Monumental museum exhibitions to visit this spring

These masterpieces are having a moment. Renowned works from Michelangelo, Johannes Vermeer, Artemisia Gentileschi, Claude Monet and other luminaries will be on display at once-in-a-lifetime exhibitions opening this spring. Here are seven exceptional shows no art lover will want to miss. 

‘Paris 1874: The Impressionist Moment’ — Musée d’Orsay in Paris

On April 15, 1874, a who’s who of Paris’ radical art scene — Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Edgar Degas and Alfred Sisley — banded together and held an exhibition on their own, with works focusing on scenes of modern life. It was intended as a rebellious counterpoint to the Paris Salon, an annual government-sponsored exhibition. This rejection of the establishment birthed the impressionist movement, and in celebration of its 150th anniversary, the Musée d’Orsay in Paris will display pieces from that show, plus paintings and sculptures that appeared in the official Salon of 1874. “This unprecedented confrontation will help recreate the visual shock caused by the works exhibited by the impressionists,” the Musée d’Orsay said. Runs March 25 – July 14, 2024. The exhibition is co-organized with the National Gallery of Art, Washington, where it will be presented Sept. 8, 2024 – Jan. 19, 2025.

‘Vermeer, Monet, Rembrandt: Forging the Frick Collections in Pittsburgh and New York’ — The Frick Pittsburgh

Industrialist Henry Clay Frick and his daughter, philanthropist Helen Clay Frick, shared both an interest in art and a passion for acquiring masterpieces. For the first time, pieces from both of their exquisite collections will go on display at The Frick Pittsburgh in “Vermeer, Monet, Rembrandt: Forging the Frick Collections in Pittsburgh and New York.” In a show filled with works from game-changing painters like Titian, El Greco and James McNeill Whistler, one stands out: “Girl Interrupted at her Music” by Johannes Vermeer, a painting finished in the mid-1600s, is one of only 36 known works by the brilliant Dutch artist. Runs April 6 – July 14, 2024.

‘Making her Mark: A History of Women Artists in Europe, 1400 – 1800″ — Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto

The Art Gallery of Ontario is introducing visitors to their “new artistic heroines.” For “Making her Mark: A History of Women Artists in Europe, 1400 – 1800,” the AGO will display 230 objects from visionaries like Artemisia Gentileschi, the first woman to become a member of the Academy of the Arts of Drawing in Florence; Sofonisba Anguissola, an Italian Renaissance painter known globally for her portraits; and Judith Leyster, a Dutch Golden Age painter whose work was overlooked for centuries before having a resurgence in the 1970s. Pieces from lesser-known women who worked in factories and workshops will also have a place in the exhibition, making it one of the first to “put women makers of various levels of society in conversation with each other, across centuries and a continent, through their artworks,” AGO said. Runs March 27 – July 1, 2024.

‘Michelangelo: The Last Decades’ — The British Museum in London

Michelangelo achieved early greatness with his marble sculpture “David” and the Sistine Chapel ceiling, but the end of his career was a “significant — and arguably most demanding — period of the artist’s life,” the British Museum said. “Michelangelo: The Last Decades” considers the artist’s faith and relationships while aging in a “rapidly changing world.” The exhibition will include “Epifania,” his only full-scale preparatory drawing still in existence, plus letters and poems written by Michelangelo, including “The Punishment of Tityus.” This drawing, on loan from King Charles III, was part of Michelangelo’s correspondence with Italian nobleman Tommaso dei Cavalieri. Runs May 2 – July 28, 2024.

‘Unbound: Narrative Art of the Plains’ — National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C.

Members of the Lakota, Kiowa and Blackfeet tribes once used images painted on buffalo hides and muslin robes to describe battles, share family history and mark events like treaty signings. These artistic records are among the invaluable objects on display in “Unbound: Narrative Art of the Plains,” curated by artist Emil Her Many Horses (Oglala Lakota). Historical works from Bear’s Heart (Southern Cheyenne), Zotom (Kiowa) and Rain in the Face (Hunkpapa Lakota) will be showcased alongside more than 50 contemporary drawings and paintings commissioned by the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C. Opening Spring 2024.

‘The Kinsey African American Art & History Collection’ — Holocaust Museum Houston

Philanthropists Shirley and Bernard Kinsey have spent the last five decades amassing a vital collection of paintings, sculptures, manuscripts, letters, photographs and rare books depicting the Black experience in the United States. Their comprehensive Kinsey African American Art & History Collection, containing items from 1595 to the present, is a traveling exhibition now on display at the Holocaust Museum Houston. The Kinsey Collection “contains many parallels to the lessons of the Holocaust,” the museum said, and when paired with the Holocaust Gallery “helps us understand the dangers of hatred, prejudice and apathy to any society.” Runs through June 23, 2024.