Flagship 2018-2019 season

Louvre Abu Dhabi has announced a full season of programming for the 2018-2019 season under the theme World of Exchanges.

Japanese Connections: The Birth of Modern Décor
September 6–November 24, 2018

Curated by Isabelle Cahn, General Curator of Paintings at Paris’s Musée d’Orsay, the exhibition will trace the influence of the iconic Japanese Ukiyo-e aesthetic on modern French decorative artists, through a presentation of more than 40 prints, paintings and screens including French group, the Nabis, and five Japanese Ukiyo-e masters from the 19th and 20th centuries. The exhibition will be accompanied by programming that celebrates Japanese arts and culture. For the first time, Louvre Abu Dhabi will open a special space for teenagers and young adults to explore Japanese youth culture, from September 6, 2018 to January 5, 2019 called Manga Lab.

Animals: Between Real and Imaginary
Children’s Museum exhibition 
September 6–July 2019

Animals: Between Real and Imaginary explores how animals have been represented creatively throughout art history from all eras and regions. Visitors will be introduced to a variety of materials and techniques used by the artists to represent both real and imaginary animals.

Roads of Arabia
November 8, 2018–February 16, 2019

Louvre Abu Dhabi will present a special edition of the Roads of Arabia touring exhibition. The exhibition is curated by Dr. Souraya Noujaim, Scientific, Curatorial and Collections Management Director, and Noëmi Daucé, Chief Curator – Archaeology at Louvre Abu Dhabi. The acclaimed exhibition will explore the archaeological and cultural heritage of Saudi Arabia and the diverse history of the Arabian Peninsula, in partnership with the Saudi Commission for Tourism and National Heritage. The exhibition will also integrate additional artefacts from the UAE that are displayed for the first time, highlighting the shared history of the two nations through five chapters.

First Anniversary Celebrations
November 8-11, 2018

To mark the museum’s first anniversary of opening, Louvre Abu Dhabi has planned a week of celebrations between 8 and 11 November, including an inaugural symposium titled, Worlds in a Museum, in collaboration with École du Louvre. The symposium will bring together industry leaders to discuss contemporary museography through keynote speeches and panel discussions.

Rain of Light Festival
December 11-15, 2018

A specific moment celebrating the immersion into the World of Exchanges will be the performing arts festival Rain of Light. A route into the diversity of artistic expression between concerts, ballet and dance battles, circus and street art performances, and traditional music.

Rembrandt and the Dutch Golden Age: The Leiden Collection and the musée du Louvre
February 14–May 14, 2019

An exhibition that celebrates one of art history’s most acclaimed and well-loved Old Masters, Rembrandt and the Dutch Golden Age: The Leiden Collection and the musée du Louvre, will present masterpieces by Rembrandt and artists of his time. The works are drawn from the Leiden Collection of important 17th century Dutch paintings and include some of the period’s most characteristic genres: biblical and historic scenes, portraiture and genre. The musée du Louvre, where the Leiden Collection was first unveiled in 2017, will also lend artworks from its renowned Dutch paintings collection.

Opening the Album of the World
April 25–July 13, 2019

Photography was invented in August 1839 and travelled rapidly from Europe across the world in the hands of geographic, scientific, diplomatic, colonial and military missions. Opening the Album of the World will trace the impact of this new technology on societies’ understanding of the world beyond their own borders, drawing on early photographs from the collections of the Musée du quai Branly - Jacques Chirac. It will highlight the work of photographers from Africa, Asia, the Middle East and the Americas who adopted photography as a method to chronicle their own communities and cultural experiences.

For more information, please visit the website.