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Salman Toor: Someone Like You
2 October 2026 – 10 January 2027
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This Autumn, the Courtauld presents the first solo exhibition in Europe of the artist Salman Toor, acclaimed for his arresting paintings of the contemporary experience and urban life. The exhibition brings together an outstanding selection of the artist51��ݶ� most iconic, thought-provoking and at times humorous paintings, never-before-seen in Britain.

Salman Toor (b.1983) was born in Lahore, Pakistan, and lives and works in New York. His paintings capture people in moments of friendship and love, as well as solitude and alienation. The exhibition at the Courtauld will present 19 paintings, all created since 2019, that focus on Toor51��ݶ� exploration of human interactions and the desire and struggle to experience a sense of belonging, both culturally and emotionally. The exhibition will be complemented by a special display of Toor51��ݶ� drawings in the Gilbert and Ildiko Butler Drawings Gallery.

While Toor51��ݶ� figures and scenes are fictional, they are rooted in his personal experiences and memories. Speaking of his works, he says they “depict queer and immigrant lives that straddle different cultures and inhabit the tension between intimacy and exposure, belonging and estrangement. What it means to find a community, but also the daily costs associated with visibility”.

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Courtauld Gallery, Exhibition, Exhibitions, What’s on Highlights

Salman Toor: Someone Like You

2 Oct 2026 – 10 Jan 2027

In Autumn 2026, the Courtauld will present the first solo exhibition in Europe of the celebrated New York-based painter Salman Toor, bringing together 19 of the artist51��ݶ� most iconic, thought-provoking and at times humorous paintings.

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Courtauld Gallery, Display, What’s on Highlights

Salman Toor: Drawings

2 Oct 2026 – 10 Jan 2027

To coincide with the exhibition Salman Toor: Someone Like You, this focused display showcases the artist51��ݶ� mastery of drawing and the way in which it informs his practice as a painter. ����

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The Courtauld Institute is proud to announce the conferment of an Honorary Doctorate degree (Doctor Honoris Causa)��to��Dame Rachel Whiteread DBE, one of the UK51��ݶ� leading contemporary artists.

Working primarily in sculpture, Dame Rachel Whiteread DBE51��ݶ� artwork transforms everyday objects, surfaces, and architecture into monumental and ethereal artworks.��

Rachel studied painting at Brighton Polytechnic and sculpture at the Slade School of Fine Art in the 1980s. A leading figure in the Young British Artists, Rachel��exhibited��in the��Sensation��exhibition at the Royal Academy��in 1997. Her practice has since expanded to include large-scale public commissions and memorial works, which are��exhibited��worldwide and held in major public collections. Notable projects include��Holocaust Memorial, Vienna (2000);��Untitled Monument, Fourth Plinth, Trafalgar Square, London��(2001);��U.S. Embassy (Flat pack house),��US Embassy, London (2013-2015);��as well as��numerous��global exhibitions and retrospectives.��

In 1993, Rachel became the first woman to win the Turner Prize for her internationally acclaimed��House, a full-sized cast of a Victorian terraced house in London. Rachel was the first female artist to present a solo exhibition for the British Pavillion at the Venice Biennale in 1997. She was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2006 and Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2019 for services to art.��

The conferring of this Honorary Doctorate underscores the Courtauld51��ݶ� dedication to recognising leaders in the fields of Art and Art History who��demonstrate��extraordinary accomplishments and inspire future generations.��The honorary degree was presented at the Courtauld51��ݶ� Graduation Ceremony on 8 July 2026.��

Acknowledging their outstanding support of the arts, the Courtauld Institute also awarded Honorary Fellowships to��Daniel Katz MBE��and��Louisa A. Leventis.��

Daniel ‘Danny’ Katz MBE is a preeminent dealer in European sculpture and fine art, specialising��in particular in��great masterpieces across different sculptural media. Since��establishing��the Daniel Katz Gallery in 1968, Danny has become a world-renowned authority on Renaissance bronzes, amongst other fields. The gallery51��ݶ���expertise��spans a diverse range of categories, including Ancient Art, Old Master and��19th��Century Paintings, Modern British Art, and Arts of the Islamic World. With an exceptional global reputation, the gallery has placed significant works in major international institutions such as The British Museum, The Louvre, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the J. Paul Getty Museum.��

Danny is also well known for his philanthropic commitments, both to the arts — fine arts, music, and dance — as well as neurological charities. He was awarded an MBE for charitable services in 2002. Danny has been a keen supporter of the Courtauld for over two decades, funding exhibitions and the post of the Daniel Katz Curator of��Twentieth Century Art, currently held by Dr Barnaby Wright, Deputy Head of the Courtauld Gallery. Danny51��ݶ� visionary philanthropy has been transformative for the Courtauld and for the wider field of the arts.��

Louisa A. Leventis��is Executive Director of the A.��G. Leventis Foundation, a charitable foundation focused on society, education, and culture��established��by the Cypriot entrepreneur Anastasios G. Leventis.��

Louisa studied English and Modern Greek Literature at St Peter51��ݶ� College, Oxford, and later completed an MA in Museum Studies at the Institute of Archaeology at University College London. She spent a year in��New York working on the��Metropolitan Museum51��ݶ���exhibition��Glory of Byzantium��(1997).��

The A.��G. Leventis Foundation is a significant supporter of the study and conservation of the cultural heritage of Cyprus,��Greece��and the Hellenism of the Diaspora,��and has been a major supporter of the Courtauld for��nearly 40��years. Under Louisa51��ݶ� stewardship, the A. G.��Leventis Foundation has supported the Courtauld in a wide range of areas including conservation, exhibitions, conferences, and academic post funding, including the AG Leventis Professorship of Byzantine Art held by Professor Antony Eastmond. Thanks to this outstanding generosity, Byzantine studies is a thriving area of research and teaching at the Courtauld, fostering new generations��of scholars for years to come.��

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★★★★★ “A dazzling fresh take on a genius” –��The Times
★★★★★ “Compelling” –��London Standard
★★★★ “Ravishing sculptures” –��The Guardian

The Joseph Hage Aaronson & Bremen Exhibition: Hepworth in Colour, the first exhibition ever to be devoted to Barbara Hepworth’s work with colour, is now open at the Courtauld Gallery (12 June – 6 September 2026).

The Courtauld��Gallery��presents��the first exhibition devoted to Barbara Hepworth51��ݶ� lifelong fascination with colour,��shedding light on an unexpected and unexplored aspect of the work of one of the most celebrated��British��artists of the 20th��century.��

Barbara Hepworth (1903–1975)��is best known��for her abstract��sculptures��inspired by nature and the rugged seaside landscapes of Cornwall,��where she lived and worked��from 1939.��Hepworth51��ݶ���practice is��often characterised��in terms of��her��commitment to��direct carving��and��‘truth to��materials’.��Little attention has been given to the importance of colour in her work.��Discussing her��innovative��use of colour��in 1970,��she��said:��“my colour has been��accepted,��but��never understood.”����

Bringing together��18��sculptures and��26��drawings��and paintings,��The Joseph Hage Aaronson & Bremen Exhibition:��Hepworth in��Colour is the first exhibition to focus on this important but often overlooked aspect of Hepworth51��ݶ� work.������

Hepworth51��ݶ� early interest in painted colour dates to the mid-1930s when she and her future husband, Ben Nicholson, formed part of the European avant-garde. In 1939, just before outbreak of the Second World War, she left London for Cornwall with her three young children, taking with her a single sculpture – her very first study for a sculpture with colour. Over the following years, the landscape of Cornwall inspired Hepworth to develop this initial experiment, moving her work in new directions and establishing a lifelong fascination with colour.

At the heart of the exhibition is the remarkable group of painted sculptures made between 1940 and 1948. Hepworth later recalled how, “I used colour and strings in many of the carvings of this time. The colour in the concavities plunged me into the depths of water, caves or shallows…”. These early works include the boldly painted stone carvings Eidos��(1947-8)��from the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne,��Australia��and��Sculpture with Colour��(Eos)��(1946)��from a private collection in Hong Kong. They��are��exhibited��together��in the UK��for the first time��since��1954.����

A major highlight of the exhibition is the painted wood carving,��Sculpture with Colour (Oval Form), Pale Blue and Red,��of��1943, which was acquired by The Hepworth Wakefield in 2025 following the successful national fundraising campaign in collaboration with Art Fund to raise £3.8 million.��Sculpture with Colour (Oval Form), Pale Blue and Red marked a breakthrough moment in Hepworth51��ݶ� career, combining strings and colour and, for the first time, the beautiful pale blue, which she associated with the Cornish skies and coast. In private hands since it was created, and rarely exhibited, this is the first time the sculpture is displayed in London since it was acquired for the nation. For Hepworth, the strings in her early sculptures “were the tension I felt between myself and the sea, the wind or the hill”.��

Other iconic painted stringed sculptures in the exhibition include��Wave, 1943-44, from the National Galleries of Scotland and��Pelagos��(‘sea’ in Greek), 1946 from Tate, the latter directly inspired by the sculptor51��ݶ� view from her studio onto the bay in St Ives in Cornwall.��The��exhibition also unites for the first time from private and public collections the six versions of��Sculpture with Colour (Deep Blue and Red),��made between 1940 and 1943, featuring contrasting red strings hovering over a striking blue interior.��

Alongside sculptures, the exhibition features a rich selection of Hepworth51��ݶ� drawings with colour. During the first years of the war Hepworth lacked the materials, studio space and time to produce much sculpture but her drawings allowed her to continue to explore and develop her ideas. She recalled, “In the late evenings, and during the night I did innumerable drawings… exploring the particular tensions and relationships of form and colour which were to occupy me in sculpture during the later years of the war.” These drawings, usually entitled “drawing for sculpture” are remarkable for their intricate crystalline forms, punctuated with strong blues, reds and greens.������

The exhibition extends into the 1950s and 1960s to reflect how colour continued to occupy Hepworth in new��and innovative��ways,��including��in her expressive paintings, and in her��work��with patinated��bronze��and��coloured��marble.����

The Joseph Hage Aaronson & Bremen Exhibition: Hepworth in��Colour��is curated by Dr Alexandra Gerstein, Curator of Sculpture and Decorative Arts at the Courtauld Gallery and Dr Stephen Feeke, independent writer and curator whose PhD from the Courtauld Institute of Art focused on Barbara Hepworth51��ݶ� bronze sculptures.��

To coincide with the exhibition, a display of��rare��photographs, taken in the 1930s by Paul Laib (1932–1936),��capturing��Hepworth and Ben Nicholson��(1894–1982)��in their��shared studio in Hampstead, London, is now open in the Project Space.��These��are among the most evocative studio images��to��emerge��in Britain during the 20th century��and show the fascinating interrelation of their practices��at this time.��

Courtauld Members��get free unlimited entry to all exhibitions, access to presale tickets, priority booking to selected events, advance notice of art history short courses, exclusive events, discounts and more. Join at courtauld.ac.uk/members��

Late openings – Experience the exhibition after hours. The Gallery will open until 20:00 on Friday 12 June, 26 June, 31 July, and 4 September 2026.��

Relaxed openings – Join us for relaxed openings on��Wednesday 1 July and Wednesday 19 August, between 10:00 and 10:30.��Our relaxed exhibition openings include��additional��support and facilities from our friendly team.��

The Joseph Hage Aaronson & Bremen Exhibition: Hepworth in Colour
12 June – 6 September 2026
Denise Coates��Exhibition��Galleries, Floor 3��

Hepworth and Nicholson: The Hampstead Studio Photographs
6 June – 4 October 2026
Project Space, Floor 2

Highlights

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Courtauld Gallery, Exhibition, Exhibitions, What’s on Highlights

Hepworth in Colour

12 Jun ��– 6 Sep 2026

★★★★★ “A dazzling fresh take on a genius” – The Times. This ambitious exhibition is the first to explore Barbara Hepworth’s (1903 –1975) lifelong fascination with colour, which she used in highly original and unexpected ways.

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Courtauld Gallery, Display, Exhibitions, What’s on Highlights

Hepworth and Nicholson: The Hampstead Studio Photographs

6 Jun – 4 Oct 2026

Step behind the scenes of Barbara Hepworth and Ben Nicholson51��ݶ� London Studio. This display coincides with the major exhibition Hepworth in Colour.

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Courtauld Gallery, Exhibition, Exhibitions, What’s on Highlights

Studio Prints: An Artists’ Workshop

6 Jun – 13 Sep 2026

Discover the world of Dorothea Wight and Marc Balakjian51��ݶ� London Printmaking Studio.��Featuring prints by artists including Lucian Freud, Frank Auerbach and Paula Rego.

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blog, Courtauld Gallery, Exhibitions

5 things to know about Barbara Hepworth

8 Jun 2026

Read our blog to discover 5 things to know about Barbara Hepworth, and what you can look forward to in our latest major exhibition.

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It is with great sadness that we announce the death of Sir Angus Stirling, who played a significant role in the evolution of the Courtauld both as a trustee of the Samuel Courtauld Trust and as a member of the Courtauld’s Governing Board in the period from the early 1980s to 2014. The Courtauld will always be deeply grateful for his commitment, support and close friendship, and hold his memory in great affection.

Angus Stirling – an arts administrator and conservationist who led some of the UK51��ݶ� most significant arts organisations – was a man of high intelligence, careful thought and great articulacy, who was passionate about the value of the arts and the natural world and made invaluable contributions to the cultural life of this country. Whether as Director-General of the National Trust (1983-1995), as Chairman of the Royal Opera House (1991-1996), as Chairman of the Foundation for the Royal Naval College at Greenwich (1997-2004), or as trustee of or advisor to the many other organisations that he supported, his involvement and impact have been profound. This was certainly the case in his engagement with the Courtauld Institute of Art. Without Sir Angus, the Courtauld simply would not be the success it is now. We are deeply indebted to him.

Angus Stirling was educated at Eton College and Trinity College, Cambridge before taking a diploma in the history of art at London University as an extramural student. After a brief period in the City, he joined the Arts Council in 1971, becoming its Deputy Secretary-General before joining the National Trust as Director General in 1983. While still there he also served as Chair of the Royal Opera House, and was serving on other boards, not least being those of the Courtauld.

Angus51��ݶ� engagement with the Courtauld was multi-faceted. In the early 1980s, he served on the Courtauld51��ݶ� pre-independence Advisory Board. Later in the decade, when he also served as Chairman of the Greenwich Foundation of the Royal Naval College, he was heavily involved in the thinking, practicalities and funding of the Courtauld51��ݶ� move to Somerset House. From 1990 became a Trustee of the Samuel Courtauld Trust, which owns the Courtauld art collection. Then, in 2002 when the Courtauld sought to become a self-governing college of the University of London, he was a key member of the impressive team that included Sir Nicholas Goodison, Nicholas Ferguson, and Lord Rothschild, along with then Director Eric Fernie, who at great speed put together a complex package of support and collaboration to make this possible. It was Angus who mediated the complex tripartite agreement between the Samuel Courtauld Trust, the evolving new Courtauld Board and the Getty Trust – a critical element in the complicated jigsaw required to make this all happen. Then, as the Samuel Courtauld Trust51��ݶ� ex-officio member, he served on the new Governing Board from 2002 until 2014. He was chair of its Estate Committee, leading the critical early phases of the Courtauld51��ݶ� ongoing redevelopment of its Somerset House site, and working closely with the then Director, Deborah Swallow, and the project51��ݶ� architects Witherford Watson Mann. Angus suffered badly from Covid and was unable to visit site during the building works, but together with his lifelong friend Christopher McLaren, for many years Chair of the Samuel Courtauld Trust, he continued to support the project and was thrilled to see the renovated buildings, restored Great Room and galleries. In 2015, he became an Honorary Fellow – a reflection of our deep gratitude for all he had done for the Courtauld.

The list of organisations that Angus supported and influenced includes the World Monument Fund in Britain, Gresham51��ݶ� School, Stowe House Preservation Trust, City and Guild51��ݶ� of London Art School, Trinity Laban, the Joint Nature Conservation Trust, and the Friends of Holland Park. But his influence ranges well beyond this country. When India was considering setting up a national trust, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi sought his advice and invited him for discussions. The Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage is now an established organisation with chapters throughout India.

Angus51��ݶ� love of the arts spanned all media and forms and, in his later decades, he found time to go back to painting, his greatest love. He trained at the Lydgate Art Research Centre and had a number of exhibitions. He evolved a distinctive, semi abstract style, creating pictures imbued with vivid colour and suggestive of both figures and landscape, which give great pleasure to these works’ owners. In his last year, he took great pleasure in creating cutouts with his daughter, the artist Kitty Stirling, inspired by the work of Matisse, an artist he had met.

Angus Stirling51��ݶ� close association with the Courtauld is amongst the most significant in its history – his quiet but passionate articulation of its deep purposes inspired the Board, persuaded donors, and both challenged and reassured staff and students. He held memories of the past but remained enthusiastic about the future and was delighted to learn of the next phase of the Courtauld51��ݶ� redevelopment plan from current Director Mark Hallett.

Angus remained at the heart of a close network of Courtauld supporters and staff for the rest of his life and was a wonderful friend and mentor. He will be greatly missed.

Our deepest sympathies go to his wife, Morar, his daughters Emma and Kitty, his son Duncan and the whole wider family.

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Searching for Lost Rain

27 May – 4 June 2026

Discover Searching for Lost Rain, a compelling contemporary art exhibition by artist Gala Porras-Kim, hosted at St Mary le Strand and Strand Aldwych, London.

Curated by MA Curating students at the Courtauld Institute of Art, this free public project explores the displacement of sacred Maya artefacts removed from Mexico51��ݶ� Sacred Cenote. Through two striking, interactive works, the exhibition questions the separation of cultural objects from their original spiritual environments and invites visitors to symbolically reconnect them to the rain.

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Paper Castle

6 – 21 June 2026

Set against the extraordinary Gothic interiors of Horace Walpole51��ݶ� villa, the exhibition, brings together installations, paintings and sculptural works by artists ,��,��,��,��,��,��,��,����and��

Taking its title from Horace Walpole51��ݶ� own description of Strawberry Hill, Paper Castle explores themes of visual deception, ghostliness and artifice, encouraging visitors to question what they think they know.

Curated by: Tatiana Bainbridge, Shanna Câncio Martins, Nahui Colin, Jade Connolly, ángelina divine, Circe Marden-Rull, Oli Louise Mardon, Freddie Sheffield, Sophie Smith, Jane Marie Zelenik, and Sofia Zymnis.

Leonora Carrington: Navigating a world Down Below

28 – 29 May 2026

This conference��is organised in conjunction with the Freud Museum51��ݶ� current exhibition, The Symptomatic Surreal, curated by Vanessa Boni. The two-day conference begins with an introductory evening at the Freud Museum, followed by a full-day programme at the Courtauld51��ݶ� Research Forum, bringing together an international panel of Carrington scholars with contributions from Alyce Mahon, Felicity Gee, Helen Bremm, Victoria Ferentinou, and Sarah Wilson.

Symposium – Day 2: Courtauld Research Forum, Vernon Square, 29 May

“The stairway that separates my room from my memory”

4 – 20 June 2026

The stairway that separates my room from my memory��takes its title from a 1990 poem by visual artist and author Etel Adnan, in which the stairway becomes a metaphor for a transitional identity, a threshold that both separates and connects. Bringing together works from the Nicoletta Fiorucci Collection alongside existing and newly commissioned works by other artists, authors, and filmmakers, the exhibition and its related events explore how notions of home shift through migration, exile, and diaspora

The presented works reflect experiences of both voluntary and forced migration, tracing how home is carried across borders and reconstructed through memory, objects, and images. Landscapes, domestic spaces, and personal archives reveal identity as fluid, provisional, and continually negotiated.

Curated by: Benedetta Cirulli, Callum Stark, Eloise Shevin, Emily Kei, Freya Thomas, Grace Nicholson, Lily Ann Sawyer, Natalie Soghomonian, Olivia Lasa, Zeynep Ugan.

MA Curating

The MA Curating at the Courtauld Institute offers an unmatched opportunity to immerse yourself in the theory and practice of curating in a unique scholarly and professional context.

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Past Exhibitions

Discover the Courtauld Gallery51��ݶ� past exhibitions, special displays and more.

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This event is now fully booked. Should you need any assistance with your booking, please email researchforum@courtauld.ac.uk.��

Amid intense instability in the art world – where protests, boycotts, and resignations have become commonplace – this two‑day event brings together leading artists, curators, critics and scholars to examine one of the most urgent political forces of our time: populism.

For over a decade, populism has dominated headlines and ignited debate across the political spectrum; few words give a more enticing, and murky, indication of the current, politically turbulent moment. Yet despite extensive analysis from the social political sciences – and the rapid rise of ‘populism studies’ – its impact on art, curating and cultural institutions remains unexplored. This event addresses that gap by convening an international group of leading thinkers, artists, critics and curators to consider how populism is reshaping the art world – and how the art world, in turn, is mobilising populism.

Moving beyond simple characterisations, speakers will approach populism as a contested tool, a mechanism of power, and a potential tool for radical democracy.��Discussions will range from how artists and curators navigate the fault lines between ‘elite’ and ‘popular’ culture, to how populism shapes cultural governance and engenders the aestheticisation of politics. Participants will also reflect on what implications populism has for the ways we work, organise and collaborate today.

On 11 June, a day-long symposium will be held at Wadham College, University of Oxford. The programme is available here: .

On 12 June, the project will culminate in an evening event, Towards an Aesthetics of the Left, hosted at the Courtauld Institute. The event will begin with a screening of a specially edited version of Comizi di non amore (Non-Love Meetings, 2004) by Francesco Vezzoli, created for Art and Populism. This work (originally: video installation, colour, sound, 63 min 50 sec; courtesy of Fondazione Prada, Milan) reworks Pier Paolo Pasolini51��ݶ� Love Meetings (1964) while satirising the long-running Italian dating programme Men and Women (1996–present). The film features Catherine Deneuve and Marianne Faithfull in leading roles, with a cameo appearance by Jeanne Moreau.

Following the screening, speakers from the symposium will take part in a roundtable discussion exploring the central questions of left aesthetics. Drawing on the ideas, debates, and reflections that emerge over the two days, the conversation will consider the possibilities and challenges of developing new forms of collective cultural and political praxis.

Participants across both days include Francesco Vezzoli, TJ Demos, Sarah James, Dean Kissick, Angela Dimitrakaki, Clive Nwonka, Lars Bang Larsen, Luce deLire, Anthony Gardner, Claire Fontaine, Ana Dević (WHW), and the Otolith Group.

Find out more about day one at the University of Oxford, via:

Organised by Sofia Gotti, Lecturer in Curating at the Courtauld, and Marko Ilić, Associate Professor in Contemporary Art History at the University of Oxford. This event is made possible with generous support from the John Fell Oxford University Press Research Fund, the Oxford University Centre for Visual Studies, Wadham College, Oxford, and the Courtauld Institute.

In collaboration with

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