From the October 2026 issue of Apollo.
Salman Toor: Someone Like You
Courtauld Gallery, London
2 October–10 January 2027
Figures from art history are supplanted by those from modern-day New York in Toor’s paintings – 19 of which make
up the artist’s first solo museum exhibition in Europe. Painted with Toor’s signature verdigris wash, The Bar on East 13th (2019; pictured) mirrors the composition of the Courtauld’s own Bar at the Folies-Bergère (1882) by Édouard Manet.
Mary Cassatt: Being Independent
Musée d’Orsay, Paris
6 October–31 January 2027
This American expat carved out her own path in France, establishing a studio, employing paid sitters, purchasing land and participating in the male-dominated Impressionist exhibitions of her day. Marking the centenary of Cassatt’s death, this exhibition at the Musée d’Orsay features 80 works, including paintings, prints and pastels. Among the many highlights are The Tea (c. 1880; pictured) and the contentious portrait Little Girl in a Blue Armchair (1878).
Pontormo
Scuderie del Quirinale, Rome
9 October–7 February 2027
The Florentine painter was a leading exponent of early Mannerism, incorporating lurid colours and exaggerated perspectives in paintings that constrast with the soft naturalism of the High Renaissance. The first monographic exhibition dedicated to Pontormo comprises loans from around the world, from the Uffizi in Florence to the Getty Museum in Los Angeles, whose Portrait of a Halberdier (Francesco Guardi?) (1529–30; pictured) was painted during Pontormo’s time as a favoured painter of the Medici.
Willem de Kooning at work
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
9 October–17 January 2027
Stowing away on a freight ship crossing the Atlantic, in 1926 the 22-year-old Willem de Kooning left the Netherlands for New York. This exhibition, travelling from the Art Institute of Chicago, brings him back to his home country. Among the 120 works on display are drawings of female figures and sprawling landscapes, as well as some of the artist’s most celebrated paintings, including Excavation (1950) and Woman I (1950–52).
Gustave Fayet: Collector – Designer
Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris
9 October–8 March 2027
Gustave Fayet was a prolific painter but is perhaps better known for his vast collection of artworks by his peers and by other artists he admired, including Cézanne, Degas, Gauguin, Matisse, Morisot and Van Gogh (pictured). This show, filling the entirety of the foundation’s exhibition space, pairs more than 250 works from Fayet’s collection with 375 pieces by the man himself, most of which have never been on public display.
Roy Lichtenstein: Like New
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
11 October–10 May 2027
By painstakingly copying Ben-Day dots, Lichtenstein mimicked the quality of mass-produced printed images, combining the ‘low’ subject matter of comics and advertisements with fine art techniques. This show of 130 works explores the artist’s fascination with reproduction and also includes sculptures, films and recreated murals.
Siena: The Art of Bronze, 1450–1500
Frick Collection, New York
15 October–18 January 2027
Following the Met’s recent exhibition of Sienese painting made between 1300 and 1350, this show looks at bronze artworks produced in the region in the following century, from statues and reliefs to candelabra.
From the October 2026 issue of Apollo.
