Peer through the lenses of American photographers in Amsterdam. Explore Hiroshige’s Edo-period Japan in modern-day London. Discover poignant new perspectives on the origin story of Surrealism, the trailblazing women of Modernism, the surprisingly diverse legacy of British landscape painting, and much more. Spanning various cultures and several centuries, these are ten of the best art exhibitions heading to European museums in 2025.
American Photography
1 February–9 June at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, the Netherlands
The first major retrospective of American photography in the Netherlands will showcase over 200 photographic works by influential artists, including Nan Goldin, Andy Warhol, Diane Arbus, and more. American Photography will also introduce images by lesser-known and anonymous photographers who have captured authentic and oft-forgotten facets of American life.
“The exhibition presents the country as seen through the eyes of American photographers,” says Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum. “It shows how photography as a medium became deeply rooted in American society.”
Kandinsky’s Universe: Geometric Abstraction in the 20th Century
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Sign up to our Free Weekly Newsletter15 February–18 May at Museum Barberini in Potsdam, Germany
Wassily Kandinsky’s work boasts an innovative interplay of colors, lines, and shapes. The Russian-born artist is often credited with pioneering abstract art in Western culture. This exhibition tracks Kandinksy’s indelible impact at a time when modern artists turned to abstraction. Instead of representing strictly visible phenomena, they used geometry to visualize elusive spiritual themes.
The Museum Barberini’s presentation of Kandinsky’s Universe unites over 100 abstract artworks by nearly as many artists—including Josef Albers, Sonia Delaunay, Bridget Riley, Frank Stella, and, of course, Kandinsky himself.
Gustav Klimt: Pigment & Pixel
20 February–7 September at Belvedere Museum in Vienna, Austria
At the turn of the 20th century, Gustav Klimt was commissioned to decorate the vast ceilings of the University of Vienna’s festival hall. The resulting “Faculty Paintings”—with their unidealized allegorical figures, unfamiliar symbolism, and shocking eroticism—attracted both crowds and controversy. Unfortunately, the original paintings have since been lost, and only black-and-white photos remain.
In 2021, the Leopold Museum of Vienna collaborated with Google to ascertain the original colors of Klimt’s Faculty Paintings using artificial intelligence and imaging technology. Gustav Klimt: Pigment & Pixel unveils these exciting new insights into the Austrian artist’s work.
Gothic Modern: From Darkness to Light
28 February–15 June at Nasjonalmuseet in Oslo, Norway
Artists across Northern Europe have long been fascinated by all things Gothic. This exhibition investigates how modern artists—such as Edvard Munch, Käthe Kollwitz, and Ernst Kirchner—found inspiration in their distant Gothic Age counterparts—like Albrecht Dürer and Hans Holbein. It is being billed as the first international exhibition to explore such a juxtaposition.
Gothic Modern is presented in seven thematic chapters: The Journey to the Gothic, Pilgrims of Art, Encounters with Death, Fellowship, Gothic Variations, From Love to Suffering, and Between Light and Darkness.
Siena: The Rise of Painting, 1300–1500
8 March–22 June at the National Gallery of Art in London, England
Florence is typically thought of as the birthplace of Italian Renaissance art. However, this exhibition asserts Siena’s important influence on the course of art history as we know it. Over 100 works by Sienese artists—including paintings, sculptures, metalwork, textiles, and more—offer a fresh perspective on the development and dissemination of Italian painting in the Renaissance era.
Siena: The Rise of Painting is heading to London after a successful run at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Notably, the exhibition reunites long-separated panels from Duccio’s Maestà Altarpiece and Simone Martini’s Orsini Polyptych.
Hiroshige: Artist of the Open Road
1 May–7 September at the British Museum in London, England
Join master 19th-century printmaker Utagawa Hiroshige on a colorful journey through the lush landscapes and bustling urban life of Edo-period Japan. This exhibition is the first to focus on the ukiyo-e artist at the British Museum. It will illuminate Hiroshige’s important influence on modern and contemporary artists, including Vincent van Gogh and the French Impressionists.
Hiroshige: Artist of the Open Road showcases woodblock prints, drawings, illustrated books, and paintings from the British Museum’s collection, as well as a significant gift loan of prints from a major U.S. collector of Hiroshige’s work.
Rendezvous of Dreams: Surrealism and German Romanticism
13 June–12 October at Hamburgerkunsthalle in Hamburg, Germany
In 1924, Surrealism emerged from the ashes of World War I in Paris. A century later, there are still new things to discover about the transformative movement. This exhibition draws fascinating connections between 20th-century Surrealism and 19th-century German Romanticism. It brings together hundreds of works, including paintings, drawings, sculptures, literature, film, photography, and other objects.
According to Hamburgerkunsthalle, “fascinating parallels come to light with respect to fundamental questions, attitudes, motifs, and even pictorial processes” in Rendezvous of Dreams. “The supernatural and irrational, dreams and chance, a feeling of community, and encounters with a changing natural world were vital sources of inspiration for German Romanticism and shaped international Surrealism differently a century later.”
Radical! Women Artists and Modernism, 1910–1950
18 June–12 October at Belvedere Museum in Vienna, Austria
This exhibition creates a compelling conversation between modern women artists from over 20 countries. From the technicolor Orphism of Sonia Delaunay to the striking Art Deco portraiture of Tamara de Lempicka, these women broke through barriers by capturing their rapidly changing surroundings across a wide range of artistic practices.
Radical! “challenges the male-driven art history that marginalized or even erased women artists from the canon” and “enriches this art-historical narrative with a kaleidoscope of new perspectives,” says the Belvedere Museum.
Leonora Carrington
October 2025–February 2026 at Palazzo Reale in Milan, Italy
Following a year of bidding wars and record-high sale prices at auction, the Surrealist superstar Leonora Carrington is getting her first-ever retrospective in Italy. The exhibition will examine the complex influence of Carrington’s international travels and immigration, from her formative teenage visits to Florence to her camaraderie with European Surrealists in Mexico.
The official title and exact opening dates of the Leonora Carrington exhibition at Milan’s Palazzo Reale are yet to be announced.
Turner and Constable
27 November, 2025–April 12, 2026, at Tate Britain in London, England
Two of Britain’s most beloved landscape artists face off in a dual exhibition commemorating the 250th year of their births. John Constable aimed for authenticity in his masterfully meticulous portrayals of classic British landscapes. Meanwhile, his peer, J. M. W. Turner, painted sublime sunsets and shipwrecks, approaching near-abstraction with audacious expressivity. This exhibition examines the artists’ intertwined—and often rivaled—lives and legacies.
“Art critics compared their paintings to a clash of ‘fire and water,’” says Tate Britain. Turner and Constable is a unique opportunity to discover the two painters “as they often were in their own time—side by side.”
