The reopening of the Hayward Gallery and a Tacita Dean trilogy

There’s much to look forward to this year. Starting in London, I’m excited to see the Hayward Gallery reopen later this month with an exhibition for German photographer Andreas Gursky (25 January–22 April) – and with natural light coming in through the newly-refurbished pyramid roof lights for the first time since the gallery opened 50 years ago.

Bahrain I (2005), Andreas Gursky. Courtesy Sprüth Magers; © Andreas Gursky/DACS, 2017.

Also in London, ‘Charles I: King and Collector’ at the Royal Academy of Arts should be an unmissable exhibition (27 January–15 April). It’s a big year for the RA, with its expansion to be unveiled later this year, as well as its participation in a trilogy of projects with Tacita Dean, in collaboration with the National Portrait Gallery and National Gallery. Each institution will take on a different genre as interpreted in Dean’s work: the RA will show landscapes (19 May–12 August); the NPG (fittingly) portraits; and the National Gallery will focus on still life (both 15 March–28 May). Also at the National Gallery, I look forward to ‘Murillo: The Self-Portraits’, which comes to the UK following its run at the Frick Collection in New York.

Prisoner Pair (film still; 2008). Courtesy the artist, Frith Street Gallery, London and Marian Goodman Gallery, New York/Paris

Elsewhere, I shall look forward to seeing the reopened Kettle’s Yard in Cambridge next month (from 10 February), another space that has been missed during recent refurbishment. At Tate Modern, ‘Picasso 1932 – Love, Fame, Tragedy’ promises to draw big crowds (8 March–9 September), as should Lubaina Himid’s exhibition at BALTIC in May (11 May–16 September), fresh from her much-deserved Turner Prize win. Other exhibitions I am curious about include the intriguing pairing of Egon Schiele and Francesca Woodman at Tate Liverpool the same month (24 May–23 September), Tomma Abts at the Serpentine in June (20 June–9 September) and, later this summer, the 12th edition of Europe’s nomadic biennial Manifesta in Palermo (16 June–4 November).

Nude, Green Leaves and Bust (Femme nue, feuilles et buste) (1932), Pablo Picasso. Private Collection © Succession Picasso/DACS London, 2017

Nicholas Cullinan is the director of the National Portrait Gallery, London.

Keep up with Apollo’s 12 Days selection of art highlights here.