Exhibitions for 2025

I was curious what exhibitions we could expect from museums for the coming year. All the lists online, as is mine, are brief and subjective. To find them all one would need to research the museums town by town. Here are some of my choices.

For the contemporary world I did find that Amsterdam’s Stedelijk and Van Gogh Museums were planning an Anselm Kiefer (1945-) exhibition. The Stedelijk has been collecting his work since 1960 and Kiefer has said that van Gogh has been one of his great inspirations. The show is to be called “Sag mir, wo die Blumen sind” (“Tell me where the flowers are”), which will be exhibited in two parts in those museums. Here is Kiefer’s interpretation of “The Starry Night” (2019). (March 7–June 9)

I have written often about how art is a great vehicle for protest and shining a light on injustice. The Centre Pompidou in Paris is about to close for 5 years for renovations but before they do their last exhibition will celebrate Black artists who have worked in Paris between 1950 and 2000. Paris is one of the most ethnically diverse cities. Just think of all the great artists who have lived there. “Paris Noir” will offer a visual survey of how Black artists have challenged dominant narratives and reflected political shifts, from African independence to the fall of apartheid.” Here is “The Struggle” (1963) by Bob Thomson (1937-1966) lent by the Michael Rosenfeld Gallery. (March 19-June 30)

“Turner and Constable” and their great artistic rivalry will be at the Tate Britain in London. J.M.W. Turner (1775-1851) and John Constable (1776-1837) competed in the same genre of landscape painting and were an inspiration to many others. From the Tate’s Press Release, “vying for success through very different but equally bold approaches the scene was soon set for a heady rivalry. Turner painted blazing sunsets and sublime scenes from his travels, while Constable often returned to depictions of a handful of beloved places, striving for freshness and authenticity in his portrayal of nature. The art critics compared their paintings to a clash of ‘fire and water’”. (November 27, 2025 to April 12, 2026).

John Constable, “The White Horse, Frick Collection

“Myth and Marble” is a rare chance to see a selection from today’s greatest private collection of ancient Roman sculptures. The collection was formed in the 19th century by the Torlonia family from excavations on their lands in Italy and also by purchase of other collections. The show has been seen in Rome, Milan and Paris and is crossing the pond this year to be seen in March at the Art Institute of Chicago then at the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas, and the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.

I have already written about Caspar David Friedrich: “The Soul of Nature” https://www.geraldstiebel.com/2023/12/caspar-david-friedrich.html

when it was in Germany. It has now arrived at New York’s Metropolitan Museum and is on until May 11.

For the first time in the U.S. there will be a solo exhibition of the work of the Dutch still-life artist Rachel Ruysch (1664-1750). Typically, she has been far less studied than her male counterparts of the period. The show “Rachel Ruysch: Nature into Art” will be at the Toledo Museum of Art which was the first American Institution to acquire a work by her, back in 1956! (April 12 -July 27)

If you have been reading my Missives for a while you already know about my interest in photography and the Native American world. The Heard Museum in Phoenix, Arizona, dedicated to Indian Art, has combined the two. It is presenting an exhibition called “Storyteller: The Photography of Jerry Jacka”. Last year Jacka’s (1934-2017) archive was donated to the Heard. Jacka, a widely published Anglo photographer born and raised in Arizona is known for his images of the Southwest and documentation of Native American culture . The Heard exhibition will show his portraits of Native artists paired with examples of their work. (February 7 – October 12, 2025)

I will end with a most unusual exhibition at the Copenhagen National Museum of Art. It will be the largest and most “comprehensive presentation of Michelangelo's sculptural work the world has seen in 150 years! It is called “Michelangelo Imperfect”. Why? Because the show consists of the museum’s collection of “historical casts of Michelangelo’s sculptures alongside brand-new reproductions, original drawings and sculptural models.” The Museum asserts “This way, you can experience the majority of all Michelangelo’s sculpture in one place.”

That obviously would not be possible with the originals. (March 29-August 31, 2025)

Reproduction Figure of Day, Giuliano Medici tomb

The Michelangelo exhibition presents a dilemma: the issue of illegitimacy of the reproduction as a substitute for the original vs. the opportunity of seeing the scope of an artist’s entire body of work - an idea worthy of further exploration ...