Eight art events to get to in April

Queer British Art 1861–1967
Tate Britain, London (5 April–1 October)

Marking the 50th anniversary of the decriminalisation of male homosexuality in England, Tate’s first exhibition related to gay, lesbian, bisexual and trans identities features paintings, drawings, photographs and films from artists such as David Hockney, Simeon Solomon and Angus McBean.

Quentin Crisp (1941), Angus McBean. © Estate of Angus McBean / National Portrait Gallery, London

Age of Empires: Chinese Art of the Qin and Han Dynasties
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (3 April–16 July)

This show explores the role the Qin and Han dynasties played in shaping China’s cultural and political identity between 221 BC and 220 AD. More than 160 ancient works are on display, including ceramics, textiles, sculpture, and painting.

Modern replicas of Chariot models from the Qin dynasty (221–206 BC). Photo: Courtesy The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Treasures from the Wreck of the Unbelievable
Palazzo Grassi and Punta della Dogana, Venice (9 April–3 December)

Ten years in the making, Damien Hirst’s new project is unveiled in Venice – his first solo exhibition in Italy since a 2004 retrospective in Naples. It runs across these two grand venues, the first time they have come together to display a single artist.

Photographed by Christoph Gerigk © Damien Hirst and Science Ltd.

Botticelli and the Search for the Divine
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (15 April–9 July)

This is the largest exhibition of paintings by Botticelli in the US to date. It reveals the dramatic shift in the artist’s style, from his sweet, classically themed earlier works to the severe religious paintings produced late in his career under the influence of Savonarola.

Saint Augustine in his Study (c. 1480), Sandro Botticelli. Church of All Saints (Ognissanti)

Louise Lawler: WHY PICTURES NOW
Museum of Modern Art, New York (30 April–30 July)

The US artist’s first New York museum survey features four decades’ output, and includes mural-scale images and photography. Lawler is noted for the re-presentation or restaging of her own work, her pieces stretched or ‘adjusted to fit’ in the exhibition space.

Big (adjusted to ft) (2002/2003/2006), Louise Lawler. © 2016 Louise Lawler

Socle du Monde Biennale 2017
Herning, Denmark (21 April–27 August)

Now in its seventh edition, this biennale pays tribute to Piero Manzoni, whose pioneering sculpture Socle du Monde (Base of the World) from 1961 lends its name to the event. Boundary-breaking work by some 60 artists in the spirit of the Italian provocateur is on display.

Photograph of the Aerocene Explorer taken in 2016. © Photography by Studio Tomás Saraceno

Giacomo Balla: Designing the Future
Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art, London (5 April–25 June)

This retrospective of the pioneering artist spans more than 60 years and features 116 works drawn from the Biagiotti Cigna collection. Many of the pieces – which include Futurist furniture and clothing – have rarely been seen outside Italy.

Expansion+Light (1930), Giacomo Balla. Courtesy The Biagiotti Cigna Collection

Walker Evans
Centre Pompidou, Paris (26 April–14 August)

This will be the first major museum retrospective of the American photographer’s work in France. Covering his entire career from the late 1920s to the 1970s, the exhibition includes more than 300 vintage prints alongside objects and graphic ephemera that Evans collected during his lifetime.

Negroes’ Church, South Carolina (1936), Walker Evans. © Walker Evans Archive, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Photo: © Musée des Beaux-Arts du Canada, Ottawa