Brooklyn Museum
May 1, 2009-Jan. 10, 2010
"A new generation of feminist artists," all working in video: Cathy Begien, Jen DeNike, Harry Dodge and Stanya Kahn, Kate Gilmore, K8 Hardy and Wynne Greenwood, Klara Liden and Shannon Plumb
Curator: Lauren Ros
Funding: Elizabeth A. Sackler Foundation

National Gallery of Art
May 3-Aug. 9, 2009
70 works by the Czech modernist photographer Jaromír Funke (1896-1945), along with works by Funke’s peers, including Josef Sudek and Eugen Wiškovsk
Funding: Ryna and Melvin Cohen Family Foundation, Marcella and Neil Cohen

Los Angeles County Museum of Art
May 3-Oct. 4, 2009
120 works of sculpture, painting, mosaic and luxury arts from the Villa San Marco at Stabiae and the Villa dei Papiri at Herculaneum, as well as from the opulent houses of the urban elite in Pompeii
Curators: Carol Mattusch, Kenneth Lapatin
Catalogue: 360 pp., $60
Funding: Bank of America, others
Tour: This show premiered at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Metropolitan Museum of Art
May 6-Aug. 9, 2009
80 masterworks of haute couture and ready-to-wear fashion, alongside fashion editorial, advertising and runway photography, plus large-scale projections from feature films -- all in tribute to models such as Naomi Campbell, Linda Evangelista, Jerry Hall, Kate Moss and Twiggy
Curators: Harold Koda, Kohle Yohannan
Catalogue: 224 pp., $50
Funding: Marc Jacobs, Condé Nast

Museum of Modern Art
May 6, 2009-Nov. 30, 2009
Exploring the concept of "Good Design" via iconic pieces by designers like Charles and Ray Eames and Hans Wegner, alongside everyday objects including an iron, a hamper, a rake, a cheese slicer and Tupperware
Curators: Juliet Kinchin, Aidan O’Connor
Funding: Design Onscreen, the Initiative for Architecture and Design on Film, Denver

Whitney Museum of American Art
May 7-Aug. 30, 2009
Iconic early works by the American Pop artist, including Soft Toilet (1966) and Ice Bag -- Scale C (1971), alongside drawings, videos of Oldenburg’s early performances, and The Music Room, an installation of musical instruments created with the artist’s longtime collaborator, Coosje van Bruggen
Curators: Carter Foster, Chrissie Iles, Dana Miller
Funding: Norman and Melissa Selby

Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
May 10-Sept. 13, 2009
Mid-career retrospective for the Houston-based photographer known for her explorations of memory, with 36 works ranging from early black-and-white street photographs to lushly colored portraits and landscapes
Curator: Alison de Lima Greene
Catalogue: $29.95, 112 pp., contributions by Alison de Lima Greene, Anne Wilkes Tucker, Chrissie Iles, Marisa C. Sanchez
Funding: Mr. and Mrs. Michael C. Linn, others

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
May 10-ongoing
The long-awaited rooftop sculpture garden opens at the SFMoMA, with works by Robert Arneson, Louise Bourgeois, Alexander Calder, Mario Merz, Henry Moore and others, as well a glass-walled bridge designed by San Francisco artist Rosana Castrillo Díaz

Walker Art Center
May 14-Aug. 30, 2009
Installations, sculptures and photographs from 2003 to the present by the Argentine eco-artist, including works such as 32SW stay green/Flying Garden/Air-Port-City (2007), a self-sustainable greenhouse that irrigates "a cluster of inflatable spheres," and Girasol (Turning Sun) (2009), a wind turbine that powers a camera that, in turn, films a sunflower
Curator: Yasmil Raymond
Funding: John Taft
Tour: Blaffer Gallery, the Art Museum, Houston, Tex., Jan. 16-Apr. 3, 2010

International Center of Photography
May 15-Sept. 6, 2009
200+ works by Richard Avedon, spanning his entire career, including vintage prints, contact sheets, magazine layouts and archival material
Curators: Vince Aletti, Carol Squiers
Catalogue: 372 pp. , $100
Funding: Henry Luce Foundation, others

Guggenheim Museum
May 15-Aug. 23, 2009
200 Frank Lloyd Wright drawings, along with newly commissioned models and digital animations relating to 64 architectural projects, marking the 50th anniversary of the Guggenheim’s famed spiral building
Curators: Thomas Krens, David van der Leer, Maria Nicanor, Bruce Brooks Pfeiffer, Margo Stipe, Oskar Muñoz
Catalogue: $75, 360 pp.

Philadelphia Museum of Art
May 19-Sept. 20, 2009
Selection of 23 chairs donated to the PMA in 2007 by design expert Jeanne Rymer, including Harry Bertoia’s 1953 "Bird" chair and Jean Prouvé’s 1930 "Standard" chair, along with less well-known examples like the "Plan-O-Spider" patio chair and Erwine and Estelle Laverne’s "Lily" chair
Curator: Donna Corbin

Metropolitan Museum of Art
May 20-Aug. 16, 2009
130 works -- 65 paintings, plus archival items -- spanning the entirety of Bacon’s career
Curators: Gary Tinterow, Anne L. Strauss, Matthew Gale, Chris Stephens
Catalogue: contributions by Martin Harrison, David Mellor, Simon Ofield, Rachel Tant, Gary Tinterow, and Victoria Walsh
Funding: Bank of America
Tour: This show has already been seen at the Tate Britain and the Museo Nacional del Prado

Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami
May 21-Sept. 13, 2009
Artists explore the social effects of conventions, festivals and other social and professional gatherings (the press release makes mention of Art Basel Miami Beach): Julieta Aranda, Fia Backström, Xavier Cha, Anne Daems & Kenneth Andrew Mroczek, Jim Drain, Fritz Haeg, Corey McCorkle, Dave McKenzie, Gean Moreno, My Barbarian, Christodoulos Panayiotou, Sean Raspet, Bert Rodriguez, Superflex & Jens Haaning
Curator: Ruba Katrib
Funding: Funding Arts Network, Miami-Dade County Tourist Development Council

Morgan Library & Museum
May 22-Aug. 16, 2009
50+ drawings, along with musical scores, rare books, autograph manuscripts and 30 performance photographs, charting the history of experimental theater design 1900-1970, with special sections devoted to "Origins of Modern Scenic Theory," "Destroying Tradition," "The Russian Avant-Garde" and "Diversity of the American Stage"
Funding: Jane and Robert Carroll, Eliot and Wilson Nolen, others

MASS MoCA
May 23, 2009-Jan. 1, 2010
The original drawings for two chapters of Brooklyn artist George Cochrane’s Long Time Gone, a 24-chapter graphic novel -- each chapter corresponding to one hour in a day, a la James Joyce’s Ulysses -- co-written by his six-year-old daughter, Fiamma
Curator: Susan Cross

Hammer Museum
May 23-Nov. 5, 2009
A new site-specific work for the Hammer’s Lobby Wall, by the Swiss artist known for elaborate murals composed of masking tape

Dallas Museum of Art
May 24–Aug. 30, 2009
Ghost Story -- a 15-minute work based on themes of landscape and memory, recently acquired by the DMA -- plus a selection of 11 photographs by Northern Irish artist Willie Doherty
Curator: Charles Wylie
Catalogue: 96 pp.
Funding: Contemporary Art Fund, others

Museum of Arts & Design
May 26-July 26, 2009
20 pieces of "conceptual furniture" by Toronto-based Gord Peteran, exploring "the use of the found object, the role of narrative in furniture, and the relationship between serial and one-off production" in his work
Curator: Glenn Adamson
Catalogue: $29.95, 96 pp.
Tour: This show has already appeared at the Milwaukee Art Museum, the Cranbrook Art Museum, the Sonoma Valley Museum of Art, the Bellevue Arts Museum and the Winterthur Museum and Countryestate

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
May 30-Nov. 2, 2009
Ca. 35 works by Edward Weston taken during the years of 1923-1926 in Mexico, alongside images by contemporaries like Tina Modotti and Manuel Alvarez Bravo
Curator: Karen Haas