The European art exhibitions worth travelling for in autumn 2024

With several art fairs and art weeks scheduled across Europe this autumn, there are numerous reasons to travel. From delving into Berlin's dynamic 90s scene to attending the Frans Hals exhibition in the same city, and exploring a group exhibition focused on textile storytelling in Amsterdam, there’s much to anticipate. This is your essential guide to the must-see art exhibitions in Paris, Berlin, and Amsterdam this autumn, along with our top recommendations for the pavilions at the 2024 Venice Biennale.

Paris

Bourse de Commerce

#FLODown: Bourse de Commerce , originally a grain trading hub, has been the venue for the Pinault Collection since 2021. It is currently showcasing the exhibition Le monde comme il va (The World As It Goes), which explores contemporary art’s engagement with global issues from the 1980s to today. Highlighted works include Kimsooja’s hugely popular mirror installation To Breathe — Constellation, which will be on display until 23 September 2024, Fischli & Weiss’s clay models, and pieces by Maurizio Cattelan, Cindy Sherman, and Anne Imhof. The exhibition reflects the complex relationship between art and societal challenges. On 9 October, a new exhibition, Arte Povera, will open, delving into the Arte Povera movement. It will trace the movement’s Italian origins and its international impact, featuring major works by prominent Italian artists such as Jannis Kounellis, Marisa Merz, Mario Merz, and Michelangelo Pistoletto.

Date: Le monde comme il va (The World As It Goes): Until 2 September 2024; Arte Povera: 9 October 2024 - 20 January 2025. Location: Bourse de Commerce, 2 Rue de Viarmes, 75001 Paris, France. Price: From 15 EUR. pinaultcollection.com.

To Breathe — Constellation by Kimsooja. Bourse de Commerce. Photo by MTotoe.

Centre Pompidou

#FLODown: Centre Pompidou, home to Europe’s largest modern and contemporary art collection, is currently featuring a wide array of exhibitions. The Centre is currently hosting Comics on Every Floor, a programme dedicated to the comic art genre, including Franco-Belgian comics, American comic books, and Asian manga. Key exhibitions include Comic Exhibition (1964 - 2024), which explores the history of comics, and Comics in the Museum, a thematic tour that highlights works from iconic comic artists like Hergé and Winsor McCay. Other exhibitions include Liliane et Michel Durand-Dessert: Un engagement radical (25 June – 31 September 2024) and Bang Hai Ja (25 June 2024 – 9 March 2025). Upcoming autumn exhibitions include a centenary celebration of Surrealism and a free exhibition of Barbara Crane’s photography,

Date: Comics on Every Floor: 29 May - 4 November 2024; Centenary Celebration of Surrealism: 4 September 2024 - 13 January 2025; Barbara Crane Photography: 11 September 2024 - 6 January 2025. Location: Centre Pompidou, Place Georges-Pompidou, 75004 Paris, France. Price: from 15 EUR. https://www.centrepompidou.fr.

Palias de Tokyo, Paris 2019. Photo by MTotoe.

Palais de Tokyo 

#FLODown: Palais de Tokyo is currently closed for the summer but will reopen in October with a new exhibition titled Praesentia by Myriam Mihindou, coinciding with Paris+ par Art Basel. Known as Europe's largest centre for contemporary artistic creation, Palais de Tokyo will present this expansive showcase of Mihindou's work from the past twenty years, including new pieces. Praesentia explores the spiritual, therapeutic, social, and political dimensions of art through diverse gestures, forms, and materials. The exhibition aims to re-examine dominant narratives by highlighting previously overlooked or marginalised bodies, voices, and practices.

Date: 17 October 2024 - 5 January 2025. Location: Palais de Tokyo, 13, avenue du Président Wilson – 75 116 Paris, France. Price: from 12 EUR. palaisdetokyo.com.

Click here for more art exhibitions to see in Paris this autumn. 

Berlin 

Berlin, Berlin: 20 Years of the Helmut Newton Foundation

#FLODown: To celebrate its 20th anniversary in June 2024, the Helmut Newton Foundation presents Berlin, Berlin, a group exhibition honouring Newton’s hometown. The show features both iconic and lesser-known images of Berlin by Newton, along with photographs of his early inspirations. Newton, who fled Berlin in 1938 due to Nazi threats, returned in 2003 to establish the foundation in the former Landwehrkasino at Zoologischer Garten train station, where his archive was relocated.

Date: 7 June 2024 - 25 February 2025. Location: Museum of Photography - Helmut Newton Foundation, Jebensstraße 2, 10623 Berlin, Germany. Price: 12 EUR.  helmut-newton-foundation.org.

Wim Wenders Stiftung. Wings of Desire, Berlin 1987. Outside/Day – Gedächtniskirche, Bruno Ganz. © Wim Wenders Stiftung, Argos Films / Courtesy Johanna Breede.

Alexandra Pirici and Nama Tsbar at Hamburger Bahnhof

#FLODown: Alexandra Pirici's Attune and Naama Tsabar's Estuaries are both on display at Hamburger Bahnhof. Pirici's Attune, featured in the Historic Hall, is a site-specific installation that melds sculptural elements, live action, and music to explore the interplay between human and non-human entities. Meanwhile, Tsabar's Estuaries presents interactive art pieces that double as sculptures and musical instruments, inviting audience engagement. This exhibition also includes performances with Berlin and New York musicians, and it engages with Joseph Beuys' work, celebrating feminist and queer perspectives through participatory art.

Date: Alexandra Pirici: Attune  until 6 October 2024; Naama Tsabar: Estuaries until 22 September 2024. Locations: Hamburger Bahnhof - Museum für Gegenwart, Invalidenstraße 51, 10557 Berlin-Tiergarten. Price: 14 EUR. hamburger-bahnhof

Installation view. Alexandra Pirici.Attune, 2024. Hamburger Bahnhof – Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart, 2024. Courtesy of the artist, Hamburger Bahnhof and Audemars Piguet / Photo: Edi Constantin. 

Frans Hals: Master of the Fleeting Moment

#FLODown: If you missed the Frans Hals exhibition at London’s National Gallery, you have another chance to see it at the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin. Hals, regarded as one of history's greatest portraitists, is celebrated for his lively and character-rich depictions of Haarlem’s citizens, genre figures, and social outsiders. His innovative style, featuring loose, bold brushstrokes, influenced many 19th-century painters, particularly the Impressionists. The Berlin exhibition showcases around 50 of Hals' most significant works, alongside pieces by his Haarlem contemporaries, highlighting Hals' impact on the evolution of European painting. Click here for our review of Frans Hals at the National Gallery in London. 

Date:  12 July - 3 November 2024. Location: Gemäldegalerie, Matthäikirchplatz 4, 10785 Berlin-Tiergarten. Price: 16 EUR. smb.museum/museen-einrichtungen/gemaeldegalerie.

Luiz Roque, White Year, Video still, 2013. Performer: Glamour Garcia. Courtesy of the artist and Mendes Wood DM, São Paulo/Brussels/Paris/New York © the artist.

Luis Roque: Estufa

#FLODown: Estufa is the first mid-career survey of Brazilian artist Luiz Roque at KW - Institute for Contemporary Art. Roque’s work fuses expanded cinema, visual art, and critical theory, blending modernist legacies, pop culture, queer politics, and science fiction into his timeless montages and speculative videos. His sculptural video installations skillfully balance form, colour, and content, fostering a dialogue between architecture and art while preserving their individual qualities.

Date: 6 July – 20 October 2024. Location: KW - Institute for Contemporary Art Auguststraße 69, 10117 Berlin-Mitte. Price: 10 EUR. kw-berlin.de. 

Click here for more art exhibitions to see in Berlin this autumn.

Venice 

Venice Biennale 2024 

#FLODown: The Venice Biennale often feels fleeting, with the opening week passing quickly. However, the event runs until November, allowing ample time for visits. Although exploring its many neighbourhoods can seem overwhelming, starting at the Giardini and the Arsenale is a good strategy. Click here for our pick of prominent and lesser-known pavillions to help you navigate and enjoy the Biennale.

Archie Moore, kith and kin, 2024, Australia Pavilion at Venice Biennale 2024. Photograph: Andrea Rossetti. © the artist. Image courtesy the artist and The Commercial, Sydney.

Venice art exhibitions 

Pierre Huyghe: Liminal at Punta della Dogana

Liminal, an exhibition by Pierre Huyghe in collaboration with curator Anne Stenne, features new creations alongside works from the last decade, including pieces from the Pinault Collection. Huyghe explores the human-non-human relationship, viewing his works as speculative fictions unveiling alternative world modalities. The exhibition transforms Punta della Dogana into a dynamic environment inhabited by evolving subjectivities shaped by captured memories. It's a ritual of unpredictability, inviting viewers to embrace alternative realities from an inhuman perspective

Date: 17 March - 24 November 2024. Location: Punta della Dogana - Pinault Collection,  Dorsoduro, 2, 30123 Venezia, Italy. Price: 18 EUR. Concessions available.Book now.

Charlotte Colbert, Mastectomy Mameria, Plaster, 2019 © the artist and Popcorn Group LTD.

Breasts at ACP Palazzo Franchetti

Breasts examines the portrayal of the female form in art, focusing on depictions of breasts from the 16th century to the present. Curated by Carolina Pasti, the exhibition features works by over thirty artists, spanning painting, sculpture, photography, and film. It explores how breasts have been represented across cultures and traditions, touching on themes like motherhood, empowerment, sexuality, body image, and illness. By using breasts as a lens to discuss socio-political realities and challenge historical norms, the exhibition aims to promote awareness of breast cancer through the medium of art.

Date: 19 April – 24 November 2024. Location: ACP Palazzo Franchetti, Venice, S. Marco, 2847, 30124 Venezia, Italy. Website: breastsartexhibition.com.

Click here for more art exhibitions to see in Venice during the Venice Biennale. 

Amsterdam 

Stedelijk Museum

#FLODown: The Stedelijk Museum's exhibition Painting as Prop by Wilhelm Sasnal features twenty-five paintings, some of which appear as props in his film The Assistant (2024). This exhibition delves into the intersection of art and film, bridging the early 20th-century narratives of Walser with contemporary themes of adaptability, capitalism, and the evolution of modern art. Additionally, those who missed the Barbican’s textile exhibition Unravel: The Power and Politics of Textiles in Art will have a chance to see it at the Stedelijk this September. Unravel presents over a hundred works by 45 artists, including Louise Bourgeois and Tracey Emin, demonstrating textiles as a potent medium for narrative in art. Click here for our review of Unravel: The Power and Politics of Textiles in Art at the Barbican Centre, London.

Date: Wilhelm Sasnal: Painting as Prop until 1 September 2024; Unravel: The Power and Politics of Textiles in Art from 14 September 2024 - 5 January 2025. Location:Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Museumplein 10, 1071 DJ Amsterdam, Netherlands. Price: 22.50 EUR. Concessions available. stedelijk.nl.

Rijksmuseum, 2014. Photo by John Lewis Marshall. 

Rijksmuseum

#FLODown: The Rijksmuseum's exhibition Point of View explores gender concepts in Western Europe from the 16th to the 21st century through 150 works from its collection. Highlights include a portrait of the four-year-old William of Orange in a skirt, a dragon-shaped gold toothpick, and a glass with copulating roosters. The exhibition features artists like Gesina ter Borch and Robert Mapplethorpe. Co-curator Maria Holtrop notes that the exhibition reveals how evolving gender notions have shaped both art and everyday objects. Later in September, the museum will open Asian Bronze: 4000 Years of Beauty, showcasing 75 masterpieces of Asian bronze from around 2000 BC. The exhibition will include artifacts from countries such as Pakistan, India, and China, and will be accompanied by a symposium on January 9-10 2025, as well as a series of public programmes.

Date: Point of View until 1 September 2024; Asian Bronze: 4000 Years of Beautyfrom 27 September 2024 - 12 January 2025. Location: Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, Museumstraat 1, 1071 XX Amsterdam, Netherlands. Price: 22.50 EUR.rijksmuseum.nl/en.

Click here for art exhibitions to see in Amsterdam this autumn.