Ten art events to get to in June

Gauguin: Artist as Alchemist
Art Institute of Chicago (25 June–10 September)

‘It’s precisely an endless kind of art that I’m interested in,’ said Gauguin, ‘rich in all sorts of techniques…’ Featuring 240 works, this is the first exhibition to examine Gauguin’s experiments in the applied arts, and it considers his development as a painter, sculptor, ceramicist, and printmaker.

Tehura (also known as Head of Tahitian Woman; about 1892), Paul Gauguin. Musée d’Orsay, Paris

Portraits by Cézanne
Musée d’Orsay, Paris (13 June–24 September)

Cézanne made almost 200 portraits throughout his career, including 26 self-portraits. Bringing together 50 works, this exhibition examines the stylistic characteristics of the artist’s portraiture, and traces the extent to which Cézanne’s sitters, among them his wife and uncle, shaped his painting.

Paysan assis (1900–04), Paul Cézanne. © Musée d’Orsay, Dist. RMN-Grand Palais / Patrice Schmidt

Portraying a Nation: Germany 1919–1933
Tate Liverpool (23 June–15 October)

Germany between the two World Wars was a place of intense political and social upheaval, as well as a site of artistic innovation. Featuring more than 300 works, this exhibition pairs Otto Dix and August Sander to explore their documentation of the period.

Turkish Mousetrap Salesman (1924–30), August Sander. © Die Photographische Sammlung/SK Stiftung Kultur – August Sander Archiv, Cologne; DACS, London, 2017

Museum Opening
Museum De Reede, Antwerp (10 June)

More than 200 works go on display in this new private museum dedicated to graphic art. Harry Rutten’s holdings of some 150 works by Goya, Munch, and Félicien Rops (pictured) form the core of the collection, and these are shown alongside graphic artists from Belgium and Antwerp.

Le quatrième verre de cognac (ca. 1880), Félicien Rops. Courtesy: MDR, Antwerpen

Sheela Gowda
Ikon Gallery, Birmingham (16 June–3 September)

Sheela Gowda, known for her immersive installations, presents a new body of work inspired by the architecture of Ikon’s galleries and her experience of living in Bangalore. One new work recycles sheets of metal drums into metal bowls called ‘Bandlis’, continuing Gowda’s interest in craft and labour.

Stopover (installation view at Kochi Biennale; 2012), Sheela Gowda. Courtesy the artist

Käthe Kollwitz and Her Friends
Käthe Kollwitz Museum, Berlin (26 June–15 October)

On the anniversary of the artist’s 150th birthday, this show focuses on the relationships Kollwitz forged with other artists, patrons and friends such as Albert Einstein and Otto Nagel. Pictured here is Afrikanerin (1889) by Marianne Fiedler, a fellow student and friend of Kollwitz.

Marianne Fiedler (1889), Käthe Kollwitz. Photo: Kienzle Oberhammer

Wyndham Lewis: Life, Art, War
IWM North, Manchester (23 June–1 January 2018)

This is the largest ever retrospective in the UK to focus on Wyndham Lewis, a radical force in British art and literature and the founder of the avant-garde Vorticist movement. The show marks 100 years since Lewis was made an official war artist and it features more than 160 artworks, books, journals and pamphlets.

A Battery Shelled (1919), Wyndham Lewis. © IWM Art

Lucas van Leyden: Master of Printmaking
Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich (29 June–24 September)

The Dutch artist Lucas van Leyden was regarded as a prodigy during his lifetime and was a source of inspiration for many artists – Rembrandt among them. This exhibition of around 100 prints from the museum’s collection explores the artist’s delicate technique.

Woman with the Dog (1510), Lucas van Leyden. © Staatliche Graphische Sammlung München

Frank Bowling: Mappa Mundi
Haus der Kunst, Munich (23 June–7 January 2018)

This comprehensive survey of some of Bowling’s most rarely seen works will focus on his monumental ‘map paintings’. These imposing canvases represent real and mythical spaces inspired by Bowling’s own childhood in British Guyana as well as his time in London.

Middle Passage (1970), Frank Bowling. Courtesy the Artist © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2017

Wim Delvoye
Museum Tinguely, Basel (14 June–1 January 2018)

The Belgian artist’s first major retrospective in Switzerland will feature some of his most notable works, including his Cloaca machines, which reconstruct the digestion and excretion process, and his laser-cut neo-Gothic reconstructions of industrial machinery.

Concrete Mixer (2012), Wim Delvoye. © 2017 ProLitteris, Zurich / Wim Delvoye, Photo: Studio Wim Delvoye, Belgium