London's Best Art Exhibitions To See This Spring

This long-overdue retrospective of Vanessa Bell's work reminds us that she was as much a pioneer in the art world as her sister, Virginia Woolf, was in the literary sphere. A central figure in the Bloomsbury Group, which had its seat at Charleston in Sussex, Bell devised a captivating new visual language based on abstract forms and a subtle, yet brilliant, colour palette. Approximately 100 of her paintings, ceramics, fabrics and photographs will be on display, demonstrating her unique ability to traverse the fine and the applied arts, and to turn her hand to genres spanning portraiture, still life and landscape.

'Vanessa Bell (1879–1961)' is at Dulwich Picture Gallery from 8 February to 4 June.

To mark the centenary of the Russian Revolution, this exhibition will look at the art from one of the most disruptive periods of modern history. Featuring the groundbreaking abstract works of Wassily Kandinsky and the avant-garde geometry of Kazimir Malevich, together with extracts of films by Sergei Eisenstein and many other paintings, photographs and sculptures from the era, the show will offer a wide-ranging perspective on Russian art at a time when it was flourishing across all media.

'Revolution: Russian Art 1917–1932' is at the Royal Academy of Arts from 11 February to 17 April.

This comprehensive exhibition will showcase six decades' worth of work by one of Britain's most influential living artists. Incorporating painting, drawing, print, photography and video, the show will illustrate the extraordinary breadth of David Hockney's prodigious output, ranging in scope from his striking portraits of well-known creative personalities to his recreations of Yorkshire landscapes and LA swimming pools.

'David Hockney' is at Tate Britain from 9 February to 29 May.

The ICA will exhibit the work of two prominent contemporary female artists: the Australian painter Helen Johnson and the British Afro-Caribbean artist Sonia Boyce. Johnson's large-scale artworks, displayed in a zig-zag format designed to mirror the layout of Canberra, use contemporary and historic references to explore complex questions about Australia's colonisation and its relationship with Britain. Boyce also focuses on the dynamics of power through her multimedia installation, which is based on an improvised performance involving a participatory relationship between the actors and their audience.

'Helen Johnson: Warm Ties' and 'Sonia Boyce: We Move In Her Way' are at the ICA from 1 February to 16 April.

Seventy years separate the births of the French surrealist artist Claude Cahun and the British contemporary artist Gillian Wearing, but a new exhibition at National Portrait Gallery will reveal fascinating parallels between two individuals who used self-portraiture as a means of exploring ideas about gender and identity. Cahun, who was imprisoned by the Nazis during World War II for her role in the French Resistance, challenges traditional gender representations through images of performance and masquerade; similarly, Wearing, who won the Turner Prize in 1997, uses masks and facial expressions to explore the boundaries between our public persona and private identity.

'Gillian Wearing and Claude Cahun: Behind the Mask, Another Mask' is at National Portrait Gallery from 9 March to 29 May.

Remembered as "the godfather of pop art", Eduardo Paolozzi left behind a body of work that is consistently ahead of its time. His art reflects the sweeping changes taking place across British society throughout the five decades of his artistic career, from the 1950s and the Swinging Sixties right up to the optimism of the 1990s. Featuring more than 250 works, the exhibition will highlight the diversity of Paolozzi's diverse output, incorporating collages, sculptures, textiles and screenprints.

'Eduardo Paolozzi' is at the Whitechapel Gallery from 16 February to 14 May.

Now based in its new Kensington location, the Design Museum will pay tribute to the Russian Revolution's 100th anniversary with this unusual exhibition, which focuses on an idealistic vision of Moscow that never came to fruition. Using architectural drawings, artwork and propaganda from the 1920s and early 1930s, it will show how a forward-thinking group of architects and designers could, had they been given free rein, have changed the future of the Russian city.

'Imagine Moscow: Architecture, Propaganda, Revolution' is at the Design Museum from 15 March to 4 June.

The first-ever UK exhibition dedicated to the Austrian-born, Sweden-based artist and designer Josef Frank, who died in 1967, will reveal the significance of his legacy not only to the furniture and textiles sectors but also to our understanding of modernism more generally. An advocate of the use of bright colours and rich decoration at a time when a simpler, monochromatic approach was more in vogue, Frank is best known for his bold and beautiful textile and wallpaper designs. Less widely seen are his more restrained watercolour paintings, a number of which will be displayed here.

'Josef Frank Patterns – Furniture – Painting' is at the Fashion and Textile Museum from 28 January to 7 May 2017.

At a time when US politics and society are more in the limelight than ever comes this major new exhibition exploring 60 years of a superpower through the lens of its art. Household names including Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, Ed Ruscha, Kara Walker and Julie Mehretu will all take their place in the show, which explores the importance of printmaking as a medium for bringing art to a wider audience. Questioning – as we all still are – what the American Dream really looks like, this exhibition is  set to be as thought-provoking as it is visually compelling.

'American Dream: Pop to the Present' is at the British Museum from 9 March to 18 June.

The Berlin-based photographer Wolfgang Tillmans became the first non-British artist to win the Turner Prize in 2000; now, Tate Modern is set to launch a solo show bringing together a selection of his photographs, digital slide projections, publications, curatorial projects and recorded music. Together, they illustrate his innovative, interdisciplinary approach and his highly personal engagement with global issues. The earliest works in the exhibition date from 2003, the year of the Iraq invasion, which Tillmans sees as a turning point in terms of our social and political reality. 

'Wolfgang Tillmans' is at Tate Modern from 15 February to 11 June.