If you are planning a weekend trip to the capital city for some Christmas shopping or a night at the theatre, finding time to catch one or two art exhibitions can really make your visit extra special. There’s plenty of interesting visual arts events in London right now, and you might even find yourself dropping into a framing shop to arrange a Christmas gift.
Here’s a round up of the best exhibitions to catch in late autumn.
Radical Modernity: From Bloomsbury To Charleston, Sotheby’s 9 – 26 November
There is still time to take in this exhibition of some of the best work of the Bloomsbury Group as part of Sotheby’s Modern British and Irish Week, with a rare opportunity to buy some of the works or view pieces from private collections.
The Bloomsbury Group was an influential circle of artists, writers and intellectuals who lived and worked in the Bloomsbury area of London in the early 20th century. The exhibition features paintings, drawings, ceramics and crafts by key figures including Vanessa Bell, Duncan Grant, and Roger Fry.
David Hockney: Living in Colour at Halcyon Gallery, until 31 December
David Hockney is considered to be one of Britain’s greatest living artists. He was born in Bradford, West Yorkshire, in 1937 and moved to London to study at the Royal College of Art. He went on to become a leading figure in the Pop Art movement of the 1960s.
Some of his most iconic works are the celebrated pool paintings, which were produced while he was living in California. He has continually evolved as an artist, embracing photography, portraiture, and in recent decades producing digital works on an iPad. The exhibition at the Halcyon showcases some never seen before works from all six decades of his career.
Taylor Wessing Photo Portrait Prize 2024, until 16 February 2025, National Portrait Gallery
The Taylor Wessing Photo Portrait Prize is a celebration of the best of contemporary photography from the most exciting upcoming and established photographers. The exhibition features a range of commissioned works and personal projects, and will display a work by the 2023 prize winner Serena Brown.
Van Gogh, Poets and Lovers at the National Gallery, until 19 January
The unmissable Van Gogh exhibition at the National Gallery features 61 masterpieces loaned from various collections around the world, some of which have rarely been exhibited publicly before. The National Gallery’s own ‘Sunflowers’ and ‘Van Gogh’s Chair’ are displayed alongside ‘Starry Night over the Rhône’ and ‘The Yellow House’.
There’s also a chance to see lesser seen drawings and paintings. All the works in the exhibition were created within a two-year period in the late 1880s when the artist moved to the south of France and radically reinvented his style.
Monet and London: Views of the Thames at The Courtauld Gallery, until 19 January
The leading French impressionist visited London numerous times between 1899 and 1901 to paint views of the Thames. He was drawn by the infamous smog that frequently settled on the city at the height of the second industrial revolution, seeing beauty in the strange light.
The paintings are in Monet’s characteristic style of repetitive scenes painted in different lights and at different times of day. His works are largely unpopulated except by trains, trams and watercraft as the city grinds on with industrial activity, regardless of the accidental beauty around them.
Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum: It Will End in Tears at the Barbican, until 5 January 2025
Phatsimo Sunstrum was born in Mochudi, Botswana in 1980 and grew up in various parts of Africa and southeast Asia. She moved to the US to study at the University of North Carolina in 1998 and later at the Maryland Institute of Art.
Her visual art includes drawings, paintings, installations and animations, and is influenced by ancient mythology, scientific theories, and transnational identities. This bespoke large scale installation of paintings and drawings at the Barbican is influenced by film noir and crime fiction, and narrates the story of a femme fatale in a colonial outpost.