13 Must-See Art Museum Exhibitions in London Spring – Summer 2026
From household names to fascinating artists shown for the first time in the UK, London is, as ever, capital of the arts.
This spring London museums offer a thrilling mix of film, fashion, samurai armour, and lots of paintings. When you can choose from 17th century Brussels and Seville, 19th and early 20th century France, the US, Estonia and modern-day England – do you even need to leave London at all?
Evening coat, designed by Elsa Schiaparelli and Jean Cocteau, 1937, London, England © 2025 ADAGP DACS Comite Cocteau, Paris. Photograph © Emil Larsson
Schiaparelli: Fashion Becomes Art, V&A, 28 March – 8 November
From surrealist garments to modern couture, what’s not to like? The V&A is doing what it knows well – a fashion show. One hundred years of Schiaparelli presented through outfits, of course, but also accessories, jewellery, paintings, photographs, sculpture, furniture, perfumes and more. It will show Elsa Schiaparelli, the house’s founder, as both an artist and shrewd entrepreneur, as well as covering the brand’s story up to today.
Tracey Emin, The End of Love 2024. Tate © Tracey Emin. All rights reserved, DACS 2026
Tracey Emin: A Second Life, Tate Modern, 27 February – 31 August
Tate Modern’s retrospective of the grande dame of British art questions how well we know the artist and ourselves. This eagerly-awaited show brings together works from across four decades, squeezing it all in: the videos of the 1990s, the embroidered blankets of the 2000s, the neon works of the 2010s and sculpture and paintings of the 2020s. Her relentless will for life, for art, leaves a profound impression for days after experiencing this monumental exhibition. My review of the show is here.
Rose Wylie, Pink Skater (Will I Win, Will I Win), 2015, Oil on canvas, 208 × 329 cm (overall), Courtesy private collection and JARILAGER Gallery, Photograph courtesy Jari Lager. Photo: Soon-Hak Kwon, © Rose Wylie
Rose Wylie: The Picture Comes First, Royal Academy, 28 February – 19 April
Rose Wylie, whose artistic career began in her fifties, seems to relish painting. Large-scale canvases fill the high-ceilinged main galleries of the Royal Academy – in fact Wylie is the first British female artist to have an exhibition here. Her bold and colourful art is a chronicle of her life, interspersed with references from newspapers and the internet. From the Blitz to the bullet bra, from Olympic figure skaters to a well-cooked omelette, this artist shows that every detail of our lives is worthy of a monumental canvas.
Michaelina Wautier, Taste, 1650. Oil on canvas, 69.5 x 61 cm. Rose-Marie and Eijk Van Otterloo Collection
Michaelina Wautier, Royal Academy, 27 March – 21 June
The Royal Academy is on a roll. This spring not one, but two women artists are celebrated with major exhibitions in the gallery. Wautier was hugely successful in 17th century Brussels but was soon almost forgotten. This exhibition brings the works of this trailblazing ‘new’ Old Master to the heart of London. Her most impressive painting was once thought to have been painted by a man. Reason? Because it was ‘impossible’ for a woman to have made it. There are many mysteries surrounding Wautier’s origins and education, but we can try to decipher some by examining the diverse and masterful paintings she created.
Woman's firefighting jacket and hood, Wool, satin-weave silk appliqué, and silk- and goldthread, embroidery, Japan, 1800–50, John C. Weber Collection. Photo © John Bigelow Taylor.
Samurai, the British Museum, 3 February – 4 May
Medieval warriors, bureaucrats, art patrons, idealised exceptional fighters loyal to their country… All iterations of the real and invented Samurai are explored in this epic show. From original armour to Louis Vuitton imitations, from stories of courage and honour to modern video games, the exhibition takes a sweeping look at both history and modern-day references to the Samurai tradition. Did you know that women could be samurai too? Just one of the many things this show highlights – essential viewing.
Georges Seurat (1859-1891), Seascape at Port-en-Bessin, Normandy , 1888, oil on canvas, 65.1 x 80.9cm. Gift of the W. Averell Harriman Foundation in memory of Marie N. Harriman, National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.
Seurat and the Sea, Courtauld, 13 February – 17 May
Take a trip to the French seaside with the help of one of the most celebrated pointillists of all time. Juxtaposing dots of complimentary colours, Seurat created seascapes that please the eye and the soul. This calming show, in just two rooms, tells the story of an artist in search of light and a novel way to paint it. He found both and the Courtauld has pulled all the best examples together in this jewel of a show. My review of the exhibition is here.
Chiharu Shiota, The Key in the Hand, 2015 Installation_ old keys, wooden boats, red wool Japan Pavilion at 56th Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy Photo by Sunhi Mang © DACS, London, 2026 and Chiharu Shiota
Chiharu Shiota: Threads of Life, Hayward Gallery, 17 February – 3 May
A good show to take your teenager to. Colourful, immersive, Instagram-friendly and with profound thoughts on life, death and relationships – what else could you ask for? With floor-to-ceiling installations of the artist’s signature threads, as well as large-scale sculptures, drawings, videos and photographs, this is one to put on your weekend list. Shown alongside is Yin Xiuzhen: Heart to Heart – an artist dedicated to multimedia artworks made of unconventional materials.
Konrad Mägi, Norwegian Landscape, 1909. Courtesy of the Art Museum of Estonia.
Konrad Mägi, Dulwich Picture Gallery, 24 March – 12 July
Emotional landscapes and radical portraits by a modernist artist largely unknown in the UK. Working in the early 20th century, he used dramatic colours for his symbolically-charged works. Mägi was a proud Estonian who grew up surrounded by nature; he then travelled around Europe and ‘translated’ modernism into his own language. This is art that is rarely seen in the UK and is unapologetically beautiful. Go to widen your emotional and geographical horizons.
Lucian Freud
Lucian Freud: Drawing into Painting, National Portrait Gallery, 12 February – 4 May
One of Britain’s favourite painters, Lucien Freud was, unsurprisingly, very good at drawing. This exhibition brings together works made in pencil, pen, ink, charcoal and etching. Freud explored to great depths the human face and figure, making the NPG the ideal place to hold this show. It will also include several paintings to illustrate the artist’s working practice and processes. A new look at one of British art’s darlings.
David Hockney, A Year in Normandie
David Hockney: A Year in Normandie and Some Other Thoughts About Painting, Serpentine, 12 March – 23 August
Slow down and look around. This is what David Hockney would like us to do. He has certainly done so. His Bayeux Tapestry-inspired 90-meter frieze A Year in Normandie is coming to London for the first time, prefacing the historical artefact’s visit to the British Museum later in the year. But for now, we can enjoy Hockney’s monumental work capturing the changing seasons. In having a dialogue with the nature surrounding the gallery, it celebrates the art of seeing and rejoicing in simple beauty.
Wes Anderson at the Design Museum. Photo credit Matt Alexander/PA Media Assignments.
Wes Anderson: The Archives, the Design Museum, until 26 July
Take a look at the personal archives of the film director with cinema’s most visually recognisable style. His famous symmetry and curated colour palettes even worked themselves into an Instagram trend a couple of years ago, when everyone suddenly became a film director. The 700 objects in this exhibition show how the real Wes Anderson’s vision came together in films like The Grand Budapest Hotel and Fantastic Mr. Fox. In the age of AI, this show expounds the meticulous craft that Anderson puts into his work – and makes one wonder what we may be losing along with these disappearing traditional film-making techniques.
James McNeill Whistler, Symphony in White, No. 2: The Little White Girl. 1864. Tate.
James McNeill Whistler, Tate Britain, 21 May – 27 September
A celebrity artist and a rule-breaker in one, Whistler made beautiful paintings using innovative techniques. Born in the US, he was inspired by Japanese art, Old Masters, modern French art, and by London. Seeing his paintings as pieces of music, he often gave them musical titles. Viewing them puts you in contemplative mood, not unlike the one you get listening to a favourite nocturne.
Francisco de Zurbarán, Saint Casilda, about 1635, Oil on canvas, 171 × 107 cm, Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, © Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza
Zurbarán, the National Gallery, 2 May – 23 August
Another first for London: this show dedicated to the fascinating Spanish artist Francisco de Zurbarán, who worked in 17th century Seville. He’s most famous for his shimmering fabrics, revealing Seville to be one of Spain’s richest cities at the time. Remarkably, he excelled in painting otherworldly spiritual and religious subjects as well as very detailed, precise still lifes from the material world. His respectfully pensive Saint Casida, for example, wears the most luxurious and fashionable silk gown you’ve ever laid eyes on!