Joseph Beuys: 40 years of drawing and SENSE: Beuys / Gormley at Thaddeus Ropac

On view through 22 March 2023 at Ely House, this exhibition, the first major one dedicated to Beuys in London in 20 years, presents almost 100 works on paper by the German artist. The works exhibited span four decades and show how drawing was, for Beuys, not a preparatory stage for other projects, but a way of thinking, a primary technique that encloses a complete creative process.

Installation shot from Joseph Beuys: 40 years of drawing, Thaddaeus Ropac, London.

Presented along with Joseph Beuys: 40 years of drawing, SENSE: Beuys / Gormley explores the strong relationship between the work of the two artists. Curated by Gormley himself, the exhibition presents drawings by Beuys created between the 1950s and the 1970s and by the British artist, executed between 1984 and 2021. Theis shared interest in human relations with the world surrounding them is evidently revealed through the exhibited works.

Installation shot of SENSE: Beuys / Gormley at Thaddaeus Ropac, London

These exhibitions run until 20 March 2023 at Thaddeus Ropac, Ely House, 37 Dover St, W1S 4NJ.

Sarah Lucas at Tate Britain

From September 2023 to January 2014, Tate Britain will present a sculpture, installation, and photography exhibition of the British artist Sarah Lucas.

Lucas, known for her use of everyday materials and objects to create crude sculptures, such as her humanoid pantyhose rough ‘rag dolls’, will be presented in a sharp way as an artist-researcher of what human life and all the aspects surrounding it mean. As she has done for the past 40 years, her unforeseen use of materials and images radically revolutionises concepts like femininity, gender, sensuality, and sexuality.

Sarah Lucas, Pauline Bunny, 1997. One of the works on view at Tate Britain. © Sarah Lucas

Sarah Lucas runs from 28 September 2023, through 14 January 2024, at Tate Britain, Millbank, London SW1P 4RG.

Peter Doig at The Courtauld Gallery

On view at The Courtauld from February to May 2023, this exhibition includes new and recent works by the Scottish painter. From his ski paintings to landscapes, new views of London, and works inspired by the Impressionists housed within The Courtauld’s collection, the show intends to give a fresh vision to one of the most important living painters.

Doig’s paintings are presented here in an insightful retrospective that shows many aspects of his oeuvre, the visitor’s preconceptions of the artist.

Peter Doig, Alpinist (detail), 2022. One of the works on view at The Courtauld. © Peter Doig

The Morgan Stanley Exhibition: Peter Doig runs through 29 May 2023 at The Courtauld Gallery, Somerset House, Strand, London WC2R 0RN.

Alice Neel at the Barbican

The Barbican is currently playing host to Alice Neel’s largest exhibition to date in the UK . Seventy paintings, photographs, and films create a complete portrayal of the figurative artist, her life, work, and critical fortune. Hot Off The Griddle, organised in collaboration with the Centre Georges Pompidou of Paris, will remain open until May 2023.

Neel’s deep and distinctive portraits portray labour leaders, Black and Puerto Rican children, pregnant women, Greenwich Village eccentrics, civil rights activists, and queer performers. The exhibition absorbs the viewer into the psychological universe of Neel’s canvases, who baptised herself as ‘collector of souls’.

Alice Neel, Rita and Hubert (detail), 1954. © The Estate of Alice Neel

Alice Neel: Hot Off The Gridle is on view from 16 February to 21 May 2023 at the Barbican Centre, Silk St, London EC2Y 8DS.

Alighiero Boetti at Robilant+Voena

On view until April 2023 at Robilant+Voena, Alighiero Boetti Mappe is exhibiting six of Boetti’s embroidered maps, all reunited from private collections. Mappe was complied over the course of twenty years as commissions from Afghan embroiders living in refugee camps. These incredible woven works simultaneously demonstrate the advanced quality of craftsmanship of the embroiders and document the changes of borders, flags, and independent states between 1978 and 1994.

 Individually, these maps offer a frozen snapshot of the world at given point in time; together, they chart a geo-political history of the late twentieth century and raise questions about authorship, agency, and our understanding of the world.

Installation view of Alighiero Boetti Mappe at Robilant+Voena, London © Robilant+Voena

Alighiero Boetti Mappe is on view through 7 April 2023 at Robilant+Voena, 38 Dover Street, London.