Christie's London will host 'Close Encounters: Figuration, Painting and Landscape in the Arts Council Collection' from 3 to 23 June 2026, in partnership with the Arts Council Collection to mark its 80th anniversary. The exhibition brings together historical works by artists such as David Hockney, Sonia Boyce, Peter Doig, Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, Michael Armitage, and Claudette Johnson alongside new acquisitions by Christina Kimeze and Vanessa Raw, exploring themes of gender, sexuality, landscape, and Black British women's representation.
The exhibition matters because it celebrates eight decades of the Arts Council Collection, a pioneering 'museum without walls' founded after WWII that has supported living British artists and made contemporary art accessible nationwide. By acquiring works early in artists' careers—including Francis Bacon, Barbara Hepworth, and Hew Locke—the Collection has shaped artistic legacies. The show also launches the Arts Council Collection x London Gallery Weekend Under 40 Acquisition Fund, reinforcing commitment to emerging artists and underscoring the Collection's ongoing role as both a record of and catalyst for British art.