Exhibition of the Year

Entangled Pasts, 1768–now: Art, Colonialism and Change
Royal Academy of Arts, London
3 February–28 April

The RA took a long look at itself in this open-ended, open-minded exhibition, which moved from the time of the institution’s founding to the present. ‘Entangled Pasts’ offered a thought-provoking account of 18th-century painting in particular, offering a chance to see paintings by, for example, Agostino Brunias, an Italian who worked in the West Indies, and juxtaposing works by the likes of Turner with contemporary artists such as Frank Bowling.

Photo: Jonty Wilde; courtesy the artist and Perrotin; © the artist

Ethiopia at the Crossroads
Walters Art Museum, Baltimore
3 December 2023–3 March

The first major exhibition of Ethiopian art in the United States presented 1,750 years of Ethiopian history in 220 objects drawn from the Walters’ own collection of religious art from the country and supplemented by international loans. Icons, manuscripts and coins sat alongside contemporary art, making the point that this multi-ethnic society has long been influenced by other cultures and has influenced them in turn. The show also travelled to the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem and the Toledo Museum of Art.

Courtesy Walters Art Museum

Guillaume Lethière
Clark Art Institute, Williamstown
15 June–14 October

This is the first major survey of this French neoclassical painter, born in Guadeloupe to a plantation owner and an enslaved woman, and one of the most successful artists of his time. A five-year research project culminated in an exhibition of some 100 paintings, prints and drawings; the substantial catalogue sheds new light on the careers of Caribbean artists in France. The exhibition is now at the Louvre.

Courtesy Dallas Museum of Art

The Harlem Renaissance and Transatlantic Modernism
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
25 February–28 July

There has not been a major New York show devoted to the Harlem Renaissance since the Studio Museum’s in 1987 – the Met’s last show about Harlem was in 1969, and much savaged for not presenting any art. This time, the Met put work by Black artists between the 1920s and ’40s at the heart of modernism, arguing that they belong alongside Georgia O’Keeffe and Edward Hopper.

Courtesy Howard University

Marisol: A Retrospective
Buffalo AKG Art Museum
Opened 12 July

At the height of her 1960s fame, the Venezuelan-American artist was praised for witty wooden sculptures, informed by pre-Columbian art as much as by Pop. Her later work became spikier and more various – and was panned by critics. The first major retrospective since Marisol’s death in 2016 presents many of her best-known works, including The Party (1965–66), plus comparatively neglected drawings, sculptural portraits and dance costumes and sets. The exhibition also travelled to the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and the Toledo Museum of Art and will be at the Dallas Museum of Art in 2025.

Courtesy Abrams Family Collection; © Estate of Marisol/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Michelangelo: the last decades
British Museum, London
2 May–28 July

This survey of Michelangelo’s final three decades presented drawings, largely from the BM itself and the Royal Collection, with letters and finished and unfinished poems, plus prints and paintings influenced by his designs. The result was an exhibition presenting the master as a working artist as well as genius – and with so many of the artist’s own words on display, it was more than usually immediate.

Photo: © The Trustees of the British Museum

The Shortlists | Artist of the Year | Museum Opening of the Year | Digital Innovation of the Year | Book of the Year | Acquisition of the Year