Zurbarán, Pittsburgh, and Sickert: Three Exhibitions in One Episode
Ben Luke’s latest episode of The Week in Art moves across centuries and continents, linking a major survey of Spanish Baroque painting, a landmark recurring exhibition in Pittsburgh, and a close look at one of Walter Sickert’s most unsettling subjects. The episode centers on three shows opening this weekend: Francisco de Zurbarán at the National Gallery in London, the 59th Carnegie International in Pittsburgh, and Walter Sickert: Working Notes at Charleston in Lewes, Sussex.
At the National Gallery, the Zurbarán exhibition is being billed as the largest career survey of Francisco de Zurbarán since the 1980s. Opening on 2 May and running through 23 August, it aims to present a more rounded view of the 17th-century Spanish master, whose reputation has often rested on his spare, devotional images of saints and other religious figures. Luke tours the exhibition with co-curator Francesca Whitlum-Cooper, bringing attention to the breadth of a career that has too often been narrowed to a single mode.
The episode then shifts to Pittsburgh, where the Carnegie International returns for its 59th edition. Titled If the word we, the exhibition opens on 2 May and continues until 3 January 2027. Held every four years at the Carnegie Museum of Art and several other venues, the International remains one of the most closely followed recurring exhibitions in contemporary art. Luke speaks with museum director Eric Crosby about the new edition and its place within the exhibition’s long history.
The Work of the Week is one of five painted versions of Ennui, made around 1914 by Walter Sickert (1860–1942). It appears in Walter Sickert: Working Notes at Charleston in Lewes, on view from 2 May to 11 October 2026. The exhibition is curated by Robert Travers, founder of Piano Nobile, in partnership with Charleston, the organization based in the former home of Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant. That setting gives Sickert’s restless, psychologically charged painting a particularly resonant frame.
Together, the three segments trace a wide arc through art history: from Zurbarán’s disciplined spirituality, to the Carnegie International’s contemporary reach, to Sickert’s modern unease. The episode also underscores how exhibitions gain force through context — the curators, institutions, and places that shape how art is seen.
