Whitney Museum of American Art
Dec. 1, 2005-Jan. 29, 2006
Artists Jennifer Crowe and Scott Paterson create a site-specific sound installation that functions as an audio tour of the Whitney’s fifth-floor galleries, inviting visitors to change the way they relate to museum space
Funding: Antenna Audio

Museum of Contemporary Art, Miami
Dec. 1, 2005-Jan. 29, 2006
The Miami collective Friends With You creates a giant playground installation to inaugurate MoCA Miami’s new 12,000 square foot annex in Miami’s Wynwood Arts and Entertainment District

Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia
Dec. 3, 2005-Mar. 18, 2006
Works reflecting the relevance of "swarm logic" –- the use of a large number of small parts to form unpredictable systems -– for contemporary art, from Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec, Mark Bradford, Fernando & Humberto Campana, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Trenton Doyle Hancock, Peter Kogler, Julie Mehretu, Paul Pfeiffer, C.E.B. Reas, Matthew Ritchie, Michal Rovner, Jason Salavon, Shahzia Sikander, Sarah Sze, Fred Tomaselli, Siebren Versteeg and Yukinori Yanagi
Curator: Abbott Miller, Ellen Lupton
Catalogue: 96 pp.

Minneapolis Institute of Arts
Dec. 4, 2005-Feb. 26, 2006
Works by Stuart Davis, Charles Demuth, Arthur Dove, Marsden Hartley, Georgia O'Keeffe, Charles Sheeler and Grant Wood, all from the Myron Kunin collection
Curator: Elizabeth Armstrong
Catalogue: 152 pp., $39.95
Funding: Victoria and Gilbert E. LeVasseur, Jr., Twyla R. and Charles D. Martin, Jean and Tim Weiss
Tour: This show has already been seen at the Orange Country Museum of Art

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Dec. 7, 2005-April 16, 2006
40 paintings, sculptures and works on paper, including works by Braque, Gris, Léger, Lipchitz and Picasso, focusing on Cubism’s flowering in France up until 1920
Curator: Thomas Rassieur

Baltimore Museum of Art
Dec. 7, 2005-May 28, 2006
Four paintings by Tanner (1859-1937), the first internationally acclaimed African-American artist -- along with 60 paintings, drawings, photographs and prints by his European influences, including Eugéne Delacroix, Jean-Joseph-Benjamin Constant and Camille Pissarro
Curator: James Smalls
Funding: Museum Loan Network, Henry Luce Foundation

Walker Arts Center
Dec. 8, 2005-Mar. 26, 2006
A variety of approaches to prefabricated houses, from the diminutive weeHouse (2003) by Alchemy Architects to the ecologically friendly Breezehouse (2005) by Michelle Kaufmann
Curator: Andrew Blauvelt

International Center of Photography
Dec. 9, 2005-Feb. 26, 2006
10 photographic projects that depict the vulnerabilities of the human condition, including work by Donna Ferrato, Lori Grinker, Lewis Hine, Dorothea Lange, Russell Lee, Gideon Mendel, Sebastião Salgado and W. Eugene Smith
Curator: Carol Squiers
Catalogue: 200 pp., $29.95
Also on view: "African American Vernacular Photography: Selections from the Daniel Cowin Collection," Dec. 9, 2005-Feb. 26, 2006; "Che! Revolution and Commerce," Dec. 9, 2005-Feb. 26, 2006

Cooper-Hewitt Design Museum
Dec. 9, 2005-Mar. 26, 2006
60 costumes from 300 years of fashion, grouped by colors, including pieces by influential contemporary designers like Balenciaga, Chanel, Commes des Garçons, Dior, Pucci, Miyaki and Victor & Rolf
Curators: Akiko Fukai, Barbara Bloemink
Catalogue: 248 pp., $48
Funding: Lancôme Paris, Elle
Tour: This show has already appeared at the Kyoto Costume Institute

Aspen Art Museum
Dec 9, 2005-Jan 29, 2006
The first one-person museum exhibition by British artist Evans, featuring 36 of his obsessively taped-together charts, graphs and maps
Curator: Heidi Zuckerman Jacobson
Catalogue: 60 pp., $29.95
Also on view: "Richard Tuttle: It's a Room for 3 People," Dec 9, 2005-Feb 5, 2006

Corcoran Gallery of Art
Dec. 10, 2005-Mar. 5, 2006
A wide panorama of images exploring this American musical instrument, from the earliest known painting of a banjo –- 1790’s The Old Plantation by an unknown artist -- to Kara Walker's bracing 2002-2003 mural, Narratives of a Negress
Curator: Leo G. Mazow, Sarah Cash
Catalogue: 200 pp.
Funding: Steve Martin Charitable Foundation, Catherine Dail, anonymous donor, President’s Exhibition Fund
Tour: Palmer Museum of Art, Mar. 30–June 25, 2006

Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
Dec. 11, 2005-Feb. 26, 2006
Nine video projections, capturing the artist in a series of humorous and improbable interactions with his own drawings
Curator: Alma Ruiz

Metropolitan Museum of Art
Dec. 13, 2005–Mar. 5, 2006
Three paintings by this quattrocento artist, including his masterpiece, the Virgin Annunciate
Curator: Alessandro Pagano
Catalogue: 56 pp., $9.95
Funding: Cultural Commissioner for the Sicilian Region, Foundation for Italian Art and Culture, Bulgari, ACP Group

Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
Dec. 14, 2005–Mar. 26, 2006
Exhibition focusing on the trade between East and West during the Renaissance, bringing together all works by Gentile Bellini (brother to Venetian master Giovanni) executed while the artist was in Istanbul, alongside maps and other rare artifacts, as well as a contemporary "interpretation" of show’s themes by the Gardner’s current artist in resident, Juan Muñoz
Curator: Alan Chong, Caroline Campbell
Tour: National Gallery, London, April 12-June 25, 2006

Museum of Modern Art
Dec. 14, 2005-Feb. 6, 2006
500+ works of original art loaned from Pixar Animation Studios, including paintings, concept art, sculptures and an array of digital installations connected to Toy Story, A Bug’s Life, Toy Story 2, Monsters Inc., Finding Nemo, The Incredibles and their upcoming Cars
Curators: Steven Higgins, Ron Magliozzi
Funding: Intel Corporation, Porsche AG

UBS Art Gallery
Dec. 15, 2005–Feb. 24, 2006
80 works on paper by prominent Dutch children’s artists Dick Bruna, Max Velthuijs, Fiep Westendorp and others, encompassing bold, geometrical collages, fanciful watercolors and detailed pen-and-ink drawings
Curator: Truusje Vrooland-Lob
Tour: Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art, Amherst, M.A., Mar. 28-July 9, 2006

Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City
Dec. 16, 2005–Feb. 19, 2006
Works by ten artists -- Colby Caldwell, Augusto Di Stefano, Jacob El Hanani, Tony Feher, Anne Lindberg, Rei Naito, Sheila Pepe, Michelle Segre, Jennifer Steinkamp and Yoshihiro Suda –- that explore time- and labor-intensive processes as an alternative to the frantic pace of modern life
Curator: Elizabeth Dunbar
Also on view: "foldoverfold: Marcie Miller Gross," Dec. 16, 2005–Jan. 29, 2006

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
Dec. 16, 2005-Mar. 7, 2006
Cropped photos of architectural details, including fragments of such famous structures as Frank Lloyd Wright’s Unity Temple and the Seagram Building by Mies van der Rohe and Philip Johnson
Curator: Joseph Rosa
Also on view: "New Work: Wangechi Mutu," Dec. 16, 2005-April 2, 2006

Philadelphia Museum of Art
Dec. 17, 2005-Feb. 12, 2006
60 prints from the Philadelphia’s collection, charting the emergence of the landscape as a central theme of Netherlandish printmaking
Curator: Stacy Kirk, John Ittmann

Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
Dec. 17, 2005-Feb. 12, 2006
Mid-career exhibition of Goldin, featuring 30 works, ranging from early black-and-white images to large, recent Cibachromes made in Europe
Curator: Alex Baker
Tour: This show has already been seen at the Palmer Museum of Art

Henry Art Gallery
Dec. 17, 2005–Mar. 12, 2006
Murals that blend historical events, myth and personal memories, mixed with new sculptures that echo 60s minimal and neo-concretist work, in a site-specific installation
Curator: Sara Krajewski
Funding: ArtsFund, Washington State Arts Commission, National Endowment for the Arts

Ackland Art Museum
Dec. 18, 2005–Mar. 26, 2006
Work from 1964-2005 by mother and daughter artists who use found objects to tackle issues of family, identity, race and gender, featuring a brand new collaborative installation commissioned by the Ackland, Transitions in Black and White
Curator: Jessica Dallow, Barbara Matilsky
Catalogue: 128 pp., $24.95
Funding: National Endowment for the Arts, Altria Group, Inc., William Hayes Ackland Trust
Tour: Pasadena Museum of California Art, Oct. 21, 2006-Jan. 7, 2007; San Jose Museum of Art, Oct. 21, 2006-Jan. 7, 2007; Palmer Museum of Art, P.A., Jan. 30-April 22, 2007

Kimbell Art Museum
Dec. 18, 2005-mar. 26, 2006
Comprehensive survey of Paul Gauguin's early works from 1875 to 1887, drawing attention to his relationship with the Impressionists
Curator: Richard R. Brettell
Catalogue: 288 pp., $65
Funding: Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities
Tour: This show has already appeared at the Ordrupgaard, Copenhagen

Dallas Museum of Art
Dec. 18, 2005–April 2, 2006
24+ works from the 1960s to the present, showcasing Ryman’s persistent investigation of the conditions of painting
Curator: Charles Wylie
Catalogue: 60 pp., $19.95
Funding: Naomi Aberly and Laurence Lebowitz, Arlene and John Dayton, Mr. and Mrs. Vernon Faulconer, Nancy and Tim Hanley, Hoffman Family Foundation, Cindy and Howard Rachofsky, Evelyn P. and Edward W. Rose, Gayle and Paul Stoffel

Metropolitan Museum of Art
Dec. 20, 2005–April 2, 2006
Approximately 65 "combines" by the 80-year-old Pop maestro, ranging from little-known early works to the emblematic Monogram (1965-69) -- the taxidermy goat with a tire around its middle, standing on a "flat bed picture plane" -- from the collection of the Moderna Museet in Stockholm, in an exhibition organized by Paul Schimmel of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, the show's organizing institution
Curator: Paul Schimmel
Catalogue: 324 pp., $75
Funding: Jane and Robert Carroll, Wasserstein family, Merrill Lynch
Tour: Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, May 14-Sept. 4, 2006; Pompidou Center, Paris, Oct. 4, 2006-Jan. 8, 2007; Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Feb. 4-April 29, 2007

Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art
Dec. 22, 2005-Oct. 29, 2006
Never-seen prints by African-American artist Gentry (1919–2003), whose loose, figurative compositions were inspired both by the spontaneous rhythms of jazz and his voyages through Africa and France during and after WWII