Many art events and exhibitions are on or opening across Switzerland and across Europe this autumn. We selected a few that are well worth a visit.
Homo Faber 2026
1–30.09. 2026, San Giorgio Maggiore Island, Venice
One of my all time favourite art events is the Homo Faber Biennial in Venice, by the Michelangelo Foundation. The city, the venue, the selection and the atmosphere of the event celebrate human craftsmanship, which we desperately need nowadays. The fourth edition of the Homo Faber arrives under the visionary direction of British artist and designer Es Devlin. Titled ‘An Island of Light,’ the 2026 programme promises fifteen immersive installations that use illumination not merely as spectacle but as a narrative thread that binds material, maker, and visitor.
See the program here and our experiences about the previous editions here.
Niki de Saint Phalle – Dream Machine
10.09.2026 – 07.02.2027, Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf
Niki de Saint Phalle (1930, Neuilly-sur-Seine – 2002, San Diego) was a French American sculptor, painter, filmmaker – a leading female artis of the 20th century, who defied artistic conventions and created works that were feminist, performative, collaborative, and monumental. Through her works she addressed important subjects, like women’s rights to climate change and HIV/AIDS awareness. She gained worldwide fame with her ‘Nana’ figures.
This September the Kunstpalast in Düsseldorf “presents her iconic figures, shooting paintings, happenings, sculptures and films, along with models for large-scale outdoor works, with particular attention to how she carved out artistic autonomy within a male-dominated field.”
Modernism Reloaded, Monet to Mondrian – Bailly to Baer
19.09. – 31.12.2026, Kunst Museum, Winterthur
The Kunst Museum Winterthur has one of the largest public collection of modern art in Switzerland. It is uniquely structured in a three-location museum complex and managed by the local Kunstverein. The oldest branch Beim Stadthaus (opened in 1916), Reinhart am Stadtgarten and the Villa Flora (reopened in 2024).
Following renovations to its collection rooms and an extension, the main building of the Kunst Museum Winterthur is Beim Stadthaus at Museumstrasse 52 is scheduled to reopen on September 18, 2026. On the occasion, the curators present masterpieces of Modernism, Impressionism and Post-Impressionism, accompanied by key works by women artists such as Alice Bailly, Sophie Taeuber-Arp, Meret Oppenheim, Verena Loewensberg, and Maria Lassnig.
Van Gogh, Hodler, and a Cabriolet – The Collector and Pioneer Gertrud Dübi-Müller
19.09.2026 – 07.02.2027, Kunstmuseum, Basel
Gertrud Dübi-Müller (1888–1980), a daughter of an industrialist family from Solothurn, was one of Switzerland’s first female art collectors. She was also an avid photographer and played a crucial role in shaping the landscape of modern art in Switzerland. According to the stories, one of the first paintings they acquired was a work by Van Gogh, which she bought for her 20th birthday. Other works by renowned artists such as Cézanne, Klimt, and Matisse followed. Artists such as Ferdinand Hodler, Giovanni Giacometti and Cuno Amiet were among her closest friends. In 1964, she and her husband, Otto Dübi, established the Dübi-Müller Foundation.
By opening the “Van Gogh, Hodler and a Cabriolet”, the Kunstmuseum Basel presents the first extensive exhibition dedicated to her. Around eighty works by renowned artists from her international collection, arresting photographs, and previously unpublished documents shed light on Dübi-Müller’s life and illustrate her influential role in the history of art and culture.
Cezanne and Us
23.09.2026 – 17.01.2027, Grand Palais, Paris
The “Cezanne and Us” is coproduced by the GrandPalaisRmn, the Centre Pompidou and the Public Establishment of the Musée d’Orsay and the Musée de l’Orangerie – Valéry Giscard d’Estaing.
The exhibition showcases the works of French Post-Impressionist Paul Cézanne (1839-1906) who was one of the most influential artists of modern art. As Musée d’Orsay describes: “It bears witness to the artist’s incomparable legacy, from the time when, in seclusion in Aix, some people wondered whether he really existed, to the 20th-century “Cezanne Myth”, as founding father of pictorial modernity.”
Maria Lassnig and Edvard Munch, Flow of Paint = Flow of Life
02.10.2026 – 21.02.2027, Kunsthaus, Zurich
We visited this summer the Munch Museum (known locally as MUNCH) in Oslo, Norway. Juan Herreros and Jens Richter designed the landmark museum, which houses the world’s largest collection of artworks by the Norwegian artist Edvard Munch (1863–1944), featuring over 26,000 pieces and personal items in 11 galleries.
Kunsthaus Zurich brings together Edvard Munch with an other interesting artist, Maria Lassnig (1919–2014) this autumn. Although more than half a century separates the two artists but both share a very specific point of view about humanity, bodies, emotions, illness, fear and death.
During Zurich Art Weekend we saw the “Maria Lassnig – Living with Art Stops One Wilting!” exhibition at Luma Westbau in Zurich. It is still on view until 20.12.2026, if you are interested to discover more about the life of the Austrian artist.
“Comprising some 150 works including 78 paintings, the exhibition offers a comprehensive insight into both artists’ work. Exceptional loans from the Munchmuseet in Oslo and the Maria Lassnig Foundation in Vienna set up numerous unprecedented juxtapositions” – the Kunsthaus shares.
PAD London
13-18.10. 2026, Berkeley Square, London
PAD London is back this October with its 18th edition. The fair will return to its iconic location in Berkeley Square, Mayfair, with an exciting array of designers and makers. Besides contemporary and historic design highlights, PAD London also gives a stylish stage to visionary jewellery Houses, like Hemmerle, Buccellati or Nikos Koulis.
With carefully curated exhibitors, the PAD fairs (in Paris, London and Saint-Tropez) aim to offer a special point of view on the Art of Living and Collecting. “Their refined setting is designed to inspire collectors, art consultants, museum curators, interior specialists, design practitioners and the public, making PAD the only event of its kind.”
This year the collectors preview will be on Tuesday 13 October, the VIP opening on Wednesday, 14 October, while event is open to the public 15-18 October, 2026.
Whistler. Dandy and Disruptor
16.10.2026 – 10.01.2027, Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam
James Abbott McNeill Whistler was an American painter and printmaker, based primarily in the United Kingdom. The “Whistler. Dandy and Disruptor” exhibition is dedicated to the rebellious and experimental nature of the artist. He pioneered new and innovative techniques, and spent a lot of time on his works in order to create almost otherworldly character to his paintings.
He was pioneering the “art for art’s sake” (l’art pour l’art) movement, which underlines the idea that art has an inherent value independent of its subject-matter.
The event is the first retrospective in the Netherlands devoted to this remarkable artist. It is realised in collaboration with Tate Britain in London (where the James McNeill Whistler exhibition is still on display until 27 September 2026).
Vincent van Gogh admired Whistler – as the Van Gogh Museum quotes him about the famous and even pop-culturally relevant portrait of Whistler’s mother (James Abbott McNeill Whistler, Arrangement in Grey and Black: Portrait of the Painter’s Mother, 1871): “There’s a painting that Whistler did of his mother which is like that. But above all in our old Dutch paintings we find it sometimes. When I think of Mother she too appears like that to me.”
VIENNA ART WEEK
6-13 November 2026, Vienna
The VIENNA ART WEEK celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2025 – each year, the festival program includes more than 100 events and ranges from guided tours and studio visits to expert talks, performances, workshops, exhibition openings and more. The event is organized by the association Art Cluster Vienna, which includes important museums and foundations of the City and also the University of Applied Arts Vienna.
Together with around 70 program partners, the festival offers a week covering centuries of visual art. This year’s theme is “Navigating Angst”.
Peggy Guggenheim in London – The Making of a Collector
21.09.2026 – 14.03. 2027, The Jillian and Arthur M. Sackler Wing of Galleries | Burlington House, London
Marguerite “Peggy” Guggenheim (August 26, 1898 – December 23, 1979) was an American art collector and socialite, coming from the wealthy New York Guggenheim family. She was a patron of modern art, supporting Cubist, Surrealist, and Abstract Expressionist artists. In the mid 1900s she travelled to Europe and opened a gallery in London in 1938. In the first years of the World War II she purchased many masterpieces in Paris, later returned to New York. Peggy opened her museum-gallery in Manhattan and organised exhibitions dedicated to different artists, including solo shows for female artists.
In the late 1940s she returned to Europe and also exhibited her collection at the Venice Biennale in Italy and other European countries. She acquired Palazzo Venier dei Leoni, a mid-eighteenth-century building on the Grand Canal, where she opened her collection to the public and she spent the rest of her life there.
Following her death, the Peggy Guggenheim Collection opened in 1980 under the management of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation. The Collection in Venice is still at the same place and open as a museum, I highly recommend to visit it.
Late autumn the Royal Academy of Arts dedicates an exhibition to her formative London years. The opening of her gallery, the Guggenheim Jeune was controversial in the conservative British art scene; the Surrealist and Abstract art works caused quite a stir. She hosted over 20 exhibitions, including the first UK solo show of Vasily Kandinsky. “The Making of a Collector” exhibition will display artists including Eileen Agar, Salvador Dalí, Barbara Hepworth, Rita Kernn-Larsen, Henry Moore, Kandinsky, Piet Mondrian, Cedric Morris, Sophie Taeuber-Arp and more.
“I dedicated myself to my collection. A collection means hard work. It was what I wanted to do and I made it my life’s work. I am not an art collector. I am a museum.” Peggy Guggenheim, Peggy Guggenheim and Her Friends, 1970-76
Source: press release. Photo credits: Loupiosity.com. Photos are editorial purpose only. All detailed photo credit in the photo description.
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