For the first time since it was made nearly 1,000 years ago, the Bayeux Tapestry is returning to England.

Following a historic agreement with France, the 70-metre-long tapestry, depicting events leading up to the Battle of Hastings and the Norman Conquest of England in 1066, will be loaned to the British Museum from September 2026 to July 2027.

This monumental embroidery tells the dramatic story of a moment that changed England forever. No year in the country’s history is more famous than 1066. It was the last time England was successfully invaded, and it is the year from which the modern monarchy dates itself. And there is no other object that is as instantly recognisable, as studied in schools and as copied by artists as the Bayeux Tapestry.

One of the wonders of the medieval world, the Tapestry offers a vision of life in 11th-century England both before and after the Conquest, from castles, warfare and ships to clothing, food and furniture.

Tickets from 10 September – 31 December 2026 have sold out.

The next ticket release will open on 21 October 2026 for bookings January 2027 onwards

See Here for details

Adults  £33
Adults + £3.50 donation  £36.50
Under 16s Free. Please book your under 16s ticket alongside an accompanying adult ticket. Maximum of four under 16s per ticketed adult.
Students, 16–18 years, Jobseekers £25
Disabled visitors £25 Assistant free, booking required
National Art Pass £16.50
Members – Two visits with no additional cost for existing Members, 10% discount thereafter.

Gagosian presents an exhibition dedicated to René Magritte and his enduring influence on the art of today. Organised in collaboration with the Fondation Magritte, This Is Still Not a Pipe: The Afterlife of Magritte examines the artist’s legacy through significant paintings, works on paper, and sculpture from all periods of his career. Featuring loans from museums and private collectors, these include some of his best-known subjects, from apples and pipes to bowler hats and cotton-cloud skies. They are juxtaposed with works by more than forty artists of different generations, many of which have been created specifically for the exhibition, in a striking installation inspired by the iconic and paradoxical aspects of Magritte’s practice.

The exhibition’s earliest painting, Les Fleurs du voyage (The Flowers of the Journey, 1926), is a symbol-laden landscape included in Magritte’s debut one-person exhibition at Galerie Le Centaure, Brussels, in 1927. Painted only a few weeks after his arrival in Paris, L’Ombre céleste (The Celestial Shade, 1927) was featured in the legendary exhibition Fantastic Art, Dada, Surrealism at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, in 1936–37. Le Parfum de l’abîme (The Scent of the Abyss, 1928) was first owned by André Breton, founder of the Surrealist movement. La Malédiction (The Curse, 1931) is the artist’s earliest single-panel canvas solely of a cloud-filled sky.

La Clef des songes (The Interpretation of Dreams, 1935) was painted for Magritte’s first solo exhibition in the United States, held at Julien Levy Gallery, New York, in 1936. Widely understood as a conceptual self-portrait, La Lampe philosophique (The Philosopher’s Lamp, 1936) epitomizes Magritte’s pictorial explorations of paradox and introspection. The painting was included in Magritte and Contemporary Art: The Treachery of Images (Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2006–07) and was made shortly before the landmark 1936 International Surrealist Exhibition at the New Burlington Galleries, London, a short walk from the Grosvenor Hill gallery.

La Marche triomphale (The Triumphant March, 1948) is one of three paintings in the exhibition from the artist’s provocative vache period, a short-lived style characterized by brash colors and intentionally crude forms. La Trahison des images. Ceci continue de ne pas être une pipe (The Treachery of Images. This Is Still Not a Pipe, 1952) depicts one of Magritte’s most iconic subjects, and updates the famous text. L’Empire des lumières (The Dominion of Light, 1961), loaned by the Heidi Horten Collection, Vienna, is the final painting in the series of landscapes in which day and night coexist, and the only one to feature a bowler-hatted figure silhouetted against the sky.

Participating contemporary artists include Isabelle Albuquerque, Harold Ancart, Nairy Baghramian, Matthew Barney, Sula Bermúdez-Silverman, Maurizio Cattelan, Vija Celmins, Talia Chetrit, George Condo, Michael Craig-Martin, John Currin, Alex Da Corte, Dominique Fung, Lenz Geerk, Robert Gober, David Hammons, Rachel Harrison, Mona Hatoum, Allison Katz, Jeff Koons, Sean Landers, Charles LeDray, Glenn Ligon, Sarah Lucas, Victor Man, Soshiro Matsubara, Adam McEwen, Bennett Miller, Jill Mulleady, Yoko Ono, Laura Owens, Charles Ray, Giangiacomo Rossetti, Ed Ruscha, Betye Saar, Dana Schutz, Ricky Swallow, Pol Taburet, Kazuna Taguchi, Mark Tansey, Georges Thiry, Anna Weyant, Jordan Wolfson, Issy Wood, Joanna Woś, and Joseph Yaeger.

Historical works by Celmins, Ono, Ruscha, and Saar were all made during Magritte’s lifetime, demonstrating the range of his influence in the postwar era. Saar—who passed away at ninety-nine during the exhibition’s final planning stages—is the only nonliving contemporary artist included. Many other works are being shown for the first time, including new paintings by Ancart, Geerk, Katz, Mulleady, Rossetti, Schutz, Taburet, Weyant, Woś, and Yaeger; sculptures and objects by Albuquerque, Da Corte, Fung, and Matsubara; and photography by Taguchi.

On the exhibition, Larry Gagosian notes: “It is difficult to imagine a world today without Magritte. Almost six decades after his death, his influence continues to resonate within contemporary artistic production, and beyond into the broader landscape of visual culture—shaping advertising, design, fashion, and even music. I am delighted to be presenting his work at the gallery once again, and to offer audiences a renewed opportunity to engage with the poetry, wit, and mystery that define his vision.”

Free

Tuesday–Saturday 10–6

Lead image: René Magritte, La Lampe philosophique (The Philosopher’s Lamp), 1936, oil on canvas, 19 3/4 × 26 inches (50 × 66 cm)
© 2026 C. Herscovici/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: courtesy Private Collection, Brussels, Kingdom of Belgium

The story of how the Côte d’Azur dazzled modern art’s great innovators.

To Monet, it was like “swimming in blue air.” To Braque, a “joyful revelation.” Derain compared its cerulean hues to “sticks of dynamite….primed to discharge light.”

The radiance of the French Riviera left an indelible mark on artists. It roused the imaginations not only of the 19th and 20th centuries’ greatest painters – among them Picasso, Matisse, Cézanne, Renoir and Klein – but giants of literature, cinema and fashion, whose works helped define the carefree glamour and eternal romance of the Côte d’Azur.

From the 1870s, the azure seas and sapphire skies of the French Riviera beckoned artists, writers, intellectuals and aristocrats searching for an escape from their drab and crowded industrial cities. What they discovered was the landscape of their dreams – one that propelled the Impressionists, Post-Impressionists and Modernists to new creative heights.

This exhibition looks at how the French Riviera supported the rise of modern art – and later became a travel destination and film location that epitomised midcentury sophistication.

The story will come alive through more than 160 works, including paintings, sculpture, travel posters and film, from the 1870s to the 1960s.

Immerse yourself, just as these artists did, in a Mediterranean paradise.

Tues, Thurs, Sun – 10am-6pm

Fri-Sat 10am – 9pm

£24-26

Lead image: Raoul Dufy – Golfe Juan (detail), 1927Oil on canvas. 81.8 x 100.6 cm, McNay Art Museum, San Antonio

The first solo exhibition in Europe of the celebrated New York-based painter Salman Toor.
The exhibition focuses on Salman Toor’s exploration of human interactions and the desire and struggle to experience a sense of belonging, both culturally and emotionally. The exhibition will bring together 19 of the artist’s most iconic, thought-provoking and at times humorous paintings, never-before-seen in Britain, that represent people in shared moments of friendship and love, as well as experiencing solitude and alienation.

While Toor’s figures and scenes are fictional, they are rooted in his personal experiences and memories. Speaking of his works, he says they “depict queer and immigrant lives that straddle different cultures and inhabit the tension between intimacy and exposure, belonging and estrangement. What it means to find a community, but also the daily costs associated with visibility”.

Born in Lahore, Pakistan, in 1983, Toor trained in the United States. He currently lives and works in New York. He has had major exhibitions internationally, including his acclaimed first institutional solo exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2020-21). More recently, he participated in the 60th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia (2024). The Courtauld’s exhibition will be Toor’s first solo museum show in Europe.

Toor’s work is rooted in a deep engagement with and admiration for the Old Masters, in particular Baroque and 18th century painting, and the Courtauld is a museum he particularly enjoys. One of the principal works in the exhibition, The Bar on East 13th (2019), revisits the Courtauld’s celebrated painting by Édouard Manet, A Bar at the Folies-Bergère (1882).

The exhibition will be accompanied by a display of Toor’s drawings in the Gilbert & Ildiko Butler Drawings Gallery. Showcasing Toor’s mastery of drawing and the way it informs his practice as a painter, the display will include Fag Puddle in Vitrine (2021), acquired by the Courtauld in 2024.

Fall in love with Renoir and his Impressionist paintings at the National Gallery.

Discover Renoir’s gift for showing love, friendship, and everyday emotion in this Impressionist exhibition. See couples waltzing in the summer air and lovers stealing a glance, families sharing a quiet moment and friends raising a glass, all through the eyes of an artist unmatched in capturing the complexities of how people connect.

Experience Renoir at his peak in the 1860s to 1880s, experimenting with style and theme to become an innovator of Impressionism.

Walk with him through Montmartre in his iconic painting ‘Bal au Moulin de la Galette’ (1876) from the Musée d’Orsay, Paris, on display in the UK for the first time. Explore the sun-dappled gardens and swirling dance halls of Paris through 40 paintings, brought together from collections across the world.

Linked through friendship and love, enjoy the tenderness and joy of some of Renoir’s most modern, uplifting and admired paintings.

Exhibition organised by the Musée d’Orsay, the National Gallery and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

£20 (off-peak, Sunday-Thursday)
£25 (Friday and Saturday, and all days in the first two weeks)
Under 18s go free

Curated by fashion industry game changer Edward Enninful OBE, whose lived experience of the decade informs the exhibition The 90s: Art and Fashion examines a defining period in which a groundswell of creativity changed the face of British culture.

As Britain began to emerge from recession, a new dawn of optimism, freedom, and rebellion was ushered in, epitomised by a new generation of diverse creative talent. Seen through Edward Enninful’s eyes, this sense of opportunity resulted in art, design, fashion and photography fusing into one potent cultural force, signalling an audacious renewal of British spirit. The exhibition explores how long-held hierarchies were dismantled, with high art and pop culture feeding into one another, and reflects both the energy and the challenges of the decade, looking at the enduring influence of key figures who emerged during this time.

The 90s: Art and Fashion brings together photography, fashion, art and design, including iconic images by photographers including Juergen Teller, David Sims and Corinne Day. These are shown alongside the work of artists like Steve McQueen, Damien Hirst, Sarah Lucas, and Yinka Shonibare, as well as fashion film and music culture, including collections by decade defining designers Vivienne Westwood, Alexander McQueen, and John Galliano.

Edward Enninful OBE is one the most influential voices in fashion and culture today, bringing his perspective as curator to this exploration of the decade.

£22 / Free for Members

£20 Concessions

£5 for Tate Collective

Robert Ryman believed that the best way to experience a painting is in person. His paintings, which mostly use white paint and a square format, reward close looking. He wanted you to notice everything: the texture of the paint, the brushstrokes, the material being painted on, how it’s displayed on the wall. The magic is in the feelings that arise as you attune yourself to the paintings’ similarities and differences, how they relate to each other and interact with the surrounding light and space.

Presenting over 60 works made from the mid-1950s to the early 2010s, this major new retrospective of the extraordinary American artist invites you to take a closer look. You may notice aspects of painting you haven’t seen before – and perhaps you’ll leave wondering what else in the world might become clearer if you simply slow down and tune in.

£20.50

Tue–Wed   10am–6pm
Thu–Fri   10am-8pm
Sat–Sun   10am-6pm

Thaddaeus Ropac presents an exhibition dedicated to Georg Baselitz’s Hero paintings, bringing together key works from this breakthrough series of the artist’s formative years. Widely regarded as one of the defining achievements of his early career and a landmark in post-war European painting more broadly, the series established many of the visual motifs, concepts and existential themes that would go on to shape the trajectory of the artist’s practice. With loans from major collections, including Tate, Berlinische Galerie, Museum Frieder Burda and Museum Küppersmühle Duisburg, as well as the artist’s family holdings and private collections, The Heroes is the first exhibition in the UK devoted exclusively to this body of work.

The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue featuring an essay by Max Hollein, Director and CEO of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, originally written on the occasion of Georg Baselitz – The Heroes at the Städel Museum, Frankfurt, in 2016, the first comprehensive museum presentation dedicated to the series, which later travelled to Stockholm, Rome and Bilbao.

Created during a period of intense productivity between 1965 and 1966, when Georg Baselitz was just 27 years old, the Hero paintings marked a turning point in the artist’s practice. Rejecting both the prevailing optimism of the post-war era and the dominant artistic currents of the 1960s, he forged a singular figurative vocabulary through which to confront the realities of post-war German society and interrogate the place of the artist within it. The central motif of this series is a cast of monumental, ambiguous figures set within ravaged landscapes. They sit or stand aimlessly in no man’s land, displaced between past and present. ‘They’re not heroes swinging their fists,’ he stated, ‘they look broken, destroyed, ragged, tattered. And that’s how I wanted them.’

Georg Baselitz began working on the Hero paintings in the summer of 1965, shortly after completing an artist’s residency at Villa Romana in Florence.

Free

Tuesday—Saturday, 10am—6pm

This major exhibition features the work of two of the most celebrated British artists of the twentieth century. Vanessa Bell & Duncan Grant: Inside Bloomsbury delves into the extraordinary relationship between the artists and traces their remarkable creative partnership that spanned more than 50 years. The exhibition explores Bell and Grant’s legacy as core members of the famed Bloomsbury Group. The group’s commitment to living lives centred around freedom and radical experimentation had a significant influence on the course of art, literature, and societal thought in Britain.

The exhibition features over 300 works, including vivid portraits, still lives, landscape paintings, decorative works on furniture, ceramics, textiles, and much more. A once-in-a-lifetime restaging of the artists’ studio, relocated for the exhibition from their Sussex home, Charleston, is an unmissable highlight.

As well as emphasising Bell and Grant’s shared creative endeavours, visitors will see how the artists also forged their own paths. This joyful exhibition celebrates their extraordinary artistic partnership, and the enduring impact these two remarkable artists had on British Art.

For the first time in history, see all of Jan van Eyck’s portraits together. Only once, only at the National Gallery.

Portraiture as we know it begins with van Eyck. His vision and skill launched painting into a new era of unrivalled realism.

Watchful eyes, a hint of stubble, wrinkles, flushed cheeks. Van Eyck captured his subjects in all their intimate details. Though these people sat for their portraits 600 years ago, they feel alive today.

‘Van Eyck: The Portraits’ brings together from across Europe all nine of the artist’s known painted portraits, making up half of his surviving works worldwide.

Breathing life into van Eyck’s world, the exhibition introduces the men and women he spent his life around. They are not kings, queens and aristocrats; they are successful craftsmen, merchants and the artist’s relatives. This is a story of people. This is the moment when access to art widened.

The exhibition marks the first and only time these works can be brought together. And this incredible display can only happen here, at the Gallery.

£18

Open daily 10am–6pm Friday until 9pm (Closed 24–26 December and 1 January)

In the late 1930s, Peggy Guggenheim launched an art gallery in Mayfair that shocked the conservative tastes of the British art establishment. This exhibition revisits the gallery that helped redefine London’s contemporary art scene.

It’s January 1938. The American collector and patron Peggy Guggenheim has just opened her first gallery on Cork Street, just around the corner from the Royal Academy. Over the next year and a half, ‘Guggenheim Jeune’ will become one of the radical voices for progress amid London’s conservative art institutions, promoting works affiliated with Surrealism and abstraction that will change the fate of contemporary art in Britain.

The launch of the gallery was a defining moment for Peggy Guggenheim and the catalyst for her becoming the art collector she is known as today. She hosted over 20 exhibitions, including the first UK solo show of Vasily Kandinsky, the first exhibition of collage in Britain, and a contemporary sculpture exhibition that became a national scandal.

This exhibition reunites key pieces from these pioneering displays, and similar works from the period, by artists including Eileen Agar, Salvador Dalí, Barbara Hepworth, Rita Kernn-Larsen, Henry Moore, Vasily Kandinsky, Piet Mondrian, Cedric Morris, Sophie Taeuber-Arp and more. These artists’ groundbreaking works ushered in new possibilities and appetites for avant-garde art in Britain.

88 years after her gallery opened, Peggy Guggenheim and the artists she championed are going to make a splash in London all over again.

£17

Tues-Thurs & Sun: 10am-6pm

Fri-Sat: 10am-9pm

Over the past five decades, Nan Goldin has photographed personal relationships, addiction and queer subcultures, forming an episodic autobiography she calls ‘a record of my life that no one can revise.’

These unflinching images transformed photography by closing the distance between the observer and the observed – snapshots capturing the intimacies of her own life and the lives of her community.

This exhibition highlights four of Goldin’s recent films: Memory Lost (2019–2021), Stendhal Syndrome (2024), You never did anything wrong, Part I (2024), and the public debut of You never did anything wrong, Part II (2026). Memory Lost chronicles Goldin’s personal history with drugs and the darkness of addiction. Stendhal Syndrome contrasts intimate portraits of Goldin’s friends and lovers with classical art from museums, revealing uncanny resemblances. While the latter two works mark a striking new direction as Goldin shifts her focus from humans towards animal consciousness and the land.

Accompanying these films is a series of photographic stills and images from Goldin’s archive.

Goldin’s extraordinary perspective, seen through the lens of her camera, invites you to understand how personal experience and political action are interconnected, capturing the shared joy and sorrow of human, animal and environmental existence.

Marking Goldin’s first institutional exhibition in the UK since 2002, this long-overdue exhibition rounds off the Southbank Centre’s 75th anniversary year.

£19