For Every Fancy, Cultural Experiences Near and Far

Sunday, October 5, 2008

ONGOING/OPEN

"Red Lines, Death Vows, Foreclosures, Risk Structures: Architectures of Finance From the Great Depression to the Subprime Meltdown."

Through Dec. 21. Compton Gallery, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass.

You've lived the bubble and watched your assets tank, now see the show: No institution explores the intersection of architecture, public policy and philosophy quite so thoroughly as MIT, which looks at past lending practices, current anxieties and a large "sculptural head of Frederick Babcock, early 20th c. real estate theorist."

"Cold War Modern: Design 1945-1970"

Through Jan. 11. Victoria and Albert Museum, London

The Cold War wasn't just missiles, nukes and hot spots in Asia, it was also a war of ideas and attitudes right down to the look of your toaster -- which this exhibition explores on both sides of the Iron Curtain through art, design, architecture and film.

"Echoes in the Ice"

Through Jan. 18. Houston Museum of Natural Science

Mixed-media collages of polar explorations spanning four centuries and covering explorers Martin Frobisher, Capt. James Cook, Roald Amundsen and Adm. Richard Byrd.

"House Proud: Nineteenth-Century Watercolor Interiors From the Thaw Collection"

Through Jan. 25. Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, New York

An examination of the evolution of the European domestic interior in watercolors.

"Curators Select: Recent Acquisitions, 2003-2008"

Through March 1. Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, New York

Selections from the museum's holdings ranging from the Han Dynasty to the present day.

"Stones From the Sky"

Through March 1. Houston Museum of Natural Science

Photographic prints by Michael Collier highlighting U.S. geologic landscapes.

"Quest for High Bear: A Boy's Odyssey Through Indian Country 1925-1939"

Through March 15. Houston Museum of Natural Science

Artifacts representing most of the Native American tribes that live in North America, including beadwork, basketry, ceramics, feather bonnets and more.

"Woman of Letters: Irène Némirovsky and Suite Française"

Through March 22. Museum of Jewish Heritage, New York

The story of a recently published manuscript found in a suitcase left behind by Némirovsky, a Russian-born Jewish author who rose to literary celebrity in France before she was deported to Auschwitz in 1942.

"Solos: Tulou/Affordable Housing for China"

Through April 5. Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, New York

A presentation of a prototype for affordable housing being built in the city of Guangzhou by Chinese architectural practice Urbanus.

Oct. 3

"Gilbert & George"

Through Jan. 11. Brooklyn Museum, New York

The peculiar, often comic art of two pioneering British conceptualists.

Oct. 8

"Picasso and the Masters"

Through Feb. 2. Grand Palais and other venues in Paris

Picasso, the great revolutionary, was deeply tied to the art of the past; this show includes the sources and Picasso's versions of them.

"Garden and Cosmos: The Royal Paintings of Jodhpur"

Through Jan. 4. Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Washington

These 59 major works of Indian art have gone almost unseen by scholars until now; go early and play stump-the-chump with your art-expert friends.

Oct. 12

"Franz West, To Build a House You Start With the Roof:

Work, 1972-2008"

Through Jan. 4. Baltimore Museum of Art

West's wearable sculptures and building-size pink turds have made him a longtime leader of the wild Viennese art scene, but this is his first American survey.

Oct. 15

"Whales Tohora"

Through Jan. 18. National Geographic Museum, Washington

Washington's battle of ocean exhibits (the other of course being the National Museum of Natural History's new Ocean Hall) kicks off with the unveiling of a traveling exhibition devoted to whale science and biology and the cultural importance of the creatures in the South Pacific.

"Andrea Riccio: Renaissance Master of Bronze"

Through Jan. 18. Frick Collection, New York

Washington got a delicious taste of Riccio's rough-hewn bronzes in a recent group show at the National Gallery; here's the full banquet.

Oct. 17

"Grant and Lee in War and Peace"

Through March 29. New-York Historical Society

The sister exhibition to the Virginia Historical Society's "Lee and Grant" offers a challenging interpretation of the two men and their place in history.

Oct. 18

"Climate Change: The Threat to Life and a New Energy Future"

Through Aug. 16. American Museum of Natural History, New York

Dioramas, activity stations and animations illustrate Earth's responses to the buildup of greenhouse gases and explore options for energy sources of the future.

"Kenneth Anger"

Through Jan. 19. P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center, New York

Don't expect plots and stars in this survey of one of the pioneers of radically experimental film; do expect surprise and subtle thought.

"Pompeii and the Roman Villa: Art and Culture Around

the Bay of Naples"

Through March 22. National Gallery of Art, Washington

This buried Roman city had a second life when its rediscovery transformed the arts of Europe in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Oct. 30

"Jim Dine: Poet Singing (The Flowering Sheets)"

Through Feb. 9. Getty Villa, Pacific Palisades, Calif.

The first contemporary art project at the Getty Villa presents new sculpture and poetry based on ancient Greek sculptures in the museum's collections.

Nov. 13

"Babylon"

Through March 15. British Museum, London

With Baghdad in tatters, this show looks back at the grandeur of the ancient capital of Iraq -- site of the legendary hanging gardens and Tower of Babel, but also of its share of battles.

Nov. 14

"Nation at the Crossroads: The Great New York Debate Over the Constitution"

Through March 15. New-York Historical Society

An exhibition illuminating the argument and debate that preceded the vote of the 1787 New York State Convention to ratify the Constitution.

"Transforming Tradition: Pottery From Mata Ortiz"

Through Jan. 11. Field Museum, Chicago

An exhibition presenting the work of contemporary artists from the Mexican town of Mata Ortiz along with some of the 14th- and 15th-century Casas Grandes ceramic works that helped inspire it.

Major Expansion

Art Gallery of Ontario. Toronto, Canada

Frank Gehry was born in Canada, yet his major expansion project for Toronto's Art Gallery of Ontario is his first major Canadian commission, an exuberant confection of glass that will put the World's Most Famous Architect in the spotlight once again.

Nov. 22

New Building

Museum of Islamic Art, Doha, Qatar

It's another big-money venture from the current masters of the universe -- the wealthy Gulf Arab states -- but that won't dampen excitement about a new museum, designed by the 91-year-old I.M. Pei, devoted to the art and design of the Islamic world.

Dec. 16

"Captured Emotions: Baroque Painting in Bologna, 1575-1725"

Through May 3. Getty Museum, Los Angeles

The art scene in Bologna was once one of the most influential in Europe, but now we barely recognize that fact -- for us, Florence and Rome rule.

Feb. 1

"Pride of Place: Dutch Cityscapes of the Golden Age"

Through May 3. National Gallery, Washington

The first great images of the urban scene and its spaces, painted in Holland in the 17th century.

Feb. 26

"Louise Bourgeois"

Through May 17. Hirshhorn Museum, Washington

Sculptures and installations by a figure who was possibly the most influential female artist in history.

March 14

"Maya Lin: Systematic Landscapes"

Through July 12. Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington

A touring show of more recent works by the designer of the great Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

March 13

"The Art and Craft of Greene & Greene"

Through June 7. Renwick Gallery, Washington

Brothers Charles and Henry Greene were at the heart of the California wing of the American arts and crafts movement.

March 15

"Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese: Rivals in Renaissance Venice"

Through Aug. 16. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Hard to believe that one city, at one moment, could house three painters as good as this.

May 16

Major Expansion

Art Institute of Chicago

The Art Institute has lived in Beaux-Arts splendor since its main building was constructed for the 1893 World's Fair; but that changes with the opening of a 264,000-square-foot addition, devoted to modern and contemporary art, designed by the brilliant architect Renzo Piano.

May 17

"Luis Meléndez: Master of the Spanish Still Life"

Through Aug. 23. National Gallery of Art, Washington

Austere tabletop scenes from 18th-century Spain, painted by an artist whose life was lived in turmoil.

May 18

"Terra Cotta Warriors: Guardians of China's First Emperor"

Through Oct. 16. Houston Museum of Natural Science

The tomb complex of Emperor Shi Huangdi, an archaeological find considered the eighth wonder of the ancient world, includes thousands of the warrior sculptures intended to protect him eternally.

May 19

"Walls of Algiers: Narratives of the Colonial City"

Through Oct. 18. Getty Center, Los Angeles

There are a zillion ways not to see a city -- through the rose-colored glasses of a tourist, or the gauzy fantasies of an art collector -- but the Getty tries to go a little deeper in this show that explores the fabled city of Algiers not just as a colonial capital but a "testing ground for urban renewal."

June 7

Venice Biennale

Through Nov. 22. Venues throughout Venice

The world's oldest roundup of international contemporary art: always mixed but always also a must-see.

Aug. 7

"Renwick Craft Invitational 2009"

Through Jan. 3, 2010. Renwick Gallery, Washington

The fourth edition of the Smithsonian's biennial craft exhibition, this time showcasing four artists who work in ceramic, fiber and glass.

Sept. 27 (tentative)

New Building

Tampa Museum of Art

One of the country's regional museums goes all out to finish a 66,000-square-foot space, dramatically positioned on the banks of a river, designed by the Bay Area architect Stanley Saitowitz.