Culture CAPITAL

After a year of stop-start openings, London's museums are welcoming visitors back in 2021 with an array of blockbuster exhibitions

- NATASHA FOGES & JENNY ROWE

For months London’s museums stood empty, but all that changed in May with the long-awaited reopening of museums, galleries and other venues. There are some exciting shows planned to welcome you back, which we’ve outlined on these pages (plans can change so please check dates and other details with the museums directly).

The Royal Academy of Arts is one of the oldest permanent collections of art in the UK, housed in magnificent Burlington House. The Royal Academy reopens with a hopeful reflection on the wonders of the natural world and the beauty of spring. David Hockney spent 2020 at home in Normandy, chronicling the unfolding of spring in a flurry of works ‘painted’ on his iPad. The 116 large-scale works that make up this showstopping exhibition are both a breath of fresh air after a difficult year and a reminder of Hockney’s virtuoso talent (until 26 Sept; www.royalacademy.org.uk).

Rewind a few centuries with a visit to Tate Britain’s big exhibition, Turner’s Modern World. The artist may be best known for his portrayal of nature’s unpredictable, otherworldly power, but he also had his feet planted firmly on earth, in a world that was changing at a frightening rate. The exhibition will explore Turner’s fascination with politics, conflicts, and new technology, as he put local elections, battlefields, steamboats, and railways under the spotlight (until 12 Sept; tate.org.uk).