The most exciting exhibitions around the world in 2022

Because of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, please check exhibitions are going ahead before you travel.

Yves Saint Laurent aux Musées

Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris, Centre Pompidou, Musée d’Orsay, Musée National Picasso Paris, Musée Yves Saint Laurent Paris, Musée du Louvre, 29 January-15 May (closes 15 April at Musée Picasso)

Sixty years ago, the first fashion show under the Yves Saint Laurent (YSL) name hit the runway. To celebrate this milestone, six Parisian museums where the French designer would seek inspiration, have collaborated on a city-spanning exhibition. Each will pair YSL creations with works by artists including Mondrian, Picasso, Matisse, Bonnard and Dufy. For example, at the Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris, next to Dufy’s La Fée Electricité (the electricity fairy, 1937) will stand three spectacular silk dresses, while the Musée d’Orsay will focus on his fascination with Marcel Proust, which probably inspired Saint Laurent’s Le Smoking, the first tuxedo for women. Meanwhile, the Musée National Picasso will explain how influential the Spanish master was on Saint Laurent, from the fashion designer’s tribute to Picasso’s Ballets Russes sets and costumes (1976) to his 1988 Cubist collection. Sarah Belmont

The World of Stonehenge

British Museum, London, 17 February-17 July

Constructed more than four millennia ago, Stonehenge is one of the most famous yet mysterious monuments in the world. Who were the people who built it and inhabited prehistoric Britain? The World of Stonehenge will show they were more developed than is widely thought, with established trade links to mainland Europe. One of the undoubted highlights of the show will be the 3,600-year-old Nebra Sky Disc, the oldest existing depiction of the cosmos, which was discovered in present-day Germany and will be exhibited in the UK for the first time. José da Silva

Faith Ringgold: American People

New Museum, New York, 17 February-5 June

This is the first retrospective of the pioneering American artist Faith Ringgold in her hometown of New York. The exhibition will span six decades of the 91-year-old artist’s prolific career, from works created in response to the civil rights era, to autobiographical pieces that tell stories of the Harlem Renaissance. Gabriella Angeleti

Donatello: the Renaissance

Palazzo Strozzi and Museo del Bargello, Florence, 19 March-31 July; Gemäldegalerie, Berlin, 2 September-8 January 2023

In his own time, the 15th-century Florentine sculptor Donatello was regarded as “the master of masters”. Despite this, there has been no major exhibition devoted to the sculptor’s work for nearly 40 years. That is set to change in March when a sweeping survey of Donatello’s work opens in Florence at Palazzo Strozzi and at the nearby Museo Nazionale del Bargello, which houses the most important collection of works by the sculptor, including David (around 1440). Smaller incarnations of the show will be seen at the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin in September and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London next year. Cristina Ruiz

150 years of Mondrian

Kunstmuseum den Haag, 2 April-25 September; Fondation Beyeler, 5 June-9 October; K20, Düsseldorf, 29 October-10 February 2023

With just three primary colours (plus black and white) and two ordinal directions, Piet Mondrian took painting to new levels of abstraction. His influence on Modernism was immense – in the visual arts as well as design, architecture and fashion. To mark 150 years since his birth in the Netherlands town of Amersfoot, several museums are putting on big surveys of his work. A show at Switzerland’s Fondation Beyeler and K20 in Düsseldorf will start with his early paintings, which were influenced by Dutch landscape painting and post-impressionism. It will then trace his development as he left representation behind completely, ending in his right-angled wonders. Lee Cheshire

Venice Biennale

Venice, 23 April-27 November

A global pandemic, the catastrophic effects of climate change, and developments in artificial intelligence are just some of the major threats to the future of humanity that artists will be tackling for this year’s main exhibition at the 59th Venice Biennale. “Despite the climate that forged [the show], it aspires to be an optimistic exhibition,” says its curator, Cecilia Alemani. José da Silva

World Cup sculpture festival

Qatar, throughout the year

Football fans flying into Doha for this year’s controversial World Cup (starting on 21 November) will be greeted by this monumental gold sculpture of Qatar’s national bird, the falcon. Created by Dutch artist Tom Claassen, it is one of more than 40 new public works that will spring up across the small peninsula state. The “outdoor museum” programme is overseen by Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, the sister of the ruling Emir and the high-spending head of Qatar Museums. Other works include pieces by Bruce Nauman, Isa Genzken, Subodh Gupta, Mark Handforth and Katharina Fritsch. Lee Cheshire

Cézanne

Art Institute of Chicago,15 May-5 September; Tate Modern, London, 6 October-12 March 2023

The Art Institute of Chicago and London’s Tate Modern are organising the greatest Paul Cézanne exhibition for a generation. Called simply Cézanne, it will span the full career of the artist. In Chicago, where the show opens, it will comprise 90 oil paintings, 40 works on paper and two sketchbooks, although it will be slightly reduced in London (70 oils and 18 on paper). Cézanne (1839-1906) has always been regarded as an “artist’s artist” and was a great influence on later painters, including Monet, Pissarro, Matisse and Picasso. He remains an inspiration, and among the exhibition lenders will be Jasper Johns, the American abstract expressionist, who will be sending three key watercolours (plus an oil painting of a nude to Chicago only) from his personal collection. Technical analysis of the artist’s palette, compositional construction, and mark making will deepen our understanding of how Cézanne created his paintings. Chicago promises that the show will “reframe Cézanne, a giant of art history, for our own time”. Martin Bailey

Documenta Fifteen

Kassel, Germany, 18 June-25 September

Organising the world’s largest and most influential contemporary art exhibition in the middle of a pandemic has been challenging, but after some doubts about whether it could go ahead as scheduled, Documenta Fifteen is to take place in Kassel this summer. Curated by the Indonesian arts collective Ruangrupa, it promises to be as much of a reflection of our times as previous editions of this sprawling show that takes place every five years. The artists who have been invited to take part are mostly from the global south, and many are activist collectives, rather than individuals. They include The Nest Collective of Kenya, La Intermundial Holobiente of Argentina, Keleketla! Library of South Africa and Sa Sa Art Projects of Cambodia. Venues will include a former department store and a former wine depot, as well as more traditional locations such as the city’s Fridericianum museum. Catherine Hickley

The Space Between: the Modern in Korean Art

Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 11 September-19 February 2023

Last year there was a surge in interest in South Korean film and TV, and Western art galleries are rushing to open in Seoul. But the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (Lacma) has been exploring Korean art for several years now, with a run of major exhibitions. The Space Between spans the critical but often overlooked period 1897 to 1964, dating from the close of the Joseon period, the last Korean dynasty, through the colonial period (1910-45) when Korea was under Japanese rule, and the Korean War (1950-53), which brought strong American cultural influences, particularly Abstract Expressionism in the visual arts. Artists in the latter period were also influenced by the European Art Informel movement. The exhibition closes with a look at Modern and the beginnings of contemporary art, including such artists as Youn Myeong-Ro, Lee Sangbeom, and Park Rehyun. It is a big story, told through the work of 90 artists and 140 paintings, photographs and sculptures. Scarlet Cheng