THANKS TO THE PANDEMIC, 2022 has stepped nervously into history. As we go to press, museums in Denmark have just reopened, but those in the Netherlands remain closed; the museums of Dresden, in common with all of Saxony, are still shut. In France, Italy and the United Kingdom, museums remain open, albeit with constraints, such as having to book visits or produce vaccination certificates. In New York, museums are open, but all visitors aged five and older must show proof of vaccination status. Among the many art fairs to have been postponed is the European Fine Art Fair in Maastricht, to 24th–30th June. Yet despite the grey news and, in the northern hemisphere, grey skies, the mood is shifting: it really does seem as though the pandemic is nearing its end. It is therefore with a degree of optimism that we look forward to some of the highlights of the coming year – and after almost two years in which we have been living a largely digital life make no apology for the fact that these are all physical experiences: pages to be turned, buildings to be visited, art to be enjoyed in real life.

FEBRUARY Not surprisingly, museums counting the cost of long closures are banking even more than usual on big names to draw visitors to exhibitions this year. Vincent van Gogh features prominently, beginning with Van Gogh: Self-Portraits at the Courtauld Gallery, London (3rd February–8th May) – astonishingly, it is the first exhibition on the subject to cover the artist’s whole career. Among those that study a lesser known aspect of a great artist is Jacques-Louis David, Radical Draftsman at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (17th February–15th May), the first exhibition dedicated to David’s works on paper. The lively interest, both popular and scholarly, in Artemisia Gentileschi has resulted in a number of exhibitions – the latest is reviewed by Keith Christiansen in this issue (pp.192–95) – and a monograph by Sheila Barker, Artemisia Gentileschi (Lund Humphries; 1st February), which discusses recent archival discoveries and newly attributed paintings as well as highlighting the painter’s engagement with emerging ideas about the dignity of womanhood.

MARCH A contender for the title of exhibition of the year, Donatello: The Renaissance opens at Palazzo Strozzi and the Bargello in Florence (19th March –31st July) before travelling in smaller iterations to the Gemäldegalerie, Berlin (2nd September–8th January 2023), and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, in 2023. In Florence around 130 works will be shown that as well as representing all stages of the sculptor’s career will examine his influence on artists in other media. Two museums reopen this month after being closed for major refurbishments: the Musée de Cluny, Paris, where the collections have been redisplayed on a chronological rather than the previous thematic basis, and the Burrell Collection, Glasgow, where the building, opened in 1983, has been refitted to provide over a third more display space.

APRIL One of the casualties of the pandemic in 2020 was the exhibition Raphael planned by the National Gallery, London, to mark the fivehundredth anniversary of the artist’s death, so it will be a particular pleasure to welcome its opening this month (9th April–31st July). The exhibition will range across his entire career including architecture, poetry and designs for sculpture, tapestry and prints and well as his paintings and drawings. To coincide with the exhibition a monograph by Paul Joannides, Raphael, is being published in Thames & Hudson’s World of Art series. One sign that the world is returning to normal will be the revival of the parties that traditionally accompany the opening of the Venice Biennale (23rd April–27th November). The British representative this year is Sonia Boyce, whose work in drawing, photography, video and installation, using images and sounds captured during the participatory art events she initiates, will be the subject of a book, Sonia Boyce: Feeling her Way by Emma Ridgway and Courtney J. Martin (Yale University Press).

MAY A blockbuster by any definition, Cézanne, which opens at the Art Institute of Chicago this month (15th May–5th September) and travels to Tate Modern, London (6th October–12th March 2023), is the first major retrospective of the artist’s work in the United States in more than twenty-five years. It will explore the artist’s work across media and genres with ninety oil paintings, forty watercolours and drawings and two complete sketchbooks. Postponed from its usual March slot, the Salon du Dessin will be at the Palais Brongniart, Paris, from 18th–23rd May. A highlight will be an exhibition organised by the Musée du Grand Siècle of some fifty drawings ranging from the sixteenth to the twentieth century, selected from the 3,500 that Pierre Rosenberg has given to the Hauts-de-Seine Department. One of the most intriguing-sounding books of the year is Culture as Scandal: The Hermitage Story by Geraldine Norman and Mikhail Piotrovsky, which will cover ‘restitution issues, controversial sales and purchases, thefts, fluctuating attributions, the fight over new art, corruption associated with the construction of new buildings and politically motivated scandals’. How frank will it really be?

JUNE A number of museums are marking the 150th anniversary of Piet Mondrian’s birth in 1872 with exhibitions: Mondrian Moves at the Kunstmuseum den Haag, The Hague (2nd April–25th September), explores his place in a circle of artist friends; Mondrian. Evolution at K20, Düsseldorf (22nd October-10th February 2023), examines his move into abstraction; and his entire career is surveyed in Mondrian at Fondation Beyeler, Basel (5th June–9th October). On 11th June Norway’s new National Museum opens in Oslo, bringing together the collections of the National Gallery, the Museum of Contemporary Art and the Museum of Decorative Arts and Design in a building designed by the German architects Kleihues + Schuwerk. A book that justifiably invites the epithet ‘long-awaited’ is Charles Hope’s mighty Titian: Sources and Documents (Ad Illisum, in partnership with The Burlington Magazine), which publishes all known documents about Titian and his work dating from his lifetime, and all known references to him in contemporary publications.

JULY-DECEMBER From the summer onwards dates become vaguer but any round-up of the year’s highlights would include the openings of the Hong Kong Palace Museum in July, The Grand Egyptian Museum in Giza, in ‘late 2022’ and towards the end of the year the extension of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, which almost doubles the display space. For details of the autumn’s exhibitions, go to the calendar ‘What’s On’ on our website, burlington.org.uk/whats-on/.