The 20 most notable art exhibitions of September 2024

Agnes Varda. Photograph, film, recycle

CCCB. Barcelona. Until December 8th.

The Belgian director broke down the barriers that compartmentalised artistic creation and challenged the patriarchal norms that dominated cinema. She integrated fiction and documentary in a series of film and photographic projects that have made her one of the key names in 20th-century culture, opening the doors to many of the practices we see in the 21st century. This major retrospective at the CCCB, from the Cinémathèque Française, highlights her humanist approach, her committed feminism and her impact on generations of current filmmakers.

Land of friends. Carolina Caycedo

IVAM. Valencia. Until October 27.

‘Tierra de los amigos’ is the first European review of the Colombian artist’s work, which focuses on the construction of an environmental memory as a space for conservation and social justice. Her projects focus on the relationship between humanity and water, exploring the consequences of the exploitation of rivers, both culturally and climatically. Between art, pedagogy and activism, Caycedo stands out for her critical approach to extractivism and territorial struggles around the world.

Delcy Morelos. Deep

CAAC. Seville. Until October 14

Another Latin American voice, closely connected to environmental issues, proposes a sensorial immersion in the earth and its ancestral meanings by creating installations with 5,200 kilos of clay, spices and dozens of botanical varieties, evoking the connection between the earth and Andean cultures. Inspired by the goddess Pachamama, her works explore issues such as female identity, care, historical memory and the conflict between capitalism and nature.

Surrealism

Pompidou Centre. Paris. Until 13 January 2025.

On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Surrealist manifesto, the Pompidou offers a new reading of a movement that was not only European and masculine, highlighting its global impact and the growing inclusion of women in Surrealist art. This ambitious exhibition alternates iconoclastic perspectives with respect for the official narrative. Beyond the Surrealists’ well-known obsession with dreams and sex, the Parisian museum explores the connection with German Romanticism and the figure of the monster as a symbol of totalitarianism in interwar Europe, as well as rediscovering such fascinating artists as Ithell Colquhoun, a British surrealist and occultist in her spare time to whom the Tate will dedicate a retrospective in 2025.

Hockney and Piero: A Longer Look

National Gallery. London. Until 27 October.

As part of its bicentennial celebrations, the National Gallery in London is presenting an intimate and exciting exhibition, consisting of just three works. Two of them are paintings by David Hockney: a portrait of his parents and another by the curator Henry Geldzahler. Alo
ngside them, The Baptism of Christ by Piero della Francesca, one of the most important influences on Hockney’s work due to his use of colour and flat surfaces. The exhibition is based on the idea of ​​“less is more”. It invites the visitor to contemplate these three canvases, promoting a deeper and more relational observation between the art of the past and the present.

And also:

• Art and social transformations in Spain: painting the most turbulent of times. Last few weeks to discover the exhibition that the Museo del Prado is dedicating to art that reflected the profound transformation in Spain between 1885 and 1910, when historical painting gave way to painting with social themes.
• Rosario de Velasco, the forgotten painter of 27. Another exhibition about to close its doors. After a successful appeal on social media, the Thyssen is bringing back to Madrid the work of the painter, who was highly recognised before the Civil War, but whose memory faded away until she almost disappeared from the history books.
• Susan Hiller’s work, exhibited at the Helga de Alvear Museum in Cáceres, is situated at the beginning of the decolonization of the art institution. She is an anthropologist who focuses her study on culture.
• In Barcelona, The practice of artcurated by Manuel Borja-Villel, closes the celebrations of the Tàpies year at the painter’s foundation. The exhibition displays a synthesis of the plastic research that the artist developed during eight decades of intense production, from the age of forty until his death in 2012.

• Another project in the Catalan capital: the MACBA explores the feminist joy of Mari Chordà. An exhibition brings together paintings, sculptures, graphic works and literary productions by the artist who co-founded the first feminist bar and publishing house in Spain.
• Also at the Macba, a major exhibition covers the work of Jordi Colomer. It is not a traditional retrospective, but rather a chance encounter with his past and present works, which often oscillate between opposite poles such as reality and illusion, centre and periphery, or high and low culture.
• The PhotoEspaña festival, which is being held in Madrid until 29 September, brings together a host of proposals that summarise the best of photography from the past and present. This is a selection of 10 exhibitions from its 27th edition.
• In Santander, the last days to recover the exhibition dedicated to Shilpa Gupta, or an art that knocks out the banality of the sea. The exhibition by the Indian creator at the Centro Botín manages to make visitors who enter as distracted tourists leave with their souls battered.

• War games, epic migrations and giant carrots: the true lies of Europe’s best photography festival. The Arles Meetings, a benchmark event in the image sector, questions an irrational and violent world where reality mixes with fiction, with a special focus on military conflicts and the climate crisis.
• The big event of the year is the Venice Biennale, which can still be visited in the Italian city until the end of November. Its main exhibition formulates a host of nostalgic appropriations of non-Western art.
• From the folding rocking chair to the ear-shaped mirror: Philippe Starck’s anarchic design that you either love or hate. To mark the Olympic Games, the A1043 gallery in Paris is dedicating an exhibition to one of the most daring designers of all time.
• The Maeght Foundation celebrates 60 years of contemporary art with a tribute to the friendship between Bonnard and Matisse. The private institution, located on the French Riviera, has just inaugurated an extension of the exhibition space for its collection, one of the most important in Europe.

• Hannah Höch’s visual revolution with glue, paper and scissors. Vienna’s Belvedere Museum celebrates the pioneering photomontage artist, who was ignored by her peers in the most avant-garde Berlin, with a retrospective.
• In Vienna, artificial intelligence breaks into Klimt’s temple to denounce the erasure of black women. Cuban artist Susana Pilar exhibits a controversial catalogue of images created with AI in the Austrian capital to denounce the erasure of black women’s history.
• Narrating the glorya museographic account on display at the Bancolombia Art Gallery in downtown Bogotá, offers a look at history not only from the official perspective, but also from more forgotten aspects.