The National Gallery (London, United Kingdom) presents the exhibition, Leonardo da Vinci: Painter at the Court of Milan examining Leonardo's extraordinary observation, imagination and technique. The exhibition concentrates on his career as a court painter in Milan, working for the city's ruler Ludovico Maria Sforza, il Moro ('the Moor') in the 1480s and 1490s.

The Museo del Prado (Madrid, Spain) presents The Hermitage in the Prado, an exhibition of 120 works that together reveal the variety and splendour of the collections housed in the Russian museum. Ranging from the 5th century BC to the 20th century, these collections encompass e archaeological items, examples of the decorative arts and the museum's outstanding holdings of paintings, sculptures and drawings.

Ron Terada: Being There is the first U.S. solo museum exhibition, presented at the Museum of Contemporary Art of Chicago (MCA) of Canadian artist Ron Terada who uses text, signage, advertising, and Hollywood films in unusual and inventive ways to create cultural narratives.

The San Diego Museum of Art (California, USA) hosts the exhibition Mexican Modern Painting from the Andrés Blaisten Collection from November 5, 2011 through February 19, 2012. Visitors to the Museum will experience a selection of 80 paintings dated between 1907 and 1956.

"When I paint a picture, I am not writing a thought". Eugène Delacroix questioned the need for a theme in painting. According to the great French artist, what created emotion on a canvas were its artistic values  -material, light, colour-  rather than the scenes depicted in it.