Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami
Dec. 1, 2009-Feb. 14, 2010
Artists "exploring the artistic traditions of Realism in an age of digital manipulation and staged reality": Uta Barth, Olaf Breuning, Tom Burr, Talia Chetrit, Anetta Mona Chisa & Lucia Tkacova, Phil Collins, Thomas Demand, Alex Hubbard, Matt Keegan, Ragnar Kjartansson, Elad Lassry, Lars Laumann, Adam McEwen, Wilhelm Sasnal, Xaviera Simmons, Martin Soto Climent, Wolfgang Tillmans, Sara VanDerBeek, Emily Wardill, Gillian Wearing, Judi Werthein and Artur Zmijewski
Curator: Ruba Katrib
Funding: John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Starbucks Coffee Company, others

Miami Art Museum
Dec. 3-6, 2009
One-weekend-only public art project by the ubiquitous Shepard Fairey during Art Basel Miami Beach, presenting a variation on his often-reproduced work Arab Woman, produced by MAM with Country Club gallery and the Fountainhead Residency

Bass Museum of Art
Dec. 3, 2009-Mar. 14, 2010
Star contemporary artists from the Mexico City-based Jumex Collection: Stephan Bruggeman, Minerva Cuevas, Jenny Holzer, Louise Lawler, On Kawara, Gabriel Orozco, Damian Ortega, Paul McCarthy, Ugo Rondinone, Rudolf Stingel, Kelly Walker and Andy Warhol
Curators: Silvia Karman Cubiña, Raphaela Platow, Victor Zamudio Taylor
Tour: Cincinnati Art Center

Minneapolis Institute of Arts
Dec. 5, 2009-Mar.7, 2010
Objects attributed to the peoples of Fort Belknap Indian Reservation and the Northern Plains, exploring the arts of the A'aninin (Gros Ventre) and Nakoda (Assiniboine) peoples

Dallas Museum of Art
Dec. 6, 2009–May 23, 2010
Jacob Lawrence’s silkscreen prints dedicated to the life of Haitian revolutionary Toussaint L’Ouverture, alongside the painting The Visitors, and a photographic portrait of Lawrence by Arnold Newman
Curators: Roslyn A. Walker, Charles Wylie

Getty Center
Dec. 8, 2009-Feb. 28, 2010
Drawings by 15 of Rembrandt's pupils in close comparison to drawings by the master himself
Curator: Lee Hendrix

Henry Art Gallery, Seattle
Dec. 10, 2009-Mar. 28, 2010
Selection of black-and-white photos depicting people at work, from the celebrated social documentarian Milton Rogovin (b. 1909)
Curator: Misa Jeffereis

Whitney Museum of American Art
Dec. 10, 2009-Feb. 14, 2010
Recent work by the artist who received the Whitney’s 2008 Bucksbaum Award for his contribution to the 2008 Whitney Biennial

Philadelphia Museum of Art
Dec. 11, 2009-Mar. 21, 2010
A series of gunpowder drawings titled Light Passage by Cai Guo-Qiang, as well as "an explosion event," Fallen Blossoms: Explosion Project, to be staged on December 11 (video of Fallen Blossoms goes on display at the Fabric Workshop and Museum, which is collaborating with the PMA on the Cai show)
Curators: Carlos Basualdo, Adelina Vlas

Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth
Dec. 12, 2009-May 16, 2010
Selections from the famous portfolio by Edward S. Curtis, recently acquired by the museum

MASS MoCA
Dec. 12, 2009-Oct. 31, 2010
Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle reconstructs Mies van der Rohe's uncompleted project, the 50x50 House (1951), only at approximately half scale and inverted

Museum of Modern Art
Dec. 13, 2009-Mar. 1, 2010
Iconic works by the Mexican artist known for his poetic conceptual art, including La DS (1993) and Black Kites (1997), alongside smaller objects, paintings and works on paper
Curator: Ann Temkin, Paulina Pobocha
Catalogue: 256 pp., $55
Funding: National Council for Culture and the Arts (CONACULTA), Fundación Televisa
Tour: Kunstmuseum Basel, Apr. 18-Aug. 10, 2010; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, Sept. 15, 2010-Jan. 3, 2011; Tate Modern, London, Jan. 19-Apr. 25, 2011

Metropolitan Museum of Art
Dec. 17, 2009-June 6, 2010
Archaeological artifacts, Buddhist iconographic scrolls, ceramics, screen paintings and sculptures, acquired by the Met in 1975 from the collection of Japanese art collector Harry G. C. Packard (1914-1991)

Walker Art Center
Dec. 17, 2009-Mar. 14, 2010
Immersive video environment reflecting on the conditions of laborers in China, from Beijing-based artist Zhao Liang
Curator: Sheryl Mousley

Legion of Honor, San Francisco
Dec. 19, 2009-Apr. 18, 2010
200+ objects including jewelry of the Gilded Age and Art Deco periods, as well as freestanding works of art such as the famous Mystery Clocks, tracing the history of the House of Cartier
Curator: Martin Chapman
Catalogue: 176 pp., $34.95
Funding: Lonna Wais, others

Art Institute of Chicago
Dec. 19, 2009-Feb. 28, 2010
Showcasing C. D. Arnold’s photos of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition, a.k.a. the Chicago World’s Fair

Carnegie Museum of Art
Dec. 19-ongoing
Masterworks by Albrecht Dürer, Andrea Mantegna, others, in an exhibition that coincides with the recent reopening of the Carnegie’s decorative art and design galleries
Funding: The Fellows of Carnegie Museum of Art, others

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
Dec. 19, 2009-Jan. 16, 2011
400+ works from the SFMoMA’s permanent collection, with a specific focus on artists the museum was early to collect, including Bruce Conner, Jay DeFeo, Frida Kahlo, Jeff Koons, Sherrie Levine, Mike Mandel, Larry Sultan, Barry McGee, Jackson Pollock and Leslie Shows
Curator: Janet Bishop, Corey Keller, Sarah Roberts
Catalogue: San Francisco Museum of Modern Art: 75 Years of Looking Forward, 448 pp., $65 cloth, $40 paper

San Jose Museum of Art
Dec. 22, 2009-June 6, 2010
Exploring the physicality of paint, via works from Elmer Bischoff, Joan Brown, James Hayward, Paul Jenkins, Karl Kasten, Jeffrey Keith, Gordon Onslow-Ford, Sam Tchakalian and Phe Ruiz

Museum of Modern Art
Dec. 23, 2009-July 12, 2010
Posters and numerous small-scale works representing Soviet Russian, German, Dutch and Czechoslovakian graphics, some from the collection of designer Jan Tschichold, author of the landmark Die Neue Typographie (1928)
Curator: Juliet Kinchin