Art News: What's On in UK Art, 26 October to 1 November 2026

The clocks go back on Sunday 25 October, and the week that follows is half-term for many schools, so the big London exhibitions will be busy. After Frieze in London and the record-breaking sales in Paris, it is a quieter week for the market, but there is a lot to see: several of the autumn's best shows have only just opened, a handful close on Sunday 1 November, and Asian Art in London begins on Thursday. Here is what's on across the UK from Monday 26 October to Sunday 1 November.

Last chances: closing on Sunday 1 November

• Frieze Sculpture, The Regent's Park, London. Eleven artists in the English Gardens, free and with no ticket needed, until 1 November. Our Frieze week guide has more.
• Beauty and Destruction: Wartime London in Art, IWM London. Free, open 10am to 6pm, until 1 November.
• Catherine Opie: To Be Seen, Royal Scottish Academy building, Edinburgh. Catherine Opie's portraits, touring from the National Portrait Gallery in London, until 1 November.
• Mrinalini Mukherjee and Lewis Hammond, The Hepworth Wakefield. The retrospective of the Indian sculptor, famous for her monumental figures knotted from dyed hemp, and Hammond's first museum show in the UK, with new paintings made for the gallery, both close on 1 November.

The big London exhibitions

Renoir and Love, at the National Gallery until 31 January, is the gallery's first exhibition devoted to Pierre-Auguste Renoir since 2007, and the one to book ahead for: the gallery says its ticket sales have broken a record. Its centrepiece is Bal du moulin de la Galette of 1876, lent by the Musée d'Orsay and shown in Britain for the first time.

Painting the French Riviera, at the Royal Academy until 31 January, follows the painters drawn to the Côte d'Azur from the 1870s, among them Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Paul Cézanne and Pierre Bonnard. The RA stays open until 9pm on Fridays and Saturdays during the run.

At Tate Britain, The 90s: Art and Fashion, curated by Edward Enninful, runs until 14 February; our guide to the exhibition has tickets and times. Tate Modern has two shows: Frida: The Making of an Icon, with more than 30 works by Frida Kahlo, until 3 January, and Light and Magic: The Birth of Art Photography, on photographers from Shanghai to Cape Town between the 1880s and the 1960s, until 21 February.

Katsushika Hokusai, Under the Wave off Kanagawa (The Great Wave), from Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji, about 1830–32. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

At Dulwich Picture Gallery, Hokusai: Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji, until 17 January, shows all 46 prints in the series together for the first time in Britain, including The Great Wave and a rare variant of Red Fuji, all from the Iuchi Collection. The series grew from 36 prints to 46 because the new Prussian blue in them sold so well.

Three more shows are worth the trip. Robert Ryman: The Real Thing at the Barbican, until 28 February, brings together around 60 paintings by Robert Ryman, his first major exhibition in Britain for more than 30 years. Salman Toor: Someone Like You at the Courtauld Gallery, until 10 January, is nineteen paintings by Salman Toor. And Tim Walker's new photographs are at the National Portrait Gallery until 7 February.

For half-term, two free choices. Freddie Mercury: Splendid Things opened at the V&A on 24 October as a free trail of eight of his stage looks through the museum, though the V&A warns that it will open with a limited offer on 29 and 30 October because of industrial action, so check before you go. And Quentin Blake: The Southbank Parade runs at the Southbank Centre until 8 November.

Beyond London

• The Turner Prize 2026 is at MIMA in Middlesbrough until 29 March, free, with Simeon Barclay, Kira Freije, Marguerite Humeau and Tanoa Sasraku on the shortlist. The winner is announced on 10 December.
• Gwen John: Strange Beauties, at Modern Two in Edinburgh until 4 January, is the first major exhibition in Scotland devoted to Gwen John.
• Elizabeth Blackadder: A Life in Colour, at Dovecot Studios in Edinburgh until 14 November, surveys Elizabeth Blackadder (1931–2021).
• Duncan Campbell: A New No, at the Gallery of Modern Art in Glasgow until 4 January, closes GoMA's 30th-anniversary programme with the 2014 Turner Prize winner.

Fairs and auctions

Asian Art in London runs from Thursday 29 October to Tuesday 10 November, with dealers, auction houses and museums across the city. Seven specialist exhibitions are at The Lavery in South Kensington from 29 October to 3 November, several galleries stay open late on Saturday 31 October, and the main sales follow the next week, among them Christie's Fine Asian Art on 6 November.

On Tuesday 27 October, Bonhams at New Bond Street sells Northern Light, Scandinavian art from the collection of the Norwegian collectors Bjarne and Iwona Rieber, with paintings and prints by Edvard Munch alongside Harald Sohlberg, Michael Ancher, Nikolai Astrup and Frits Thaulow. Sotheby's Modern Discoveries sale closes on 29 October, and its Asian Art sale runs from 30 October to 6 November. Auction viewings are free and open to anyone.

If you are thinking of selling

The weeks after Frieze are when the auction houses build their winter and spring sales, so this is a good moment to find out what a work is worth. Asian Art in London is the main fortnight of the year for Chinese, Japanese and Indian art in London, and the Hokusai show is a reminder of what decides the value of a Japanese print: an early impression, with strong colour and good condition, is worth many times a later printing of the same design.

If you own a work by any of the artists here and are thinking of selling, send us photographs of the front and the back for a free valuation. There is no obligation to sell, and we act for you rather than for the saleroom.

Cover: Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Bal du moulin de la Galette, 1876, Musée d'Orsay, now in Renoir and Love at the National Gallery. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.