The MoMA (New York, USA) presents the U.S. premiere of Taryn Simon's (b. 1975, New York) photographic project A Living Man Declared Dead and Other Chapters. The work was produced over a four-year period (2008–11), during which the artist travelled around the world researching and documenting bloodlines and their related stories.

The Smithsonian American Art Museum (Washington, USA) presents African American Art: Harlem Renaissance, Civil Rights Era and Beyond, a show with a selection of works by 43 black artists who lived through the tremendous changes of the 20th century. In paintings, sculpture, prints and photographs, the featured artists embrace themes both universal and specific to the African American experience, including the exploration of identity, the struggle for equality, the power of music and the beauties and hardships of life in rural and urban America.

The Carnavalet Museum (Paris, France) presents the Parisian work of one of the most famous photographers of the 20th century, Eugène Atget (Libourne, 1857 - Paris, 1927).

CaixaForum Madrid (Spain) presents an exhibition of one of the most important illustrators of the 18th century. Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720-1778) was one of the most important draftsmen of the 18th century. Like no-one else he cultivated the three dimensions and detail in the engraving. The technique, intensity and evocative power of his work had a great influence on Romantics, Surrealists and Cubists.

The Museo Reina Sofía (Madrid, Spain) hosts the first large retrospective on the works of James Coleman (Ballaghaderreen, Ireland, 1941).