previous version of this article listed an incorrect title for Elizabeth Catlett’s exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum. The title is “Elizabeth Catlett: A Black Revolutionary Artist and All That It Implies,” not “Elizabeth Catlett: Art for the People.”
A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that “Tacita Dean: Blind Folly” will be on view in the Menil Collection’s Cy Twombly Gallery. It will be on view in the main building.
