Bernard Vere, Program Director, MA in Historic Art and Design & Elisabeth Bogdan, Faculty, MA in Historic Art and Design, London

Nigerian Modernism
Tate Modern, London
October 8, 2025–May 10, 2026

Tate Modern traces Nigerian writers’ and artists’ contribution to Britain’s visual and intellectual life over the past 100 years. This exhibition highlights figures such as Ben Enwonwu, Uzo Egonu, Demas Nwoko, Bruce Onobrakpeya and Lady Kwali.

Image credit: Obiora Udechukwu, Our Journey 1993 © Obiora Udechukwu. Hood Museum of Art

Lee Miller
Tate Britain, London
Until February 15, 2026

The diverse life and career of Lee Miller, the 20th-century photographer, correspondent and Surrealist participant, is showcased in this large retrospective exhibition. A wide range of her work of around 250 vintage and modern prints, some never previously displayed, are curated alongside unseen archival material and ephemera.

Image credit: Lee Miller, Portrait of Space, Al Bulwayeb near Siwa 1937. Lee Miller Archives.© Lee Miller Archives, England 2025. All rights reserved. leemiller.co.uk.

Radical Harmony: Helene Kröller-Müller’s Neo-Impressionists
The National Gallery, London
Until February 8, 2026

This is the National Gallery’s first-ever exhibition dedicated to Neo-Impressionism, based largely on the collection of the German art collector, Helene Kröller-Müller. Paintings housed in the Kröller-Müller Museum in the Netherlands are exhibited alongside Neo-Impressionist works from around the world, and from the NG’s own collection. A serious and spiritual collector, Kröller-Müller had an early 20th century passion for the work of Georges Seurat, Paul Signac, Jan Toorop, Théo Van Rysselberghe, and Vincent Van Gogh.

Barbara Lasic, Faculty, MA in Historic Art and Design, London

Marie-Antoinette Style
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
September 20, 2025–March 22, 2026

The exhibition will explore the many styles and the enduring legacy of Marie-Antoinette, the ill-fated queen who was undoubtedly one of history’s most fashionable rulers. The last major exhibition on Marie-Antoinette took place in 2008 so it is with much anticipation that we await the V&A show! The object list is tantalising and includes Marie-Antoinette’s jewellery, as well as items which have never left France before, like her dinner service from the Petit Trianon, or her accessories and items from her toilette case. Until then, we can delve into Antonia Fraser’s masterful biography Marie-Antoinette, the Journey (2001), or Chantal Thomas’ evocative and tense account of the Queen’s last days at Versailles, Farewell my Queen (2012).

Image credit: Portrait de Marie-Antoinette à la rose, Élisabeth-Louise Vigée Le Brun © Château de Versailles, Dist. Grand Palais RMN / Christophe Fouin. Courtesy of V&A Press.

Marcus Verhagen, Senior Lecturer, MA Contemporary Art, London

Cosima von Bonin: Upstairs Downstairs
Raven Row, London
October 9–December 14, 2025

Cosima von Bonin has shown in major museums and biennials across Europe and beyond. Oddly, though, her current show at Raven Row is the first to be put on in London. Sharply curated, as always at Raven Row, it spans a 35-year period, offering visitors a chance to get better acquainted with her funny, playful, quirkily erotic practice from her beginnings to the present day.

Morgan Falconer, Faculty, MA Contemporary Art, New York

Ruth Asawa: A Retrospective
Museum of Modern Art, New York
October 19, 2025–February 7, 2026

The galleries have recently seen a lot of interest in craft-based practices, art that puts aside revered forms like painting and sculpture and draws influence instead from modes like textiles or ceramics. Ruth Asawa’s abstract wire sculptures have been at the center of that shift, and this fall sees the first major retrospective of her work arrive in New York. The American sculptor was undoubtedly shaped by the innovative teaching she experienced at Black Mountain College in North Carolina in the late 1940s, but her career continued for decades afterward, always swimming against the tide of the dominant modes in the galleries.

Image credit: Ruth Asawa at Ruth Asawa: A Retrospective View, San Francisco Museum of Art, 1973. Photograph by Laurence Cuneo. © 2025 Ruth Asawa Lanier, Inc., Courtesy David Zwirner.