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It’s the most wonderful time of the year, people say. But those people clearly aren’t art fans, because if you like to spend your days traipsing around London’s galleries, it’s a genuinely dismal time of year. There’s no cheer here: literally every single commercial gallery in London will be closed over the Christmas period, so if you were hoping to catch Jeff Wall at White Cube or Takashi Murakami at Gagosian in the lull between festivities, you are out of luck.
But London’s big art museums and institutions definitely are open, which is perfect if you’re the kind of person who thinks the brutality, trauma, pain and violence of Francis Bacon sounds like an escape from the family. Below, we’ve compiled a list of London’s biggest art galleries, what their Christmas opening hours are and what exhibitions they’ve got on. Merry Christm-arts.
Which London art museums and galleries are open over Christmas 2024
The Courtauld Gallery
Housing the UK’s finest collection of impressionist and post-impressionist art, the Courtauld Gallery is also the most open of all of London’s art institutions, closing only on Christmas Day and Boxing Day. The ultra-popular Monet exhibition is sold out, but you can still go luxuriate in the permanent collection with all of its Cezannes and Gauguins and pretend you can remember what sunshine looks like.
The Courtauld Gallery is closed 25-26 December. More details here.
Tate Modern and Tate Britain
The two Tates (Modern and Britain) are open on all but the big yuledays, and there are some great shows to see. At Tate Modern, the Anthony McCall and Zanele Muholi shows are both very good, while Mike Kelley is genuinely excellent. Over in Pimlico, Tate Britain’s exhibition of British photography from the 1980s is worth a visit, and you should catch the Turner Prize if only so you can tut at the state of contemporary art (it’s actually pretty good this year).
Tate Modern and Tate Britain are closed 24-26 Dec. More details here.
National Portrait Gallery
Flesh, violence, anguish; no artist encapsulates the themes of Christmas quite like Francis Bacon, and the NPG’s big show of his portraiture is an absolute stunner. Plus, what better time of year to go see the gallery’s horrific Ed Sheeran portrait and replace all the goodwill of the season with intense dislike of art.
The National Portrait Gallery is closed 24-26 Dec. More details here.
The Royal Academy of Arts
There’s nothing on in the RA’s big main galleries, but the ‘Michelangelo, Leonardo, Raphael’ show upstairs is a lovely, if flawed, bit of art historicism, plus the Collection gallery is much under-visited and totally free.
The Royal Academy of Arts is closed 24-26 Dec. More details here.
The Hayward Gallery
Is the Hayward Gallery’s Haegue Yang exhibition great? No. But is it good? Not really. But is it a fine enough way to pass a wintery afternoon? Absolutely.
The Hayward Gallery is closed 24-26 Dec. More details here.
National Gallery
The National Gallery, with its incredible collection of historical art, is always a treat, but it’s absolutely flying right now. There’s a free display of swirling, sinuous psychedelia by Parmigianino and the last few weeks of the exhibition the blockbuster magnificence of Van Gogh (which closes Jan 19).
The National Gallery is closed 24-26 Dec and 1 Jan 2025.
Barbican
The Barbican’s excellent ‘The Imaginary Institution of India’ is so excellent that we put it in our list of the most excellent exhibitions of 2024. And you’ve only got a few weeks left to see it.
The Barbican is closed 23-26 Dec. More details here.
Whitechapel Gallery
The Lygia Clark and Sonia Boyce shows at the Whitechapel aren’t great, but the Peter Kennard show is brilliantly prescient political art. Anger, ire, despair and invective, that’s the real Christmas spirit.
Whitechapel Gallery is closed 23-26 and 30 Dec and 1 Jan 2025. More details here.
Want more? Here are the top ten exhibitions in London.