Are you in Milan during the Christmas vacations? Here are 10 exhibitions to see

Milan, a city of art and culture, lights up during the holiday season not only with its illuminations and markets, but also with its traditional offering of major exhibitions. During the Christmas vacation season, Milan is even more of a crossroads of creativity, offering exhibitions ranging from classical to contemporary art, through photography, design and new technologies. Whether you are an art enthusiast or simply curious in search of inspiration, Milan will satisfy every cultural desire. Major museums, such as the Palazzo Reale and Mudec, offer reviews of artists who have marked the history of art, while avant-garde galleries and alternative spaces offer a glimpse of the most current trends in the art scene. In addition, there is no shortage of thematic exhibitions dedicated to the holidays, celebrating the Christmas spirit with itineraries that are also suitable for families.

Retrospectives of timeless masters, tributes to emerging talents, and the unprecedented dialogues between past and present. If you are not planning a vacation and are staying in the city, these holidays are an opportunity to immerse yourself in world-renowned masterpieces or to discover hidden gems that tell fascinating and universal stories. Here is a guide to the main exhibitions to see in Milan during the Christmas vacations: we help you plan an itinerary that allows you to experience the city in a different light, where art is intertwined with the magic of the holidays. Get ready to explore a rich and varied cultural landscape that will know how to warm you up even on the coldest days of the year.

1. The Great Munch Exhibition

Where and when: Palazzo Reale, through Jan. 26, 2025

After four decades, Milan welcomes a major retrospective devoted to Edvard Munch (Løten, 1863 - Oslo, 1944), icon of modern art and master of Expressionism. The exhibition, titled Munch. The Inner Cry and staged at the Palazzo Reale from September 14, 2024 to January 26, 2025, is sponsored by the City of Milan - Culture under the patronage of the Ministry of Culture and the Royal Embassy of Norway in Rome, and produced in collaboration with the MUNCH Museum in Oslo and Arthemisia. Edvard Munch is recognized as one of the leading Symbolist artists of the 19th century and a precursor of Expressionism. His artistic output, characterized by an intense exploration of human anxieties and aspirations, reflects a deep interest in the invisible forces that shape our experience. Read Ilaria Baratta’s review here.

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2. Picasso the Stranger

Where and when: Royal Palace, through Feb. 2

More than eighty works by the artist, as well as documents, photographs, letters and videos, from the MNPP and the Musée National de l’Histoire de l’Immigration in Paris: a project intended to open up multiple reflections on the themes of welcome, immigration and the relationship with the other, starting with the theme of Picasso as a foreigner in France. Pablo Picasso, born in 1881 in Malaga, Spain, settled in Paris in 1904. Although France becomes his home and his fame grows beyond national borders, the artist will never obtain French citizenship.The exhibition therefore aims to follow Picasso’s aesthetic and political journey, to understand how he shaped his own identity while living in the difficult condition of an immigrant. Read Federico Giannini’s review here.

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3. The complete anthological exhibition on Niki de Saint Phalle

Where and when: Mudec, through Feb. 16, 2025

A tribute to the French-American artist that nevertheless also aims to reveal her committed side through a different reading of her art. Divided into eight sections, the exhibition narrates Niki de Saint Phalle’s artistic evolution, from her beginnings to her most recent works, following both a diachronic and anthological approach. Through the vibrant, colorful, polymorphous, rounded, and maternal world of her Nanas (and beyond), the exhibition aims to explore a personal life that was far less colorful and maternal. The artist often had to destroy to deal with pain and then rebuild, breaking the mold through unconventional works of art. Her intense provocations and incisive messages have left an indelible mark on the art scene, demonstrating an extraordinary ability to transform the personal into the universal. Read Ilaria Baratta’s review here.

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4. The Machines of Jean Tinguely

Where and when: Pirelli HangarBicocca, through Feb. 2, 2025

This retrospective, the most extensive ever held in Italy after his death, curated by Camille Morineau, Lucia Pesapane and Vicente Todolí with Fiammetta Griccioli, is a unique tribute to Jean Tinguely, whose last tribute in our country was in 1987, with the exhibition Una magia più forte della morte at Palazzo Grassi, curated by Pontus Hultén. The new exhibition project, realized in collaboration with the Museum Tinguely in Basel, is set in a particularly significant context: the industrial spaces of Pirelli HangarBicocca, which recall the original function of the machines at the center of Tinguely’s artistic universe. Read Federico Giannini’s review here.

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5. Dubuffet and the Art Brut

Where and when: Mudec, through Feb. 16, 2025

The exhibition Dubuffet and Art Brut. The Art of Outsiders, on view through Feb. 16, 2025, aims to bring to Italy an exhibition project that illustrates the expressive power of the Art Brut art movement. Through the works on display, the organizers intend to make the public understand the importance of this art form, which continues to inspire contemporary artists and represents a fundamental means of expression for those who wish to communicate their inner essence.

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6. Leonardo da Vinci’s drawings

Where and when: Leonardo Museum3, through Feb. 15, 2025

Il Cavallo, il Mazzocchio e il Volto del Maestro. Milanese Drawings by Leonardo da Vinci and Francesco Melzi: this is the title of the exhibition that in Milan, from November 18, 2024 and until February 15, 2025, the Museo Leonardo3 in Piazza Scala will exhibit for the first time three original drawings from the Veneranda Biblioteca Ambrosiana: a study of a horse made around 1490 for the monument to Francesco Sforza (F 263 inf. 91) a perspective drawing of the mazzocchio (circa 1510, from the Codex Atlanticus, F. 710 a-b) and a portrait of Leonardo himself made by his favorite pupil, Francesco Melzi, between 1515 and 1518 (F 263 inf. 1 bis).

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7. The Enrico Baj exhibition

Where and when: Royal Palace, through Feb. 9, 2025

The exhibition BAJ. BajchezBaj celebrates Enrico Baj (Milan, Oct. 31, 1924 - Vergiate, June 16, 2003), one of the masters of the Italian and international neo-avant-garde, with a star retrospective of the autumn exhibitions, designed to cover all the themes and subjects of his long and multifaceted experience. Baj returns exactly one hundred years after his birth and twelve years after the exhibition, in the same room as I Funerali dell’anarchico Pinelli.

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8. Milan as a crossroads of the arts from the Middle Ages to the 20th century

Where and when: Gallerie d’Italia, until March 16, 2025

From November 23, 2024 to March 16, 2025, the Gallerie d’Italia in Milan will host the exhibition The Genius of Milan. Crossroads of the Arts from the Fabbrica del Duomo to the Twentieth Century, an exhibition that chronicles Milan’s role as a center of artistic and cultural innovation. The event, curated by Marco Carminati, Fernando Mazzocca, Alessandro Morandotti and Paola Zatti, is produced in collaboration with the Veneranda Biblioteca Ambrosiana. Milan has been over the centuries a crossroads of cultures and a fertile ground for artists from abroad, thanks to the support of far-sighted patrons and collectors. This spirit of welcome and openness is the thread running through the exhibition, which explores the relationship between the city and the great masters who helped define its cultural landscape.

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9. The retrospective on Giovanni Chiaramonte

Where and when: Museo Diocesano, through Feb. 9, 2025

The Diocesan Museum in Milan dedicates an exhibition to Giovanni Chiaramonte (Varese, 1948 - Milan, 2023), among Italy’s greatest photographers. In his photographic career, Chiaramonte contributed others to the poetic-conceptual redefinition of the contemporary landscape image. The exhibition titled Infinite Realism is curated by Corrado Benigni with the Fondazione Banca Popolare di Milano and Fondazione Fiera Milano, celebrates the artist one year after his death on Oct. 18, 2023. The exhibition presents 40 images divided into three sections consisting of Italy, Europe, Americas that trace more than two decades of research around different ways of perceiving landscape and urban views, which have always been at the center of the photographer’s artistic journey.

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10. The restored Retable of the Magi

Where and when: Diocesan Museum, through Feb. 2, 2025

Until February 2, 2025, the Retable of the Magi, a monumental masterpiece of Belgian Renaissance sculpture (212 x 170 cm), will be on display at the Diocesan Museum in Milan. Usually kept in the church of Santi Apostoli e Nazaro Maggiore in Milan, the work is presented to the public for the first time after a thorough restoration carried out at the Institut Royal du Patrimoine Artistique (IRPA) in Brussels, thanks to the support of Fondation Roi Baudouin, Fondation Périer-d’Ieteren and Intesa Sanpaolo as part of the Restituzioni project.

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Are you in Milan during the Christmas vacations? Here are 10 exhibitions to see

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