Sophia Penske is the founder of Penske Projects and an art advisor at Gagosian Art Advisory. Each month, she covers the best of the art world for Coveteur through an insider lens.
This fall, Europe’s museums are staging cultural exhibitions that feel like itineraries in themselves. From Yayoi Kusama’s mirrored worlds in Basel to Leonora Carrington’s surrealist visions in Milan, the season is heavy with reasons to plan a trip, or to extend one. Whether you are a Biennale regular, a Paris Fashion Week attendee, or simply someone who would rather frame a trip around art than shopping, these are the shows (and one art-filled hotel I can't stop thinking about) to have on your calendar.
Madrid
Pablo Picasso / Paul Klee Dora Maar with Green Fingernails (detail) / The Sealed Lady (detail) 1936 / 1930 ©Photo: Jens Ziehe
Museum: Thyssen-Bornemisza Museuo Nacional
Show: Picasso and Klee in the Heinz Berggruen Collection
When: October 28, 2025 to February 1, 2026
Picasso and Klee brings together fifty works by Pablo Picasso and Paul Klee from the collection of German dealer Heinz Berggruen, now part of Berlin’s Museum Berggruen. Berggruen began as a gallerist in Paris before turning his attention fully to collecting, building one of the great ensembles of twentieth-century art. The works are shown as Berggruen imagined them: a dialogue between his two favorite artists, Picasso and Klee.
Jackson Pollock, Number 27, 1950 ©The Pollock-Krasner Foundation/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Show: Warhol, Pollock and other American spaces
When: October 21, 2025 to January 25, 2026
The Warhol and Pollock exhibition focuses on how Warhol’s interest in Pollock went beyond admiration; he sought his work for his collection and drew parallels between Pollock’s fatal 1956 car crash and his own crash series. This show brings these two key figures of 20th-century art together with contemporaries who were rethinking space in painting. Though distinct in style, both moved between abstraction and figuration, using scale, layering, and repetition to blur the line between background and figure and to imagine new ways of seeing.
More Madrid art recommendations:
When I visited Spain this summer with one of my best friends, a trip planned literally 10 days prior to flying, Madrid quickly stole the show. While Mallorca and Ibiza were both gorgeous with their seaside views, it was Madrid’s art and architecture that left the biggest impression. Staying at Rosewood Villa Magna was a highlight. Built on the site of the 19th-century Anglada Palace, Rosewood Villa Magna carries Madrid’s history into the present. First turned into the Villa Magna in 1972 and re-envisioned in 2021, the hotel perfectly blends aristocratic history with a modern peaceful feel. The brass-clad façades, gardens revived by Gregorio Marañón, and interiors that feel more like a grand private residence than a hotel are just steps from the Prado. The Prado’s neoclassical building, designed by Juan de Villanueva in the late 18th century, stretches along the city’s leafy Paseo del Prado.
At the Museo del Prado, there are a few must-sees you can’t skip. Francisco Goya’s haunting Black Paintings Room channels raw intensity and emotion, a stark departure from the classical beauty that fills much of the museum. On the other end of the spectrum, Peter Paul Rubens’ The Three Graces (1630–35) remains one of the Prado’s crown jewels—a lush showcase of the Baroque master’s gift for color, texture, and, flesh.
While exploring the art and culture of the city, make sure to stop by Natif for a coffee or matcha, TRAMO for a stunning, fresh environment for lunch, and GOTA for a glass or two of natural wine.
Paris
John Singer Sargent (1856-1925) Dans le jardin du Luxembourg, 1879, © Courtesy of Philadelphia Museum of Art
Museum: Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain
Show: Exposition Générale (October 25 - August 23, 2026)
This fall marks a new chapter for Paris’s Fondation Cartier, which opens its dramatic new home designed by Jean Nouvel in October during Art Basel Paris. The inaugural show, Exposition Générale, is as ambitious as the architecture itself, looking back on forty years of contemporary art at the Fondation Cartier, shaped by the shows that have defined its history. Drawing from the collection and the architecture of its new site, the exhibition feels less like a survey and more like a chance to see familiar works in a new light, and to imagine different ways an exhibition can unfold.
Museum: Musée d’Orsay
Show: Sargent The Paris Years (1874-1884)
if you missed the John Singer Sargent exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, it will travel as Sargent The Paris Years (1874-1884) to the Musée d’Orsay and is a must see.
More Paris art recommendations: At the same time as the opening of the Fondation Cartier, make sure to visit a few of my favorite galleries which include, Galerie Crèvecœur, MASSIMODECARLO Pièce Unique, Sans Titre, Galerie Camille Pouyfaucon, and Ruttkowski;68, which has a beautifully-designed, cozy wine bar only a three- minute walk away called ROJO.
Another interesting space to check out (slightly outside of the city in Aubervilliers) is Poush, which is a venue dedicated to supporting artistic creation, bringing together an art center and artists’ studios. When in Paris, I also never miss a chance to see my favorite painting by Édouard Manet - Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe,1863, which is located in Salle 29 at Musée d’Orsay.
Milan
Leonora Carrington, Grandmother Moorhead’s Aromatic Kitchen, 1974 oil on cavas. The Charles B. Goddard Center for Visual and Performing Arts - Ardmore, Oklahoma ©Estate of Leonora Carrington, by SIAE 2025
Museum: Palazzo Reale
Show: Leonora Carrington
When: September 20, 2025 - January 11, 2026
Palazzo Reale presents Italy’s first solo exhibition dedicated to Leonora Carrington, an artist who moved freely between painting, writing, theater, and thought. Once the seat of Milan’s rulers (and later home to the Habsburgs and Savoys), the palazzo’s gilded salons and sweeping marble staircases set the stage perfectly for Carrington’s otherworldly visions. Bringing together different mediums and previously unseen work, the show opens up her imaginative universe, where myth, ecology, feminism, and spirituality converge. It also highlights her ties to Italy, from her early encounter with Renaissance art in Florence to her role in Surrealism, while tracing the path of an exile and dreamer who turned imagination into resistance. More than a retrospective, it reveals Carrington as both an ecofeminist pioneer and visionary.
More Milan art recommendations:
The museum is next to the Duomo, so make time to stop by before or afterwards. Additionally, MATTA gallery is very interesting and worth the drive to see their emerging artist program. Lastly, I would not miss a visit to Fondazione Prada, as their permanent collection and temporary exhibitions are always exciting. Lastly, the cafe located at the entrance of the building, Bar Luce, was designed by American film director Wes Anderson, and is worth a meal.
London
Wayne Thiebaud (1920-2021), Cakes, 1963, oil on canvas, Gift in Honor of the 50th Anniversary of the National Gallery of Art
Museum: The Courtauld Gallery
Show: Wayne Thiebaud: American Still Life
When: October 10, 2025 - January 18, 2026
The Courtauld Gallery presents the United Kingdom’s first museum exhibition devoted to Wayne Thiebaud, one of the most distinctive American painters of the twentieth century. Best known for his vibrant still lifes of diner food, deli counters, gumball machines, and neon-bright desserts, Thiebaud transforms everyday American subjects into icons of modern painting. His work, often linked to the legacy of Chardin, Manet, and Cézanne, reflects a belief that the most ordinary objects could hold beauty, meaning, and even a touch of the sublime.W ith works rarely seen outside the U.S.—on loan from the National Gallery of Art, the Whitney, and the Wayne Thiebaud Foundation—the exhibition feels a chance to slip into the painter's London world.
More London recommendations:
While in London do not miss out the chance to go East and check out Whitechapel Gallery, CARLOS/ISHIKAWA, and grab a cup of homemade ice cream and a glass of wine at the Dreamery.
Basel
Kusama with Yellow Tree / Living Room at the Aichi Triennale, 2010 © YAYOI KUSAMA
Museum: The Fondation Beyeler
Show: Yayoi Kusama
When: October 12, 2025 - January 25, 2026
Although Basel is not the most convenient city to visit, I wanted to highlight a special upcoming exhibition that will be worth traveling to. The Fondation Beyeler will be Switzerland’s first museum to host a retrospective by Yayoi Kusama, created in close collaboration with the artist and her studio. The exhibition traces more than seventy years of her practice, from early works never before seen in Europe, to new pieces, and one of her famous Infinity Mirror Rooms. Known for her polka dots and mirrored spaces that seem to stretch into infinity, Kusama has become a cultural icon whose art invites viewers into playful yet deeply immersive worlds. Alongside these celebrated works, the show reveals the remarkable breadth of her creativity in painting, sculpture, performance, fashion, and literature, offering a rare chance to see the full scope of her imagination in one place. The Beyeler is such a calming space and is worth the extra time wandering the grounds, as well as viewing the permanent collection.
More Basel recommendations:
While I do not have many recommendations in Basel (aside from having a glass of wine on the patio at Les Trois Rois), Zurich is only an hour away. In Zurich, make sure to stop by Mai 36 Galerie to see exhibitions by Leon Xu and Jacobo Castellano (September 11 - November 1, 2025) and go by the UB Law Library and enjoy the beautiful building designed by architect Santiago Calatrava. For dinner I would recommend Kronenhalle—make sure to book in advance!
