USA TODAY International Edition
In Europe, old masters, antiquities
Museums throughout Europe typically open some of the year’s best exhibits at this popular time of year. This spring, Europe’s museums are revisiting important artists, including Rubens, Picasso, Rodin, and Monet, and Delacroix, as well as important moments in ancient and modern history.
Picasso 1932 – Love, Fame, Tragedy at the Tate Modern in London
Through Sept. 9
The year 1932 is considered a time so pivotal in Picasso’s life and work that it has been called his “year of wonders.” Now, the Tate Modern takes a month-by-month journey through the year to explore how his work was affected by his family life, love affair, time spent between Normandy and Paris, and growing political, social, and financial problems in Europe. The exhibit brings together more than 100 paintings, sculptures, and other works that Picasso created during that time, with the centerpiece Nude Woman in a Red Armchair. tate.org.uk
High Society at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam Through June 3
Get up close with royals, aristocrats and wealthy citizens of Europe through grand, full-length portraits at the Dutch national museum. More than 35 works by artistic masters including Velázquez, Sargent, Munch and Manet are on display, along with the centerpiece: Rembrandt’s wedding portraits of Marten Soolmans and Oopjen Coppit that are being shown for the first time since their restoration. Works are on loan from museums and private collections around the world including Paris, London, Florence, Vienna and Los Angeles. The Rijksmuseum also has pulled more than 80 prints and drawings from its collection to portray the lives of the rich and powerful, including their parties and romances. rijksmuseum.nl/en/
Gurlitt: Status Report at Kunstmuseum Bern in Switzerland Through July 15
In 2012, nearly 1,500 invaluable artworks by masters including Picasso, Munch, and Matisse were discovered in the home of the son of a German art dealer who collected Jewish and socalled “degenerate art” under the Nazi regime. The art was donated to the Kunstmuseum. kunstmuseumbern.ch
Jews, an Italian Story: The First Thousand Years at The National Museum of Italian Judaism and the Shoah in Ferrara, Italy Through Sept. 16
The National Museum of Italian Judaism and the Shoah, which opened in December, is presenting an exhibit on the Italian Jewish experience from ancient Roman times until the Middle Ages. The town of Ferrara sits between Venice and Bologna and has a Jewish history dating to early medieval times. The exhibit covers the first 1,000 years of Jews in Italy with more than 200 artifacts, including manuscripts, medieval documents, epigraphs, and objects such as rings, seals, coins, oil-lamps and amulets. Many are on display for the first time and others are on loan from museums in Cairo, Naples, the Vatican, the U.K., and New York. meisweb.it/en/
Rubens. Painter of Sketches at the Prado in Madrid
Through Aug. 5
Peter Paul Rubens painted nearly 500 sketches . In partnership with the Flanders government and the Boijmans Van Beuningen Museum in the Netherlands, the Prado has brought together nearly one-fifth of these works from its collection and from museums including the Louvre, the Hermitage, the National Gallery, and the Metropolitan Museum of New York. Works include The Expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden, Prometheus, and The Capture of Samson. museodelprado.es/en/
Rodin and the art of ancient Greece at the British Museum in London
Through July 29
Legend has it that French sculptor Auguste Rodin visited the British Museum in 1881 and took inspiration from the Parthenon sculptures, leading him to incorporate what he saw into his work. Now, the British Museum revisits Rodin’s legacy 100 years after his death with a major exhibition featuring more than 80 plaster, bronze, and marble sculptures on loan from Paris, including
The Thinker and The Kiss. They’ll be juxtaposed with some of the Parthenon sculptures that inspired the artist. britishmuseum.org/
Eleusis. The great mysteries at the Acropolis Museum in Athens
Through May 31
The third in a series of exhibits of important ancient artifacts, the Acropolis Museum now focuses on Eleusis, a town about 11 miles northwest of Athens. On display are artifacts found in the Eleusis archaeological excavation, including the statue Fleeing Persephone (circa 480 BC), a votive relief depicting Demeter and Kore (Persephone) (470-450 BC), ceremonial vessels, and monuments. The exhibition hall was designed to represent Telesterion, a great hall in Eleusis where sacred and ancient Greek religious rites were celebrated. theacropolismuseum.gr/en/
Delacroix (1798–1863) at The Louvre in Paris
Through July 23
Though Eugène Delacroix is considered a giant of French painting, the last full retrospective on his work in Paris was in 1963, the centenary year of his death. The Louvre has joined forces with the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York to present a new exhibition with 180 of his works spanning his 40year career.
The work is divided into three sections: his break with neoclassicism; large public murals and easel painting; and landscape painting. www.louvre.fr/en/