14 artists having major museum moments in 2026

More than 20 years since either artist’s last major New York presentation, Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner return to the city in Krasner and Pollock: Past Continuous at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, on view from 4 October through 31 January. Featuring more than 120 works, the exhibition traces the couple’s parallel practices, from their early years in New York to their time in Springs, Long Island. Recognising both artists’ pioneering roles in post-war American art — Pollock through his drip paintings, Krasner through her sustained engagement with abstraction informed by nature and colour — the exhibition maps the full arc of their careers.

Upcoming: Krasner and Pollock: Past Continuous at Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 4 October 2026–31 January 2027

Anticipation is building around Roy Lichtenstein, as the Whitney Museum of American Art prepares a major retrospective devoted to the artist, announced during his centenary in 2023. Set to open this fall, it will mark the first comprehensive survey of his work in over two decades. While details remain forthcoming, the presentation draws on the museum’s long-standing relationship with the artist’s foundation, which has promised more than 400 works and gifted his former studio to the institution. Known for his Ben-Day dots and comic-strip imagery, Lichtenstein turned mass culture into one of the defining styles of post-war American art. Exhibitions in Dallas and Basel, along with inclusion in Guggenheim Pop: 1960 to Now, continue to broaden the conversation around Lichtenstein this year.

Open now: Roy Lichtenstein in the Studio at Dallas Museum of Art through 5 July 2026 and Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas through 16 August 2026
Upcoming: Guggenheim Pop: 1960 to Now at Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, 5 June 2026–10 January 2027; Roy Lichtenstein, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Fall 2026; Roy Lichtenstein: Sweet Dreams Baby! at Kunstmuseum, Basel, 22 August 2026–3 January 2027

The 150th anniversary of Constantin Brancusi’s birth is marked by a series of exhibitions across Europe, highlighting the work of one of the most important sculptors of the 20th century. In Berlin, the Neue Nationalgalerie presents Brancusi through 9 August, in collaboration with the Centre Pompidou. The exhibition brings together more than 150 works, including The Kiss, Bird in Space, Sleeping Muse, and Endless Column, as well as a partial reconstruction of the artist’s studio, shown outside Paris for the first time since its bequest to the French state in 1957. The anniversary continues with exhibitions in Bucharest and Rome, along with a recent survey in Amsterdam.

Open now: Boîte, Box, Brâncuși at National Museum of Contemporary Art of Romania, Bucharest through 10 May 2026; Constantin Brâncuși: The Origins of Infinity at Mercati di Traiano Museo dei Fori Imperiali, Rome, through 19 July 2026; Brancusi at Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin through 9 August 2026
Recent: Brancusi, The Birth of Modern Sculpture at H’ART Museum, Amsterdam, 20 September 2025–18 January 2026

At the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Carol Bove’s first museum survey fills the institution’s spiral rotunda, on view through 2 August. Spanning more than 25 years, the exhibition traces pivotal shifts in Bove’s practice, from early assemblages and collages to her large-scale steel sculptures. Installed in close dialogue with Frank Lloyd Wright’s architecture, the presentation foregrounds her enduring interest in perception as it unfolds across levels, surfaces and sight lines. Spaces for reflection, discovery and play — including artist-made chess tables — draw viewers more fully into her reimagining of the iconic space.

Open Now: Carol Bove at Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York through 2 August 2026

From Paris to San Francisco, Henri Matisse features across a notably full museum calendar. At its centre is Matisse. 1941-1954, on view at the Grand Palais through 26 July. Bringing together more than 300 works from the artist’s final years, it tracks the cut-out gouache as the defining form of his late work. This period comes into further focus in the United States: Matisse’s Jazz: Rhythms in Color at the Art Institute of Chicago revisits the artist’s seminal graphic portfolio, while the Baltimore Museum of Art highlights his work in Vence. Opening 16 May, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art presents Matisse's Femme au chapeau: A Modern Scandal, revisiting a formative moment of Matisse’s early career.

Open now: Matisse’s Jazz: Rhythms in Color at Art Institute of Chicago through 1 June 2026; Baltimore Museum of Art: Matisse in Vence: The Stations of the Cross through 28 June 2026; Fratino and Matisse: To See This Light Again through 6 September 2026; Matisse and Martinique: Portraits and Poetry through 25 October 2026; Matisse. 1941-1954 at Grand Palais, Paris, through 26 July 2026;
Upcoming: Henri Matisse: Beyond Color at Morris Museum, Morristown, 12 April–9 August, 2026; Matisse's Femme au chapeau: A Modern Scandal at San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 16 May–13 September 2026; Chez Matisse at H’ART Museum, Amsterdam, 3 October 2026–14 January 2027

In Florence, Mark Rothko is the subject of a major exhibition at Palazzo Strozzi, on view through 23 August. Bringing together more than 70 works, Rothko in Florence traces the full arc of the artist’s career while situating his painting in dialogue with the city’s rich artistic heritage. The project extends beyond the Palazzo to the Museo di San Marco and the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, where works are displayed alongside Fra Angelico’s frescoes and Michelangelo’s architecture, both shaping Rothko’s vision during his first visit to the city in 1950. At the Portland Art Museum, where the artist had his first solo show in 1933, a focused presentation accompanies the opening of the Mark Rothko Pavilion.

Open now: Rothko in Florence at Palazzo Strozzi, Florence through 23 August 2026; The Art of Mark Rothko at Portland Art Museum through 28 February 2027

At the Musée d'Orsay, the museum’s 40th anniversary is marked with a pair of exhibitions devoted to Pierre-Auguste Renoir, on view through July. Renoir and Love: A Joyful Modernity (1865–1885) revisits the artist’s depictions of modern life, tracing his light-filled scenes of social and romantic exchange across theatres, gardens, and cafés. Presented alongside it, Renoir Drawings is the first exhibition dedicated to the artist’s works on paper, foregrounding the role of drawing in his practice. Together, they reconsider Renoir’s contribution to Impressionism through both subject and process. Renoir and Love will travel to the National Gallery this fall before closing in Boston in 2027.

Open now: Renoir and Love: A Joyful Modernity (1865–1885) at Musée d'Orsay, Paris through 19 July 2026; Renoir Drawings at Musée d'Orsay, Paris through 5 July 2026
Upcoming: Renoir and Love at the National Gallery, London from 3 October 2026–31 January 2027; Renoir and Love at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston from 20 February–13 June 2027

Over a career spanning more than six decades, Gerhard Richter has been the subject of major institutional exhibitions across Europe and the United States, from Tate Modern to the Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Most recently, the 92-year-old artist, whose first major retrospective took place in 1976, was the subject of a landmark survey at the Fondation Louis Vuitton. The eponymous exhibition, which closed earlier this year, brought together more than 275 works spanning 1962 to 2024 — the most definitive showing of the German artist to date. Presented chronologically, it traced the evolution of Richter’s practice, from early photo-based works to later abstractions.

Recent: Gerhard Richter at Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris from 17 October 2025–2 March 2026

George Condo was the subject of a major exhibition at the Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris, which closed earlier this year. Bringing together more than four decades of work, the presentation traced his distinctive approach to figurative painting, shaped by a wide-ranging engagement with art history. Known for his ‘psychological cubism,’ his fractured portraits and hybrid figures collapse multiple emotional states into a single image. A forthcoming publication, George Condo: The Mad and the Lonely, to be released in May, documents the artist’s recent site-specific installation in Hydra, offering a more focused view of his practice.

Recent: George Condo at Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris from 10 October 2025 to 15 February 2026

In recent years, Firelei Báez has received sustained museum recognition across Europe and North America, with exhibitions in Humlebæk, Wolfsburg, Vancouver and Boston. At the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, the final stop of the artist’s first North American mid-career survey is on view through 31 May. Bringing together paintings, drawings, and installations from the past two decades, the exhibition highlights Báez’s richly layered visual language, shaped by Afro-Caribbean histories, colonial archives and mythological narratives. Working across monumental compositions, she often reimagines historical sources — from maps to architectural plans — to propose alternative readings and shifting identities.

Open Now: Firelei Báez at Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago through 31 May 2026

At the Fondation Louis Vuitton, Calder. Rêver en équilibre brings together nearly 300 works by Alexander Calder, on view through 16 August, marking the centenary of the artist’s arrival in France and the 50th anniversary of his death. Spanning half a century, the exhibition traces Calder’s career, from his early Cirque Calder to the monumental works that redefined public art. Installed across the Fondation’s galleries, his mobiles and stabiles unfold in dialogue with Frank Gehry’s architecture. The presentation builds on recent momentum surrounding the artist, following the opening of Calder Gardens in Philadelphia and High Wire: Calder’s Circus at 100 at the Whitney Museum of American Art.

Open now: Calder. Rêver en équilibre at Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris through 16 August 2026

The United States will see its first retrospective dedicated to Marcel Duchamp in more than half a century this spring, in what is already one of the most anticipated museum exhibitions of the year. On view at the Museum of Modern Art through 22 August, the exhibition brings together nearly 300 works spanning the artist’s six-decade career. From his early paintings to his readymade sculptures and The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even (The Large Glass), it traces Duchamp’s radical reinvention of the artwork. Marcel Duchamp will travel to the Philadelphia Museum of Art this fall and the Grand Palais in 2027.

Open now: Marcel Duchamp at Museum of Modern Art, New York through 22 August 2026
Upcoming: (Exhibition pages for PMA and Grand Palais forthcoming)

As the United States marks its 250th anniversary, a wide-ranging programme of exhibitions across the country turns renewed attention to American art and its histories. Within this context, Childe Hassam emerges as a central figure in surveys devoted to American Impressionism, including an installation at the Yale University Art Gallery, on view through 7 June. Known for his luminous depictions of urban and coastal life — as well as with his Flag Series, one of the most iconic, patriotic series in 20th Century American Art — Hassam helped define an American iteration of Impressionism, translating the movement’s interest in light and atmosphere into distinctly local scenes. His work also features within broader anniversary programming at institutions including the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC.

Open now: American Impressionism at Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven through 7 June 2026; A Nation of Artists at Philadelphia Museum of Art through September 2027; Dear America at National Gallery of Art, Washington DC, exhibitions ongoing through 2026