Smithsonian Magazine

museum exhibitions schedule May 31, 2026

Korean and French Culture Are Set to Rendezvous at a New Museum in Seoul for Modern and Contemporary Art

The Centre Pompidou Hanwha, a new museum for modern and contemporary art, is opening in Seoul's Yeouido financial district. Located inside the headquarters of the Hanwha Group, the 108,000-square-foot museum is a partnership between the French Centre Pompidou and the Hanwha Foundation of Culture. Its debut exhibition, “The Cubists: Inventing Modern Vision,” runs from June through early October and features works from the Centre Pompidou's permanent collection, including pieces by Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, and Robert Delaunay. A special section, “Korea Focus: Dream Maps Towards the Modern Avant-Garde,” explores how French Cubism influenced Korean artists from the 1920s onward, with works by Lee Soo-auck, Ha In-doo, and Park Re-hyun.

museum exhibitions schedule May 29, 2026

Meet Hilma af Klint, the Occultist Who Believed Otherworldly Spirits Told Her What to Paint. Now, She's Considered One of History's First Abstract Artists

A new exhibition in France, "Hilma af Klint: The Temple Paintings (1906-1915)" at the Grand Palais in collaboration with the Pompidou Center, spotlights the Swedish artist's groundbreaking abstract works. Af Klint, who began creating bold, vibrant abstract compositions as early as 1906—years before Wassily Kandinsky—believed she was guided by spirits called the High Masters during séances with a group known as the Five. The show focuses on her "Paintings for the Temple" series, 193 works completed over nine years that she insisted remain hidden for 20 years after her death, believing the world was not ready for them.

museum exhibitions schedule May 28, 2026

No Mere Muse, This Influential Surrealist Artist and Feminist Gets Her Due in a New Biopic and Art Exhibitions

Leonora Carrington, the influential Surrealist artist and feminist, is receiving renewed attention through a new biopic titled "Leonora in the Morning Light" and two major art exhibitions. One exhibition at the Freud Museum in London showcases for the first time artwork she created inside a psychiatric hospital, including her 1940 painting *Villa Pilar*. Another large solo exhibition at the Musée du Luxembourg in Paris features more than 125 of her works, marking the first major show dedicated to her in France.

museum exhibitions schedule May 26, 2026

Whistler Didn't Mean to Make His Mourning Mother an Art World Star. Today, She's a Highlight at a Major Exhibition in London

James McNeill Whistler's iconic 1871 painting 'Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 1,' better known as 'Whistler's Mother,' is currently on display at Tate Britain in London as part of 'James McNeill Whistler,' Europe's largest-ever retrospective of the artist's work. The painting, on loan from the Musée d'Orsay in Paris, was created in Whistler's London studio when his mother Anna McNeill Whistler agreed to pose after a model canceled. The exhibition runs through late September 2026.

museum exhibitions schedule May 4, 2026

Ahead of the 2026 Met Gala, the Metropolitan Museum of Art Introduced New Mannequins With Diverse Body Types Inspired by Real People

The Metropolitan Museum of Art has opened a new exhibition titled "Costume Art" ahead of the 2026 Met Gala, featuring mannequins with diverse body types—including larger, pregnant, trans, and disabled bodies—created through 3D printing and based on real-life models. The show pairs roughly 400 artworks with garments, aiming to shift the traditional perspective by viewing art through the lens of fashion rather than the reverse.

museum exhibitions schedule Apr 28, 2026

Alexander Calder Thought 'It Would Be Fun' to Set Abstract Art in Motion. His Mesmerizing Mobiles Transformed the Definition of Sculpture

A major exhibition titled "Calder: Dreaming in Equilibrium" has opened at the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris, showcasing 300 works by Alexander Calder, including his pioneering mobiles, stabiles, paintings, drawings, and wire portraits. The show marks 100 years since the artist's arrival in France in 1926 and 50 years since his death in 1976. It features iconic pieces such as the 19-foot-long mobile *Triumphant Red* (1963) and his earliest known kinetic sculpture—a brass duck from 1909—alongside works by contemporaries like Barbara Hepworth, Pablo Picasso, and Paul Klee, as well as photographs by Man Ray, Agnès Varda, and Gordon Parks.

museum exhibitions schedule Apr 24, 2026

The World's First Museum of A.I. Art Will Open in Los Angeles as the Art World Ponders Questions of Ethics and Sustainability

Dataland, billed as the world's first museum dedicated to A.I.-generated art, will open on June 20 in downtown Los Angeles. Founded by digital artists Refik Anadol and Efsun Erkiliç, the 35,000-square-foot museum is located in the Grand LA complex designed by Frank Gehry. Its inaugural exhibition, "Machine Dreams: Rainforest," features immersive, multisensory installations powered by an open-access A.I. model called the Large Nature Model, trained on millions of nature images. The exhibition includes soundscapes incorporating oral histories of the Yawanawá people and the last recorded call of the extinct Kaua‘i ‘ō‘ō bird.

article policy schedule Apr 22, 2026

The National Gallery of Art Embraces New Role as Lending Library, Thanks to a Big Gift That Sends Artwork to Other Museums

The National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., has received a $116 million donation from the Mitchell P. Rales Family Foundation to fund its 'Across the Nation' lending program. The gift, the largest programming-related donation in the museum's history, will support shipping, installation, and other costs associated with sending artworks on two-year loans to smaller regional museums across the United States, from Alaska to Florida.

museum exhibitions schedule Apr 14, 2026

The National Gallery of Art Holds an Artistic Mirror Up to the United States for Its Big 250th Birthday

The National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., has launched "Dear America," a major exhibition commemorating the United States' 250th anniversary. Featuring over 100 prints, drawings, and photographs from the museum’s permanent collection, the show spans from the late 18th century to the present day. The exhibition is organized into three thematic sections—"Land," "Community," and "Freedom"—showcasing works by iconic artists such as Andy Warhol, Ansel Adams, and Richard Avedon alongside contemporary voices like Tom Jones of the Ho-Chunk Nation.

trending_up market schedule Mar 5, 2026

Anime, Manga and Traditional Japanese Art Come Together at an Upcoming Auction—From Hokusai's 'The Great Wave' to Miyazaki's 'My Neighbor Totoro'

Christie’s is set to host a landmark auction in New York titled “Anime Starts Here: Japanese Subculture Imagines Tradition,” marking the first sale of its kind dedicated to the intersection of anime, manga, and traditional Japanese art. The auction features a diverse range of items, from Katsushika Hokusai’s iconic 19th-century woodblock print "The Great Wave" to original production materials and posters from modern masterpieces like Studio Ghibli’s "My Neighbor Totoro" and Osamu Tezuka’s "Astro Boy."

museum exhibitions schedule Jan 29, 2026

This Groundbreaking New Showcase of Nearly 60 Works Is the Biggest-Ever Exhibition of LGBTQ+ African Art

The Smithsonian's National Museum of African Art has opened "Here: Pride and Belonging in African Art," the largest-ever exhibition dedicated to LGBTQ+ African art. The show, curated by Kevin Dumouchelle and Serubiri Moses, features nearly 60 works by 30 artists from across Africa and its diasporas, spanning photography, painting, tapestry, collage, and sculpture.

trending_up market schedule Nov 20, 2025

Watch the Record-Breaking Auction of This Gustav Klimt Portrait, Which Just Became the Second Most Expensive Painting Ever Sold

Gustav Klimt's "Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer" sold at Sotheby's for $236.4 million on November 20, 2025, becoming the most expensive modern artwork ever auctioned and the second most expensive painting overall. The life-size oil painting, created between 1914 and 1916, depicts the 20-year-old daughter of prominent Jewish art collectors. After a 20-minute bidding war starting at $130 million, an anonymous telephone bidder won the work, which had been owned by cosmetics heir Leonard Lauder until his death in June 2025.

museum exhibitions schedule Aug 29, 2025

America’s Largest-Ever Exhibition on Raphael Will Open at the Met Next Year

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York will host "Raphael: Sublime Poetry," the largest-ever U.S. exhibition dedicated to the Renaissance master, opening March 29, 2026. Featuring over 200 works, the show includes loans from major institutions such as the Uffizi, Prado, Galleria Borghese, British Museum, Louvre, and National Gallery of Art. Curated by Carmen Bambach, who previously organized the Met's blockbuster 2017 Michelangelo exhibition, the show spans Raphael's three career periods—Urbino, Florence, and Rome—and highlights recent scientific discoveries and his portrayal of women. A centerpiece is the reunion of Raphael's preparatory sketches with his painting *The Alba Madonna*.

museum exhibitions schedule Jun 27, 2025

The Louvre Invited 100 Contemporary Artists to Copy—and Reinterpret—Its Masterpieces. Here's What They Made

The Louvre invited 100 contemporary artists to create copies or reinterpretations of works from its collection, spanning antiquity to the 19th century. The resulting artworks—paintings, sculptures, audio recordings, and videos—are now on view in the exhibition "Copyists" at the Pompidou Center Metz, curated by Chiara Parisi and Donatien Grau, running until February 2, 2026. Artists were given an open-ended brief, leading to diverse outcomes from faithful reproductions to radical reinventions of masterpieces by Delacroix, Goya, and Vermeer.

article news schedule May 21, 2025

Photographer Who Scales Buildings to Get the Perfect Shot Arrested at Opening Night of His First Solo Exhibition

Photographer Isaac Wright, known as Drift, was arrested at the opening night of his first solo exhibition, “Coming Home,” at the Robert Mann Gallery in New York City on May 15, 2025. A plainclothes officer tapped him on the shoulder while he was speaking with the crowd, and uniformed officers then led him out in handcuffs. The arrest stems from a misdemeanor criminal trespassing charge linked to a photograph in the show, which Wright took after climbing the spire of the Empire State Building in 2024. Wright, a former Army soldier who began climbing buildings to cope with PTSD, has faced previous legal trouble for rooftop trespassing, including a 2020 arrest in Arizona.

museum exhibitions schedule May 15, 2025

Rejected by Museums Around the World, This New Art Exhibition Explores the Historical Roots of the Term 'Homosexual'

An ambitious new exhibition titled “The First Homosexuals: The Birth of a New Identity, 1869-1939” has opened at Chicago’s Wrightwood 659 gallery, featuring over 300 works by more than 125 artists from 40 countries. Curated by Jonathan D. Katz, the show traces the historical roots of the term 'homosexual,' coined in 1868 by Hungarian writer Karl Maria Kertbeny, and explores the artistic and social transformations surrounding the emergence of homosexual identity up to 1939. The exhibition includes loans from major institutions like the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Musée d’Orsay, with works by artists such as George Catlin, Jean Cocteau, John Singer Sargent, and Thomas Eakins, organized into eight thematic sections.

museum exhibitions schedule Apr 29, 2025

Artists Across America Are Creating Stunning Floral Arrangements Inspired by Paintings, Sculptures and Artifacts

Museums across the United States are hosting "Art in Bloom" exhibitions, where floral artists create custom arrangements inspired by artworks in museum collections. The Cincinnati Art Museum recently held its show with 65 arrangements alongside pieces ranging from sculptures to oil portraits, including a sugar flower installation by Amsterdam-based artist Natasja Sadi. Other institutions like the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston—which started the tradition in 1976—and the Minneapolis Institute of Art also participate, with artists like Amy Kubas drawing inspiration from works such as a Japanese block print.

person Smithsonian Magazine