Smart Museum of Art, University of Chicago
Oct. 1, 2009-Jan. 17, 2010
Site-specific installations, performances, drawing, photography and video by artists working in -- and in response to -- Detroit, Kansas City and the "American heartland" in general, including works by Carnal Torpor, Compass Group, Jeremiah Day, Detroit Tree of Heaven Woodshop, Design 99, Scott Hocking, Kerry James Marshall, Greely Myatt, Marjetica Potrc, Julika Rudelius, Artur Silva, Deb Sokolow and Whoop Dee Doo
Curators: Charles Esche, Kerstin Niemann, Stephanie Smith
Funding: Janis Kanter and Thomas McCormick, Kanter Family Foundation, others
Tour: This show has already been seen at the Van Abbemuseum, Eindoven, the Netherlands

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
Oct. 1-Dec. 20, 2009
Two works by Candice Breitz: Working Class Hero (A Portrait of John Lennon), a 25-screen installation featuring ardent John Lennon fans singing along to Lennon’s 1970’s album John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band; and Mother, a video that edits together performances by Faye Dunaway, Diane Keaton, Shirley MacLaine, Julia Roberts, Susan Sarandon and Meryl Streep "to create a revealing composite of the Hollywood cliché of the difficult mother"

National Gallery of Art
Oct. 1, 2009-Jan. 18, 2010
120 "intimate" works on paper, including prints, drawings, illustrated books and portfolios, by Félix Bracquemond, Victor Hugo, Edvard Munch, Odilon Redon, James McNeill Whistler and others
Curator: Peter Parshall
Catalogue: 192 pp., $70
Tour: This show has already appeared at the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; it continues to the Smart Museum of Art, Chicago, Feb. 11-June 10, 2010

International Center of Photography
Oct. 2, 2009-Jan. 17, 2010
100 recent works focusing on the theme of "fashion," by an international selection of artists: Yto Barrada, Valérie Belin, Thorsten Brinkmann, Cao Fei, Olga Chernysheva, Nathalie Djurberg, Stan Douglas, Kota Ezawa, Jacqueline Hassink, Hu Yang, Miyako Ishiuchi, Kimsooja, Silvia Kolbowski, Jeremy Kost, Barbara Kruger, Richard Learoyd, Kalup Linzy, Tanya Marcuse, Anne Morgenstern, Wangechi Mutu, Grace Ndiritu, Alice O’Malley, David Rosetzky, Martha Rosler, Julika Rudelius, Cindy Sherman, Laurie Simmons, Lorna Simpson, Hank Willis Thomas, Mickalene Thomas, Milagros de la Torre, Janaina Tschäpe, Pinar Yolaçan and Zhou Tao
Curator: Vince Aletti, Kristen Lubben, Christopher Phillips, Carol Squiers, Judy Ditner
Catalogue: 240 pp., $28
Funding: ICP Exhibitions Committee, others

Smithsonian American Art Museum
Oct. 2, 2009-Jan. 24, 2010
88 works from the 1960s to the present on themes of "war, pollution, global warming, racial tensions, and other threats to contemporary civilization"
Curator: Joann Moser
Catalogue: 228 pp., $65 cloth, $39.95 paper
Funding: Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, others
Tour: Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley, California, Mar. 17-July 18, 2010

Hammer Museum, UCLA
Oct. 4, 2009-Jan. 3, 2010
Major retrospective of American painter Charles Burchfield (1893-1967), presented with a "new perspective" informed by the interests of co-curator Robert Gober, the celebrated postmodern sculptor
Curator: Cynthia Burlingham, Robert Gober
Catalogue: 176 pp., $49.95, contributions by Cynthia Burlingham, Robert Gober, Dave Hickey, Tullis Johnson, Nancy Weekly
Funding: Joy and Jerry Monkarsh Family Foundation, others
Tour: Whitney Museum of America Art; Burchfield Penney Art Center, Buffalo, N.Y.

Cleveland Museum of Art
Oct. 4, 2009-Jan. 18, 2010
Ca. 75 paintings, works on paper, woodcarvings and ceramics by Paul Gauguin and his contemporaries, recreating the independent exhibition that Gauguin organized on the grounds of the 1889 Exposition Universelle
Curator: Heather Lemonedes
Catalogue: 208 pp., $35 paperbound, $50 cloth
Funding: Malcolm E. Kenney Special Exhibitions Endowment Fund, KeyBank
Tour: Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam

American Folk Art Museum
Oct. 6, 2009-Sept. 13, 2010
Nine examples culled from the museum's extensive Henry Darger Study Archive, illustrating the importance of imagery from coloring books in the work of the celebrated "outsider artist"
Curator: Brooke Davis Anderson
Funding: Leir Charitable Foundations, Gerard C. Wertkin Exhibition Fund, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, New York State Council on the Arts

Museum of Arts and Design
Oct. 7, 2009-Apr. 4, 2010
Examining "the remarkably diverse use of paper in a range of art forms," via works by Celio Braga, Mark Fox, Andreas Kocks, Andrea Mastrovito, Tomas Rivas, Michael Velliquette, others
Curators: David Revere McFadden, Laura Stern
Catalogue: 224 pp., $45
Funding: Mondriaan Foundation, others

Art Institute of Chicago
Oct. 10, 2009-Jan. 3, 2010
200+ drawings, books and constructions by the celebrated Idaho-based self-taught artist
Curator: Ann Percy, Mark Pascale
Catalogue: 251 pp., $60
Funding: Pew Center for Arts and Heritage, National Endowment for the Arts
Tour: This show has already appeared at the Philadelphia Museum of Art

Indianapolis Museum of Art
Oct. 11, 2009-Jan. 3, 2010
The religious esthetic of 17th-century Spain, via paintings from El Greco, Velázquez, Zurbarán and Murillo, as well as polychrome sculpture, liturgical silver, embroidered vestments and illuminated manuscripts
Curator: Ronda Kasl
Catalogue: 400 pp., $65
Funding: Allen Whitehill Clowes Charitable Foundation

Metropolitan Museum of Art
Oct. 12, 2009-Jan. 24, 2010
100+ works, dating from the end of the Civil War to World War I, by American painters such as George Caleb Bingham, Mary Cassatt, William Merritt Chase, John Singleton Copley, Thomas Eakins, Winslow Homer, William Sidney Mount, Charles Willson Peale and John Sloan
Curators: H. Barbara Weinberg, Carrie Rebora Barratt, Bruce Robertson
Catalogue: 240 pp., $60 cloth, $40 paper
Funding: Alamo Rent A Car, Marguerite and Frank A. Cosgrove Jr. Fund, Peter Jay Sharp Foundation, Henry Luce Foundation, Oceanic Heritage Foundation

Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Oct. 17, 2009-Feb. 7, 2010
Contemporary pencil-and-ink-drawn character explorations by Indian artists from the Liquid Comics series Ramayan and Devi, alongside vintage Indian and American comics, and a selection from LACMA’s historical collection of Indian paintings, illustrating contemporary imagery’s root in Indian myths
Curators: Julie Romain, Tushara Bindu Gude
Funding: Southern Asian Art Council

Denver Art Museum
Oct. 17, 2009-Jan. 10, 2010
60+ oil paintings, bronze sculptures and mixed media works by the cowboy artist
Curator: Joan Carpenter Troccoli
Catalogue: 304 pp., $65
Funding: Wells Fargo, Helen K. and Arthur E. Johnson Foundation
Tour: Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, Okla.; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

Guggenheim Museum
Oct. 21, 2009-Mar. 28, 2010
A showy new ovular Cor-ten steel sculpture by the crowd-pleasing sculptor
Curator: Sandhini Poddar

Philadelphia Museum of Art
Oct. 21, 2009-Jan. 10, 2010
Ca. 178 works of art, surveying the entire career of the Armenia-born abstractionist, from the early 1920s until his death by suicide in 1948
Curator: Michael Taylor
Catalogue: 200 pp., $65
Tour: Tate Modern, London, spring 2010; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, summer 2010

Albright-Knox Art Gallery
Oct. 23, 2009-Jan. 31, 2010
Eight-year survey exploring the Mangold’s "Curled Figures," "Columns," "Column Structures," and "Ring Images" series, plus material relating to his design for colored glass windows for Buffalo’s new United States Courthouse, scheduled to open in July 2010
Curator: Douglas Dreishpoon
Catalogue: 125 pp., $150
Funding: New York State Council on the Arts, Henry Luce Foundation in American Art, others

Arthur M. Sackler Gallery
Oct. 24, 2009-Jan. 24, 2010
60 works of art connected with "Falnama" -- large, illustrated texts used for divination, created in Safavid Iran and Ottoman Turkey in the 16th and early 17th centuries
Curator: Massumeh Farhad
Catalogue: 288 pp.
Funding: anonymous donor, Folger Fund, Hagop Kevorkian Fund

Museum of Modern Art
Oct. 28, 2009-Feb. 1, 2010
A selection of recent work, including a new film project, from the Polish artist known for his works exploring the "trauma of history"
Curator: Connie Butler
Funding: Junior Associates of the Museum of Modern Art, JA Endowment Committee, Polish Cultural Institute in New York

Brooklyn Museum
Oct. 30, 2009-Jan. 31, 2010
Photos of music stars including Mick Jagger, Madonna, the Beatles, Chuck Berry, Bjork, Blondie, James Brown, Johnny Cash, Notorious B.I.G., U2 and the Velvet Underground, by iconic rock photographers, including Richard Avedon, Bob Gruen, Annie Leibowitz and Chris Stein
Curator: Gail Buckland
Catalogue: 336 pp., $40
Funding: TD Bank, others