Fall Preview: Art
Dennis Hopper: Signs of the Times
This is the culmination of an 18-year project by Hopper, who took over 10,000 photographs, and then selected over 400 images to survey his body of work. Coinciding with the exhibit is a book, Dennis Hopper Photographs 1961-1967, which includes photos of Tina Turner, Andy Warhol and more. Tony Shafrazi Gallery, opened Sept. 12
Monet’s Water Lilies
You may think you’ve seen it all before on the semi-glossy pages of a calendar, but you’ve never really seen the Impressionist’s gaze until you’ve witnessed the brushstrokes for yourself. Museum of Modern Art, opened Sept. 13
Sally Mann: Proud Flesh
The photographer may have achieved renown (and infamy) over the controversy surrounding the photographs of her naked children, but these series of photographs were taken over six years and study her husband, Larry Mann, and how a mature male body is viewed. Gagosian Gallery, opens Sept. 15
A retrospective of Tim Burton’s artistic output will be exhibited at MoMA beginning Nov. 22.
Georgia O’Keeffe: Abstraction
Rather than the iconic (and eroticized) flower series, the museum displays the abstract shapes and colors that still offer up plenty of bodily interpretations. Swirls of exuberant color will surely be a crowd pleaser. But also accompanying the show’s paintings, drawings and sculptures will be Alfred Stieglitz’s photographic portrait series of O’Keeffe herself. Whitney Museum, opens Sept. 17
Looking In: Robert Frank’s ‘The Americans’
Marking the 50th anniversary of the photographer’s influential book of photographs that documented the way the country was during the really difficult years. All that babble about hardship and recession will make you think again about how tough you really have it. And remember what it was like before irony and self-exposure took hold of the hipsterati. Metropolitan Museum of Art, opens Sept. 22
With a Single Step: Stories in the Making of America
Just when you thought the city had exhausted its chances for another museum, we get a new one. This time celebrated architect Maya Lin (best known for the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, D.C.) transforms a space on Centre Street in Lower Manhattan. The core exhibit will feature contemporary artists of Chinese descent living in New York as well as a history of the Chinese experience in the city. The Museum of Chinese in America, opens Sept. 22
Allan Kaprow Yard
It’s 50 years later, and the inventor of Happenings is still influencing a generation of young artists. This show celebrates the opening of Hauser & Wirth’s first American gallery by having interventionist William Pope.L reinterpreting Kaprow’s “Yard,” a mountain of black rubber auto tires through which visitors crawled in 1961. While other galleries may be playing it safe with pretty paintings, we know some people aren’t afraid of getting their hands a little dirty. Hauser & Wirth New York, opens Sept. 24
Read My Pins
Maybe it’s just us, but the former Secretary of State under President Clinton is like the grandma we always wished we had—even her fusty brooches were a way of wielding power. Including over 200 pins from Madeleine Albright’s personal collection, the exhibit explores how the jewelry was employed as a “diplomatic, social and political tool.” That means that the tough old bird was giving a big middle finger to the terrorists by wearing a bit of sparkly on her chest. Museum of Arts and Design, opens Sept. 30
Watteau to Degas: French Drawings from the Frits Lugt Collection
More than 60 works on paper are included in this exhibition that includes well-known masters: Watteau, Boucher, Fragonard, Delacrois, Ingres and Degas. Frick Collection, opens Oct. 6
Urs Fischer
He jackhammered through the concrete floor of a gallery back in 2007. We’ve been waiting for a show to remember at the New Museum since they opened on the Bowery. Now that they’re giving over three floors to the Swiss-born New Yorker, we may finally get it. New Museum, opens Oct. 28
Anish Kapoor: Memory
There’s always a “Wow!” factor when it comes to Kapoor’s work. This time he uses Cor-Ten steel to create a sculpture that looks wedged into a tight gallery space. You’ll have to see it to believe it. Guggenheim Museum, opens Oct. 21
Performa 09
RoseLee Goldberg returns with her brainchild, a biennial of performance art. We’re always a bit perplexed by whatever takes place during this bizarre three-week event. But we also never want to miss the creative ways in which artists use duct tape, cardboard and video cameras. Various locations, Nov. 1-22
Eero Saarinen: Shaping the Future
You know more about this influential architect than you might think. The man who brought us the sensuous curves of the TWA Terminal (now home to Jet Blue) as well as the Gateway Arch in St. Louis gets some much-deserved love. Watch out for all those black-clad architects and devotees that will be swarming around to get a chance to view plans and details from the master. Museum of the City of New York, opens Nov. 10
Alias Man Ray
Few people know that the popular artist was actually born Emmanuel Radnitzky to Russian Jewish immigrants. This reconsideration of the Dadaist, Parisian Surrealist, international portrait and fashion photographer’s career. Including 200 works—photographs, paintings, sculptures and objects, drawings, films and a selection of his writings—this is the first major multimedia Man Ray show at a New York City museum since 1974. Jewish Museum, opens Nov. 15
Tim Burton
MoMA’s massive look into the baroque-stylized and darkly-funny world of Tim Burton will encompass not only his impressive filmography, but also showcases his wide array of work in such diverse visual media as painting, puppets and maquettes, and digital and moving-image formats. Burton fans will also delight in viewing the director’s little-seen nonprofessional films and student artwork. Museum of Modern Art, opens Nov. 22
