We Recommend
Drawn in Colour: Degas from the Burell
Wed 20 Sep - Mon 7 May
The National Gallery
The exhibition offers a rare opportunity to see stunning paintings, pastels, and drawings by leading French Impressionist Edgar Degas: a unique insight into the practices and preoccupations of a complex and intensely private artist.
Visual Arts
The EY Exhibition: Impressionists in London
Thu 2 Nov - Mon 7 May
Tate Britain
Impressionists in London, French artists in exile (1870–1904) is the first exhibition to map the connections between French and British artists, patrons and art dealers during a traumatic period in French history.
Visual Arts
Fantômas by Caroline Achaintre
Sat 20 Jan - Sun 29 Apr
De La Warr Pavilion
Fantômas is an exhibition of the new works of French artist Caroline Achaintre displaying ceramic sculptures and hand-tufted wool wall hangings incorporating various references such as catwalk fashion, carnival, death-metal iconography, and Primitivism.
Visual Arts
Yto Barrada: Agadir
Wed 7 Feb - Sun 20 May
Barbican Centre
French multimedia artist Yto Barrada will develop a site specific exhibition in the Barbican Curve gallery. The installation will include a mural, a new film commission, several sculptures, and a series of performances to explore the rebuilding of Agadir.
Visual Arts
A Walk Through Paris by Eric Hazan
Tue 27 Feb - Fri 27 Apr
Verso Books
A walker’s guide to Paris, taking us through its past, present and possible futures. Filled with historical anecdotes, geographical observations and literary references, Hazan’s walk guides us through an unknown Paris.
Books
Another Kind of Life: Photography on the Margins – Philippe Chancel
Wed 28 Feb - Sun 27 May
Barbican Centre
Addressing gender and sexuality, drugs and addiction, youth culture and minorities of all kinds, the show features the work of 20 photographers from the 1950s to the present day, including the work of French photographer Philippe Chancel.
Visual Arts
No Place to Lay One’s Head by Françoise Frenkel
Wed 7 Mar - Mon 7 May
Pushkin Press
During WWII, Françoise Frenkel, a Jewish bookseller from Poland, comes to Paris. Horrified by what she sees, she goes into hiding. Discover the tale of a woman whose lust for life refuses to leave her, even in her darkest hour. Prefaced by Patrick Modiano.
Books
The EY Exhibition: Picasso 1932 – Love, Fame, Tragedy
Thu 8 Mar - Sun 9 Sep
Tate Modern
Previously shown in Paris under the name Picasso 1932, année érotique, this acclaimed exhibition is celebrating one of Picasso's most intensely creative year, gathering more than 100 paintings,sculptures and drawings, inspired by his lover Marie-Thérèse Walte
Visual Arts
Your Father’s Room by Michel Déon
Sun 11 Mar - Mon 14 May
Gallic Books
Édouard (Michel Déon’s real name) looks back on his 1920s childhood spent in Paris and Monte Carlo. Within a bourgeois yet unconventional upbringing, ‘Teddy’, must deal with not just the universal trials of growing up, but also a sudden tragedy in his family.
Books
Storm Under the Skin by Henri Michaux
Wed 21 Mar - Mon 21 May
Two Rivers Press
In his vividly strange narratives poet and artist Henri Michaux creates a dream-like, mercurial world of wry invention unlike any other, idiosyncratic, resistant and philosophical. Jane Draycott translates poems and prose-poems from his volumes 1927-54.
Books
Black Sugar by Miguel Bonnefoy
Tue 27 Mar - Sun 27 May
Gallic Books
Set on the edge of the Latin American rainforest, between a sugar cane farm and a lost pirates' treasure, Bonnefoy’s colourful tale of a family’s changing fortunes is also the fascinating story of Venezuela’s development over the course of the 20th century.
Books
The Power of Images by Patrick Boucheron
Tue 3 Apr - Sun 3 Jun
65 Bridge Street Cambridge CB2 1UR UK
From 14th-century Siena to the present, distinguished historian Patrick Boucheron's The Power of Images shows the latent dangers to democracy when our perceptions of the common good are distorted and undermined.
Books
Pericles (Périclès, Prince de Tyr) – Cheek by Jowl
Fri 6 - Sat 21 Apr
Barbican Centre
Featuring Barbican Artistic Associate Cheek by Jowl’s French ensemble, Pericles is directed by Declan Donnellan, awarded the Golden Lion of Venice for his lifetime achievement in theatre. They produce their first Shakespeare in French with English Surtitles
Performing Arts
The Credit Suisse Exhibition: Monet & Architecture
Mon 9 Apr - Sun 29 Jul
National Gallery
There’s never been a single exhibition looking at Monet’s career through the buildings he painted: in Normandy, in Rouen, in Paris, London, and Venice. Monet painted the architecture of his time : modern, historic, simple and grand.
Visual Arts
Paul Maheke
Fri 13 Apr - Sun 10 Jun
Chisenhale Gallery
Paul Maheke considers in his works the potential of the body as an archive to address how memory and identity are formed and constituted. He presents here a varied body of work including performance, sculpture, sound and video.
Visual Arts
The Women Poets Who Changed 1968: Maya Angelou and Adrienne Rich
Mon 16 - Mon 23 Apr
Wilton's Music Hall
Poet in the City presents two evenings celebrating the lives and literary activism of two of history’s most inspirational female poets: Maya Angelou and Adrienne Rich. Join speakers who knew them in life, and speakers whose lives they changed.
Talks
What is the Sharia? by Baudoin Dupret
Wed 18 Apr - Mon 18 Jun
Hurst in association with the Aga Khan University Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilisations
Moving through history, society and Islamic thought to explore the sources of sharia law, Baudouin Dupret gets to the heart of its uses and abuses in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
Books
Maigret and the Reluctant Witnesses by Georges Simenon
Wed 18 Apr - Mon 18 Jun
Penguin
A once-wealthy family closes ranks when one of their own is shot, leaving Maigret - along with a troublesome new magistrate - to pick his way through their secrets. Penguin is publishing the entire series of Maigret novels in new translations.
Books
Being Here by Marie Darrieussecq
Wed 18 Apr - Mon 18 Jun
Text Publishing
Born in Germany in 1876, Paula Modersohn-Becker was the first female artist to paint herself not only naked but pregnant. Being Here is a moving account of the life of this ground-breaking Expressionist painter by award-winning author Marie Darrieussecq.
Books
The Patience Stone by Atiq Rahimi
Wed 18 Apr - Mon 18 Jun
Vintage
A young woman prays at her husband's bedside as he lies in a coma with a bullet in his neck. As she tries to keep him alive, she rages against men, war, culture, God. Now is her chance - her first ever - to speak without being censored.
Books
The Major Refutation by Pierre Senges
Wed 18 Apr - Mon 18 Jun
Contra Mundum Press
Here is a book that unites all books: adventure book, historical panorama, satirical tale, philosophical summa, polemical mockery, geographical treatise, political analysis. This edition is followed by a scholarly afterword discussing the genesis of the text.
Books
Blue Self Portrait by Noémi Lefebvre
Wed 18 Apr - Mon 18 Jun
Les Fugitives
A novel of angst and high farce, Blue Self-Portrait unfolds among Berlin's cultural institutions but is more truly located in the mid-air flux between contrary impulses to remember and to ignore.
Books
Effet Bekkerell – Groupe Bekkerell
Thu 19 - Sun 22 Apr
Roundhouse
Part riot-girl pop song, part circus spectacle, The Bekkrell Effect is both comic and revealing. The show swings between acrobatics and poetry, falling and flying, in a performance as energetic as a nuclear reaction.
Performing Arts
Kapwani Kiwanga
Fri 20 Apr - Sun 17 Jun
Tramway - Glasgow
Kapwani Kiwanga takes the fact that the continent of Europe is moving towards Africa as a starting point for a new multi-faceted installation. Through these works Kawanga suggests speculative fictions that stretch through a perspective of deep geological time.
Visual Arts
Thierry Escaich
Fri 20 Apr
Sage Gateshead
Thierry Escaich’s piece, Baroque Song, will be played by the Royal Northern Sinfonia under the direction of French conductor Alexandre Bloch. Ravel and Brahms will also be performed, showing the shared interest of the composers for gypsy music.
Classical Music
Ensemble Variances & Thierry Pécou
Sun 22 Apr
Victoria Rooms
The French Ensemble Variances, Diapason d’Or winner in 2012, will perform the seminal work Outre-Mémoire from its conductor and founder Thierry Pécou. This piece is an exploration of the slave trade through music from a contemporary perspective.
Classical Music
DFS by Cécilia Bengolea & François Chaignaud
Mon 23 - Tue 24 Apr
Sadler's Wells
From vibrant dancehall rhythms to melodic vocal harmonies, with some rap thrown in for good measure, DFS plays with the combinations of these music styles and their dance counterparts to create something new and unusual.
Performing Arts
Matthias Goerne
Tue 24 - Thu 26 Apr
Wigmore Hall
Matthias Goerne returns to the Wigmore Hall, offering two concerts from his personal repertory: Wagner, Strauss, Wolf, Pfitzner and Schubert. The German baritone known for his delicacy of song interpretation, will invite the spectator through a lyrical trip.
Classical Music
Fakear
Wed 25 Apr
Koko
Along with Petit Biscuit, Théo Le Vigoureux aka Fakear is one of the figureheads of a richly melodic new French electronic sound. He's back in London with new tracks to air from an album set for release in April, including single Lost In Time.
Contemporary Music
Rodin and the art of ancient Greece
Thu 26 Apr - Sun 29 Jul
British Museum
One hundred years after his death, see a selection of Rodin's works in a new light. For the first time, Rodin's sculptures are shown alongside some of the Parthenon sculptures that the artist so admired, as well as selected objects from his own collection.
Visual Arts
Nikolai Lugansky
Sat 28 Apr
Wigmore Hall
Russian pianist Nikolai Lugansky has released in February a recording of Rachmaninov’s Preludes. He comes to the Wigmore Hall proposing a programme with a vast emotional landscape with pieces of Rachmaninov, Schumann and Debussy.
Classical Music
1968 Reconsidered: New Transnational Perspectives
Tue 1 May
Maison Française d’Oxford
Ludivine Bantigny (De grands soirs en petits matins, 2018) and Boris Gobille (Le Mai 68 des écrivains – Crise politique et avant-gardes litteraires, 2018) give a new insight on the May '68 events.
Talks
Mai ’68 at 50: Appropriations, Translations, Legacies
Wed 2 - Sat 5 May
King’s College London
Artists, scholars, and witnesses from the UK and France interrogate and evaluate May 1968 in 2018. What frameworks do we need to think through its ongoing appropriations? Or is it time to forget it and move on?
Talks
Balham Lit Fest: Beach Beneath The Street: 50 years since May ’68
Fri 4 May
Balham Bowls Club
2018 marks 50 years since the unrest of May '68. At this event, part of the brilliant Wandsworth Fringe Festival, Balham Lit Fest brings together contemporary activists to reflect on half a century of student protest.
Talks
The Limiñanas
Sat 5 May
The Garage
One of the coolest rock bands in France, The Limiñanas recorded their most recent album of beguiling psychedelic guitar pop, Shadow People, with Brian Jonestown Massacre's Anton Newcombe and collaborated with former New Order bassist Peter Hook.
Contemporary Music
Azzedine Alaïa: The Couturier
Thu 10 May - Sun 7 Oct
Design Museum
Conceived and co-curated with Monsieur Alaïa before his death in November 2017, the exhibition charts his incredible journey from sculptor to couturier, his nonconformist nature and his infectious energy for fashion, friendship and the female body.
Visual Arts
Qigang Chen
Thu 10 May
Wales Millenium Centre
Chinese composer based in France, Qigang Chen aesthetics' merge European and Chinese musical concepts. His piece L'Eloignement will be performed by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales at the Wales Millennium Center.
Classical Music
Lomboy
Thu 10 May
Archspace
Austrian-born but a citizen of the world, Tanja Frinta is the brains and voice behind Lomboy, a group featuring some of the finest musicians from Tokyo and Paris. Their playful, lounge-inspired tunes update the 90s sounds of Hooverphonic and Portishead.
Contemporary Music
European Literature Night
Thu 10 May
British Library
The annual European Literature Night is a chance to discover the best new voices in translation. It brings together a panel of inspiring writers from across the channel to read from their work, and discuss key artistic themes and the countries that shape them.
Talks
Astérix in Britain: The Life and Work of René Goscinny
Thu 10 May - Sun 30 Sep
Jewish Museum
This immersive and playful exhibition explores the unique imagination of the co-creator of the Astérix and Lucky Luke comics. Goscinny’s story is brought to life through rare scripts, storyboards, tools, photographs, films, sketches and a little wild boar.
Books
Van Kuijk Quartet
Thu 10 May
All Saints Church
Van Kuijk Quartet has established itself as one of the best quartets of its generation with many prestigious prizes and concerts in major venues all around the world. For the Brighton Festival, they perform a programme including works of Schubert and Poulenc.
Classical Music
Stephane Degout & George Benjamin
Thu 10 - Sat 26 May
Royal Opera House
Stephane Degout who has just released the album Enfers, will sing in the opera Lessons in Love and Violence created by George Benjamin and Martin Crimp. George Benjamin is a member of the honorary committee of the Diaphonique Franco-British fund.
Classical Music
Book Launch: What is the sharia? by Baudoin Dupret
Thu 10 May
Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilisations
Come to the Aga Khan University-Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilisations (ISMC London) to discover Baudoin Dupre's book, an indispensable introduction to the evolution and implementation of Sharia law within the Muslim world.
Talks
London Festival of Baroque Music
Fri 11 - Sat 19 May
St John's Smith Square
London Festival of Baroque Music welcomes its first Guest Artistic Director, Sébastien Daucé, who presents, among others, several French baroque ensembles, including Le Poème Harmonique, Les Concerts de l'Hostel Dieu and Doulce Mémoire.
Classical Music
Le Poème Harmonique
Fri 11 May
St John's Smith Square
For the London Festival of Baroque Music, French ensemble le Poème Harmonique invites us to the court of Louis XIV, performing French and European works from the 18th century. The programme includes pieces from Lully, Tessier, Cavalli and Moulinié.
Classical Music
European Writers’ Tour
Sat 12 May
Masonic Hall
Fresh from the annual European Literature Night at the British Library, a panel of inspiring European writers from across the Channel share their work and discuss what it means to be a writer in Europe today.
Talks
Les Concerts de l’Hostel Dieu
Sat 12 May
St John's Smith Square
French and British musicians from the ensemble Les Concerts de l’Hostel Dieu present a poetic bi-cultural programme marrying râgas from the traditional Indian repertoire and François Couperin’s Leçon de Ténèbres.
Classical Music
Fuoco E Cenere
Sat 12 May
St John's Smith Square
The ensemble Fuoco E Cenere has released a critical acclaimed album of works from Marin Marais in 2017. The spectator is invited to a journey in Versailles, with works from Lully, Forqueray, Lambert, Clérambault, Marais and Charpentier.
Classical Music
La Nuova Musica
Sun 13 May
St John's Smith Square
Early music ensemble La Nuova Musica is considered by BBC Radio 3 as “one of the most exciting consorts in the early music field”. They will perform Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice, a monument of the baroque opera repertoire.
Classical Music
Halo Maud
Tue 15 May
Sebright Arms
Recently signed to UK indie label Heavenly Records, Halo Maud - a former member of Moodoïd - is a singer, multi-instrumentalist and composer of enchanting, synth-tinged guitar pop. Having supported Baxter Dury on tour, she's back for her second London show.
Contemporary Music