London Exhibitions Opening in October 2026: Renoir, Korea, Es Devlin, the Riviera and Eggleston

The first three days of October 2026 open four large London exhibitions, and the middle of the month adds more. Dates are from the institutions' own pages and press releases, with one exception noted.

Korea — British Museum, from Thursday 1 October

'Korea' runs in the Joseph Hotung Great Court Gallery from 1 October 2026 to 31 January 2027. Samsung Electronics Europe, the exhibition partner, describes it as the British Museum's first major exhibition on Korea's art and history in over 40 years, spanning roughly 300 BC to the present. Objects named in the release include bronze ritual implements from 300–100 BC, a 13th-century celadon ewer, Jeong Seon's Clearing after the Rain on Mount Inwang, a Nam June Paik and a recent Do Ho Suh acquisition.

Es Devlin: Other Worlds — Design Museum, from Friday 2 October

The Design Museum gives 2 October 2026 to 4 April 2027 for the first European retrospective of Es Devlin's 30-year practice, taking in the London 2012 closing ceremony, the 2022 Super Bowl halftime show, The Lehman Trilogy and Forest of Us (Miami, 2021), and includes a replica of her London studio. The curator is Danielle Thom; Bloomberg Philanthropies is the sponsor. Adult tickets are from £17.09 and concessions from £12.82.

Painting the French Riviera — Royal Academy, from Friday 2 October

This is the exception: the Royal Academy's own page would not load for us, so the details come from the press release of the co-organiser, the Cleveland Museum of Art. It gives 2 October 2026 to 31 January 2027 in London, then 14 March to 11 July 2027 in Cleveland, and 'more than 120 paintings, sculptures, and drawings, as well as film, books, posters, and other media'. The artists include Cézanne, Monet, Bonnard, Matisse, Picasso, Renoir, Morisot, Signac and Yves Klein; the curators are Ann Dumas and Colm Guo-Lin Peare of the Royal Academy with Heather Lemonedes Brown of Cleveland.

Renoir and Love — National Gallery, from Saturday 3 October

The National Gallery's press release calls 'Renoir and Love', 3 October 2026 to 31 January 2027, 'the most significant exhibition' of the artist in the UK for 20 years, and its first dedicated Renoir exhibition since 2007. The headline loan is Bal du moulin de la Galette (1876) from the Musée d'Orsay, shown in the UK for the first time. The show is toured with the Orsay and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and Kenneth C. Griffin is lead supporter. The gallery's free Monet and Renoir display in Room 41 closes on Tuesday 22 September, and its Renoir joins this show.

Three days, four openings: Korea, Devlin, the Riviera and Renoir, before Frieze has even put its tents up.

Also in October

• Salman Toor: Someone Like You — The Courtauld Gallery, 2 October 2026 to 10 January 2027, per the Courtauld's own listing.
• Tarek Atoui, Hyundai Commission — Tate Modern's Turbine Hall, 13 October 2026 to 11 April 2027, free; the 11th in the series, per Tate.
• William Eggleston: All that goes unnoticed, Sanlé Sory: Colour Years and Snap Happy! How Children Became Photographers — all at The Photographers' Gallery, 14 October 2026 to 21 February 2027. The Eggleston show marks 50 years since William Eggleston's Guide (1976), with dye-transfer prints.

Tate Britain's The 90s (from 8 October), Tim Walker at the National Portrait Gallery (from 9 October) and Tate Modern's Light and Magic (from 14 October) each have their own post on this desk. Prices for the National Gallery, British Museum and Royal Academy shows were not on the pages we read; check before booking.