Spring (and Summer) Awakening: Global Arts Preview

Mario Mercado details your summer 2022 arts preview: what's on at the world’s leading institutions—including the latest exhibitions and the newest museums—plus the top tickets.

This article originally appeared in the Spring/Summer 2022 issue of Indagare magazine, one of the benefits included in an Indagare membership. Learn more about becoming a member, or contact your Trip Designer to begin planning your next cultural getaway.

New Architecture

Photo by Iwan Baan, courtesy National Museum of Norway

Oslo: National Museum

When Norway’s new National Museum is inaugurated in Oslo on June 11, it will be the largest museum in the Nordic region, with two floors and 80 galleries for paintings, sculpture, prints and drawings, as well as decorative arts and design. The collection ranges from Chinese porcelain and Dutch and Flemish landscape paintings to a gallery dedicated to Munch’s The Scream. The Light Hall, a luminous structure clad in marble and glass, provides a showcase for contemporary art, and from its rooftop terrace, a view of Oslo’s city center.

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Photo by M. Denancé, courtesy Musée de Cluny

Paris: Musée de Cluny

This spring, after a multiyear renovation to better display one of the world’s preeminent collections of medieval art, the Musée de Cluny unveils a restoration that includes its 15th-century chapel, the remains of ancient Gallo-Roman baths and a new building that accommodates temporary exhibitions, a bookstore and gift shop. Elevators and ramps bring 21st-century accessibility to all visitors in their quest of the celebrated Lady and the Unicorn tapestries. Opens May 12

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Courtesy Hong Kong Palace Museum

Hong Kong Palace Museum

The latest addition to the West Kowloon Cultural District, the Hong Kong Palace Museum has nine galleries spread across 84,000 square feet of galleries. Among the collections, you’ll find 900 artifacts from the Palace Museum in Beijing, including painting, calligraphy and treasured ceramics from the Ming and Qing dynasties. Opens July 2022

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Hungarian State Opera. Photo by Valter Berecz, courtesy Hungarian State Opera

Budapest: Hungarian State Opera

After a five-year renovation, the Hungarian State Opera, an opulent Neo-Renaissance building, reopened on March 12. Majestic staircases, parlors and a café have been polished to newfound splendor, and its theater has been thoroughly refurbished, including up-to-date stage technology. New productions of masterworks include Wagner’s Götterdammerung and Mayerling, a ballet with choreography by Kenneth MacMillan.

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Photo by Alan McAteer, courtesy The Burrell Collection

Glasgow: Burrell Collection

In March, the Burrell Collection opened an expansion with one-third more exhibition space, a gallery for temporary exhibitions and a new outdoor café that takes advantage of its Pollok Country Park setting. Among its 9,000 works, the museum houses a prized panel of stained glass from Canterbury Cathedral, paintings by Degas, Cézanne and Manet, and a comprehensive collection of Chinese art.

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Photo by Thies Raetzke, courtesy Elbphilharmonie

Spotlight: Elbphilharmonie 5th year anniversary

It is hard to believe that the Elbphilharmonie, designed by Herzog & de Meuron, opened only five years ago. Located alongside the Elbe River, the spectacular 18-story glass structure rests on a former cocoa warehouse and houses an acclaimed concert hall. Since its inauguration, the Elbphilharmonie has presented the Hamburg International Music Festival, which continues to grow in scope and dimension. This spring a packed schedule of 64 concerts and programs range from the Orchestre de Paris to the hip chamber music group Brooklyn Rider. A special draw for visitors, the landmark’s public terrace, with views of 18th-century city spires and harbor redevelopment, has restaurants, bars, as well as entrances to the concert hall. It amplifies the city’s remarkable cultural life which encompasses Europe’s first public opera house (1678) and the clubs of the St. Pauli district where the Beatles advanced their global career. Through June 1

New Exhibitions

Photo by Dario Calmese, courtesy The Metropolitan Museum of Art

New York City: American Fashion at the Met

The Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art sets “In America: An Anthology” within period rooms of the American Wing, from early-19th-century salons to a mid-century living room. The survey of men and women’s clothing from the 18th century to the present day has added allure: cinematic vignettes by eight filmmakers, including Sofia Coppola, Tom Ford, and Martin Scorsese, that explore American style and identity. The second half of a two-part exhibition, it complements “A Lexicon of Fashion,” which looks at 20th century and contemporary fashions against the background of an evolving society. Both shows run concurrently. Through September 5

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Courtesy The National Gallery, London

London: Raphael at the National Gallery

The exhibition “Raphael” at the National Gallery, organized for the 500th anniversary of the artist’s birth (2020) and delayed because of Covid restrictions, was worth the wait. This expansive show—90 works including 30 paintings, 52 drawings and works on paper, as well as letters, coins, and tapestries—encompasses the remarkable achievement of the Italian master of the Late Renaissance, which is even more extraordinary given his short life of 37 years. Through July 31

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Left: Vase from Mary Cassatt and André Metthey. Photo courtesy Paris Musées / Petit Palais, Musée des Beaux Arts de la Ville de Paris; Gustave Caillebotte's "Pêche à la ligne. Photo courtesy Musée d'Orsay / Patrice Schmidt

Paris: Impressionism as Décor

The Musée de l’Orangerie houses Monet’s spectacular cycle of water lily paintings, which the artist described as his “great decorations,” in large, oval galleries. The special exhibition “The Impressionist Décor, Sources of the Water Lilies” reveals the little-discussed secret behind Monet's quote: in Impressionism's earliest days, those paintings of landscapes, flowers and scenes of contemporary life were all first conceived as decoration. Eighty paintings, fans and ceramics, including works by Cassatt, Manet and Renoir and pieces drawn from collections around the world, outline this unique form of artistic experimentation. Through July 11

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Paul Cezanne. Bathers (Les Grandes Baigneuses). The National Gallery, London. Courtesy Art Institute of Chicago

Chicago: Cézanne at Art Institute of Chicago

The Art Institute of Chicago’s “Cézanne” is the first major retrospective devoted to the French artist in the United States in 25 years. It brings together more than 90 oil paintings, 40 watercolors, drawings and two sketchbooks from public and private collections in North and South America, Europe and Asia. The exhibition explores Cézanne’s subjects—landscapes, still life, portraits and bathers—across the range of his career, giving dimension to the admiration he engendered in artists from Monet to Picasso. May 15–September 5

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From left: Courtesy Zeitz Mocaa; "Untitled," Courtesy Tracey Rose and Dan Gunn

Cape Town: Tracey Rose at Zeitz MoCAA

At Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa, “Shooting Down Babylon” represents the largest retrospective yet of the iconoclastic South African artist Tracey Rose. The wide-ranging show encompasses video, film, photography, painting and print, as well as performance during the span of 1990 to 2022. It explores postcolonial subjects including repatriation, reparation and reckoning. Through August 28

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Spotlight: The Biennials Return

This year, the two most significant showcases for contemporary art coincide: the Venice Biennale (through November 27) and the Whitney Biennial (through September 5) in New York City. Cecilia Alemani is the first Italian woman named as curator of the Biennale, entitled “The Milk of Dreams.” More than 200 artists have been invited to present work. First-time national participants include the Republic of Cameroon, Namibia, Nepal, the Sultanate of Oman, and Uganda. The Whitney’s “Quiet as It’s Kept” offers a survey of contemporary art and ideas in America; it features 63 artists and collectives and a range of media, including video and film.

Los Angeles: Spanish America at LACMA

LACMA’s sweeping “Archive of the World: Art and Imagination in Spanish America, 1500–1800” pulls from the museum’s collections to consider the relationships among Indigenous, European, African and Asian artistic traditions and their influence on the cultivation of art in Spanish America for three centuries. Approximately 90 works describe the range of objects, both imported and locally made, intended for domestic use and church ceremony. June 12–October 30

From left: Jan Davidsz de Heem, Vase of Flowers; Maria Sibylla Merian, Metamorphosis of the Oak Eggar on a Sprig of Gooseberry Blossom. Both courtesy Mauritshuis

The Hague: Still Life at the Mauritshuis

The show “In Full Bloom” is a visual feast of Dutch flower still life paintings from the period 1600 to 1725, inaugurating the Mauritshuis museum’s 200th anniversary this year. Masterworks by Rembrandt, Rubens and Frans Hals assume pride of place, alongside Carel Fabritius’s The Goldfinch and Girl with a Pearl Earring by Vermeer. Through June 6

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Photo by Sean Fennesy, courtesy National Gallery of Victoria

Melbourne: LGBT Representation at National Gallery of Vancouver

With 400 artworks drawn from the collection of the National Gallery of Victoria, “Queer” explores representations of the diverse LGBTQ community. This unprecedented show, the first in Australia, considers its multifaceted subject in terms of sexuality and sensibility; as a political movement; and throughout history and across cultures, from Greek antiquity to contemporary video that documents the intersection of race and transgender people. Through August 21

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Dallas: Cartier’s Islamic Inspirations at Dallas Museum of Art

Islamic art and design provided a source of inspiration for objects created by Louis Cartier and the designers of the French jewelry company from the early 20th century to today. The dazzling “Cartier and Islamic Art: In Search of Modernity” at Dallas Museum of Art traces that stimulus with 400 pieces of jewelry, luxury objects, and rare archival documents. Organized with the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, in association with the Louvre and the Keir Collection of Islamic Art on loan to the Dallas Museum of Art, the show gets its sole North American presentation in Texas. May 14–September 18

Courtesy Exposition Molière / Chateau de Versailles

Spotlight: Molière Turns 400

This year marks the 400th anniversary of the birth of the great French playwright Molière, an erstwhile protégé of Louis XIV. It will be celebrated in grand style this spring and summer at Versailles, with concerts and spectacular stage productions, including the comédie-ballets George Dandin and Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme, both with music by the master of the French baroque, Jean-Baptiste Lully. Performances take place at the Opéra Royal, the magnificent theater commissioned by the Sun King. Through September 25

New Theater

Photo by David Jensen / Feast Creative courtesy Regents Open Air Theatre

London

In Straight Line Crazy, Ralph Fiennes stars in David Hare’s new play about Robert Moses, the New York City power broker, who for 40 years shaped his vision of a modern metropolis by creating parks, new bridges, and miles of highways. Through June 18 ● Indian playwright Anapuma Chandrasekhar traces the riveting story of Nathuram Godse, from devoted follower of Mahatma Gandhi to murderer of the political and spiritual leader in The Father and the Assassin. Through June 18 ● Amy Adams takes a star turn in The Glass Menagerie, Tennessee Williams’s searing autobiographical classic. May 23–August 27 ● A splatter of puppeteered puppies will gambol about Regents Park Open Air Theatre in 101 Dalmatians, a new musical adaptation of the tale with puppetry from War Horse alum Toby Olié. July 12–August 18 ● Game of Thrones alums Emilia Clarke and Indira Varna reunite in an anticipated adaptation of the Chekhov classic The Seagull by Anya Reiss. June 29–September 10

New York

James McAvoy assumes the title role in an audacious reboot of Cyrano de Bergerac. The Olivier Award–winning production arrives for an extended run this spring at Brooklyn Academy of Music. Through May 22 ● Daniel Craig stars in the Shakespeare tragedy Macbeth, with Oscar-nominated actress Ruth Negga in her Broadway debut as Lady Macbeth and Hadestown’s Amber Gray as Banquo. Through July 10 ● Lincoln Center Theater marks the 125th anniversary of Thornton Wilder’s birth with a new staging of the allegorical Pulitzer Prize-winning masterpiece, The Skin of Our Teeth (closed May 29) and the world premiere Epiphany, a new play by Brian Watkins. Through July 24

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Summer Festivals & Performance Series

Courtesy Rady Shell at Jacob’s Park

San Diego

With views of downtown San Diego and a spectacular bayside setting, the new Rady Shell at Jacob’s Park has a full summer season of orchestra and pop concerts. Music director Rafael Payare leads the San Diego Symphony in works by Ravel and Debussy (May 21–22) and Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony (May 27–28). Pop artists include Olivia Rodrigo (May 18), Ben Platt (September 9) and a two-man act by comedians Steven Martin and Martin Short (June 19).

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