Our top picks of exhibitions together with cultural spaces and places, both online and in the real world.


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Viewing Michelangelo, Leonardo, Raphael

Three titans of the Italian Renaissance takeover the Royal Academy of Arts from this week, in a scintillating exploration of the historic ongoing rivalry between Michelangelo and Leonardo, the influence of both artists on the younger prodigy, Raphael. The exhibition brings together exceptional drawings – and plenty of salacious art history that shows another side to these major figures.

The feud between the Renaissance revolutionaries, legend has it, began when both were commissioned to create battle scenes for the Council Hall at the Palazzo Vecchio, Florence. Da Vinci’s encaustic technique was botched and caused paint to seep into Michaelangelo’s fresco; the latter responded by destroying his own work. The commission was never completed – but the exhibition includes the sketches for the murals by both artists illustrating what might have been, had the two been able to reconcile their artistic and personal differences.

The exhibition begins in Florence, in January of 1504, the moment when Michelangelo and Leonardo met, both having returned to live in their home city. Then both revered artists with powerful patrons behind them, the occasion of their meeting was to consult on where Michelangelo’s recently completed commission, the David sculpture should be placed – Da Vinci is reported to have said it would be best to cover the statue up. In September of that year, the colossal 17ft marble masterpiece would be unveiled in the public square in front of the Palazzo della Signora. Michelangelo later retorted that he felt nothing on viewing Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa.

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Dates
09 November 2024 — 16 February 2025

Viewing Paris Photo

Hop on the Eurostar this week for a visit to the world’s largest commercial art fair for photography, Paris Photo, which returns to the Grand Palais following the restoration of the iconic Parisian landmark. Running from today to Sunday, Paris Photo offers visitors the chance to view and buy the very best of the medium from its earliest era in the 19th century up to today, presented through more than 200 galleries, as well as publishers. As the fair’s director, Florence Bourgeois, told The Wick “Today, photography is more multifaceted than ever and at the core of contemporary art, and this is the vision I am committed to developing with my teams.”

Among the highlights is the Paris Photo’s Elles x Paris Photo pathway through the fair highlighting the work of women photographers – curated this year by Raphaëlle Stopin, director of the Centre Photographique Rouen Normandie. In addition for the first time this year, with the support of Kering, four galleries present group and solo exhibitions by women photographers.

Stopin says her selection was informed by both “the linked silences of history” and “the plurality of paths taken by women artists, who have used photography to challenge norms and explore their creation beyond the stereotypes of the intimate.”

Across France and beyond, cultural institutions are honouring the 100th anniversary of Surrealism, and to mark the event at Paris Photo, the fair has invited filmmaker and multidisciplinary artist Jim Jarmusch to curate a personal selection of artworks on show – a brooding, mostly black and white mix ranging from August Sander to Daido Moriyama to Peter Hujar. The artist will also participate in a conversation open to the public on Friday 8th November, followed by a book signing.

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Dates
07 November 2024 — 10 November 2024

Viewing The World of Tim Burton, The Design Museum

Does anything scream Halloween more than Tim Burton? To the American artist and filmmaker growing up Frankenstein, King Kong and Dracula were always “the good guys”. The master of the misfit and the uncanny in contemporary visual culture is now the subject of a blockbuster exhibition at the Design Museum, exploring the director’s collaborations with designers over the last four decades.

The exhibition charts the evolution of the unearthly and comically grotesque aesthetics of Burton’s films and art through his personal archives from childhood to the present, in drawings, paintings, photographs, sketchbook and sculptural installations as well as set and costume designs. Through this, Burton’s prediliction for the strange and uncanny becomes clearer, forging an unprecendented view of his unique vision.

The exhibition has already proved wildly popular – tickets are sold out until mid-November – London is the final destination in the exhibition’s ten-year world tour, and will be the only chance to catch it in the UK, so don’t miss it.


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Dates
25 October 2024 — 21 April 2025
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