NEW THIS MONTH
IN U.S. MUSEUMS

Whitney Museum of American Art
Mar. 1-May 27, 2012
The signature Whit event since 1932 brings work from 55 artists and collaborations to take over the museum’s four floors, as well as 6,000 square feet of space devoted to a rotating “season” of performances and rehearsals, and an extensive film program
Curators: Jay Sanders, Elisabeth Sussman, Ed Halter, Thomas Beard
Catalogue: 352 pp., $45
Funding: Sotheby’s, Deutsche Bank, Brown Foundation, Natasha Gelman Trust, others

Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
Mar. 3-Sept. 2, 2012
The Syria-born artist (b. 1981) presents a new large-scale sculpture that combines landscape, architecture and the human figure and is accompanied by a selection of heavily worked graphite drawings that shed light on her working process
Curator: John B. Ravenal
Funding: Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York
Also on view: “Making History: 20th Century African American Art,” Mar. 31-June 10, 2012

Parrish Art Museum
Mar. 4-June 17, 2012
Referencing the Getty-initiated series of LA-oriented shows called “Pacific Standard Time,” EST unites 150 works that survey art made in Southern California during 1945-1980, including lithographs by abstractionist Frederick Hammersley, paintings from the 1960s by the pioneering minimalist John McLaughlin, works by Ed Ruscha, DeWain Valentine, David Hockney, Eleanor Antin, Jack Goldstein, John Baldessari and many more, all from the collection of Beth Rudin DeWoody and curated by the museum’s Los Angeles-based adjunct curator David Pagel
Curator: David Pagel
Funding: Governor Andrew Cuomo, Southampton School District, Tuckahoe Common School District

Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
Mar. 4-June 3, 2012
All things ceramic from one of the most important collections of post-WWII ceramics in the world, beginning with an overview of ceramic types, from functional forms to vessels and sculptures by Peter Voulkos, Ron Nagle, Beatrice Wood, Akio Takamori, Betty Woodman and Adrian Saxe, and also including a porcelain carpet, a mixed media/video work by Barnaby Barford and five room-sized ceramic installations
Curator: Cindi Strauss
Catalogue: Yale University Press, 496 pp., $60
Funding: Sara and Bill Morgan, Friends of Contemporary Ceramics, Michael W. Dale, the Schissler Foundation and The Susan Vaughan Foundation
Also on view: “Egyptomania,” Mar. 18-July 29, 2012; “Elegance and Refinement: The Still-Life Paintings of Willem van Aelst,” Mar. 11-May 28, 2012; “Utopia/Dystopia: Construction and Destruction in Photography and Collage,” Mar. 11-June 10, 2012

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Mar. 6-Oct. 21, 2012
More than 60 objects and Shambhala king paintings from the museum’s collection of Tibetan Buddhist art, including one the largest Shambhala holdings outside of Asia, that highlight a set of newly conserved 17th-century paintings representing 22 mythological kings of that utopian realm, also known as “Shangri-la”
Curator: Jacki Elgar
Funding: Jean S. and Frederic A. Sharf Exhibition Fund and the Dr. Robert A. and Dr. Veronica Petersen Fund for Exhibitions
Also on view: “The Allure of Japan,” Mar. 24-Dec. 31, 2012

Indianapolis Museum of Art
Mar. 8-Oct. 14, 2012
The Puerto Rico-based duo’s Vieques Series, comprising three short films filmed on the Puerto Rican island of Vieques, goes on view in its entirety for the first time, along with their sculpture Body in Flight (Delta), which comprised part of their contribution to the U.S. Pavilion at the 54th Venice Biennale, presented with scheduled performances at the museum
Curator: Lisa Freiman
Catalogue: DelMonico Books – Prestel USA, 160 pp., $45
Also on view: “Urban Vision: American Works on Paper, 1900-1950,” Mar. 30-Sept. 30, 2012

Jewish Museum
Mar. 9-July 29, 2012
Presenting 14 paintings in hand-carved wooden frames from the artist’s series exploring the global Diaspora, all of which are based on his photographs of various ethnicities and religions living in Israel and have backgrounds derived from Jewish ceremonial art, as well as a selection by the artist (b. 1977) of textiles and papercuts from the museum’s collection
Curator: Karen Levitov
Catalogue: Roberts & Tilton, 64 pp., $40
Funding: Andrea and Charles Bronfman Philanthropies, Melva Bucksbaum Fund for Contemporary Art, others
Also on view: “Sanford Biggers and Jennifer Zackin: a small world…” Mar. 30-Aug. 26, 2012

Kimbell Art Museum
Mar. 11-June 17, 2012
Seventy-three celebrated French paintings by Renoir, Degas, Manet, Monet, Morisot, Pissarro and Sisley, as well as William-Adolphe Bouguereau, Camille Corot, Paul Gauguin, Jean-Léon Gérome, Jacques-Joseph Tissot and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, all from the collection of Sterling and Francine Clark
Curator: George T.M. Schackelford
Catalogue: Skira Rizzoli, 240 pp., $40
Tour: After its debut at the Kimbell, its only U.S. venue, the show tours Europe and Asia for three years

Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Mar. 11-June 3, 2012
Nearly 300 black-and-white photographic prints as well as a selection of photo books by the Colorado-born photographer and preeminent chronicler of the American West (b. 1937), focusing on his portrayal of Los Angeles
Curators: Joshua Chuang, Jack Reynolds
Catalogue: Yale University Press, three volumes, 589 pp., $250
Funding: Wallis Annenberg Director’s Endowment Fund, Helen Buchanan, Allan K. Chasanoff, Lara Rubin Constable and the Reed Foundation, others
Tour: The show debuted at the Vancouver Art Gallery in Sept. 2010 and then travelled to the Denver Art Museum in Sept. 2011, and it continues on to the Yale University Art Gallery and then to Europe following its run in Los Angeles

Metropolitan Museum of Art
Mar. 14-July 8, 2012
The first museum exhibition to focus on the eastern Mediterranean at the start of the 7th century, a pivotal era for that region’s emerging Islamic world, organizes 300 works of art from museums in more than a dozen countries around three themes: religion, commerce and the arts of Muslim rulers
Curator: Helen C. Evans
Catalogue: Yale University Press, 471 pp., $65
Funding: Mary and Michael Jaharis, the Stavros Niarchos Foundation and the Hagop Kevorkian Fund
Also on view: “The Rylands Haggadah: Medieval Jewish Art in Context,” Mar. 27-Sept. 30, 2012

Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia
Mar. 14-Aug. 12, 2012
An exhibition of performance, publications, curatorial projects and artworks that incorporate the work of other artists, exploring the dynamics of “negotiation, dialogue, influence, contingency and competition” in contemporary art, with contributions from Bodega, Alex Da Corte, Extra Extra, Marginal Utility and Machete Group, Kathryn Andrews, Mateo Tannatt and Wu Tsang; related programming is organized by artist Wendy Yao (proprietor of the Ooga Booga shop in L.A.)
Curators: Alex Klein, Kate Kraczon
Catalogue: The show is accompanied by a catalogue which will be produced during its five-month run
Funding: Spiegel Fund to Support Contemporary Culture and Visual Arts and the Christian R. and Mary F. Lindback Foundation

Museum of Modern Art
Mar. 14-July 9, 2012
Exploring the collaborative, chance-based drawing game known as the “exquisite corpse” and related artistic operations of bodily deconstruction, throughout the 20th century and into the present, with work by artists including Andre Masson, Joan Miro, Louise Bourgeois, Robert Gober and Nicola Tyson
Curators: Samantha Friedman, Jodi Hauptman
Also on view: “Born out of Necessity,” Mar. 2, 2012-Jan. 28, 2013; “Projects 97: Mark Boulos,” Mar. 21-July 16, 2012; “Electric Currents, 1900-1940,” Mar. 28-Sept. 30, 2012
Also on view: “Projects 97: Mark Boulos,” Mar. 19-July 16, 2012; “Electric Currents, 1900-1940,” Mar. 28-Sept. 30, 2012

Brooklyn Museum
Mar. 16-July 8, 2012
The first large-scale exhibition to explore the early career of the revered American Pop artist chronicles the period from his arrival in New York City through the start of his studio practice, and unites 155 works on paper, numerous experimental videos and over 150 archival objects, including sketchbooks, journals, exhibition flyers, posters, subway drawings and documentary photographs
Curators: Ralphaela Platow, Tricia Laughlin Bloom, Patrick Amsellem
Catalogue: Modern Kunst Nurnberg, 268 pp., $35
Funding: Lisa and Dick Cashin, Stephanie and Tim Ingrassia Contemporary Art Exhibition Fund
Tour: The show is co-organized by the Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, where it debuted in September, 2011, and the Kunsthalle Wien

Smithsonian American Art Museum
Mar. 16-Sept. 30, 2012
Exploring the forty-year evolution of the video game as an artistic medium through 240 examples, selected by video game collector and show curator Chris Melissinos, who juried with an advisory group of experts and journalists; the show includes a weekend of related lectures, discussions and screenings
Curator: Chris Melissinos
Catalogue: Welcome Books, 216 pp., $40
Funding: Entertainment Software Association Foundation, Sheila Duignan and Mike Wilkins, Shelby and Frederick Gans, Mark Lamia, Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk, others
Tour: Following its debut in Washington D.C., the show travels to 10 U.S. cities

Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston
Mar. 21-July 15, 2012
The first U.S. retrospective of the German-born, New York-based abstract painter Charlene von Heyl (b. 1960) brings together her large-scale canvases with her collage-based, black-and-white works on paper
Curator: Jenelle Porter
Catalogue: 250 pp., $30
Funding: Hilarie & Mitchell Morgan, Mari & Peter Shaw, others
Tour: The show premiered at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia in Sept. 2011, before travelling to Boston

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
Mar. 22-May 13, 2012
Los Angeles-based artist Doug Aitken (b. 1968) transforms the museum’s iconic circular building into “liquid architecture,” using 11 high-definition projectors to seamlessly blend a 360-degree panorama of imagery that takes up its entire façade

Art Institute of Chicago
Mar. 25-July 8, 2012
Presenting 197 Italian works on paper from the late-15th to the cusp of the 19th century by artists including Raphael, Andrea del Sarto, Baccio Bandinelli, Pontormo, Perino del Vaga, Gian Lorenzo Bernini and Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, drawn from the holdings of local collector Anne Searle Bent
Curator: Suzanne Folds McCullagh
Catalogue: Yale University Press, 328 pp., $60
Funding: Anonymous donor
Also on view: “Rethinking Typologies: Architecture and design from the Permanent Collection,” Mar. 3-July 29, 2012; “Jindrich Heisler: Surrealism under Pressure,” Mar. 31-July 1, 2012

Denver Art Museum
Mar. 25-July 8, 2012
This retrospective of the world-renowned French designer (1936-2008), chronicling his first days at Christian Dior in 1958 through his late evening dresses, is organized by the Fondation Pierre Bergé-Yves Saint Laurent in France and features a selection of 200 haute couture garments along with numerous photographs, drawings and films that illustrate the development of his style
Curators: Florence Müller, Pierre Bergé
Funding: Jana and Fred Bartlit, Mike Leprino Family Foundation, Neiman Marcus and Larimer Square

National Gallery of Art
Mar. 30-Apr. 29, 2012
Celebrating the centennial of Japan’s gift of cherry trees to Washington D.C., the exhibition brings together, for the first time in the U.S., all 30 scrolls from a nationally treasured scroll-set of paintings by Itō Jakuchū, on loan from Japan’s Imperial Household
Funding: Toyota, Nikkei Inc., Airbus, the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation, others
Also on view: “Civic Pride: Group Portraits from Amsterdam,” Mar. 10, 2012-Mar. 11, 2017