There are plenty of art shows in New York this Fall. If you’re finding it tough to choose, though, and don’t have the time to see everything on your wish-list, we’ve compiled a selection of five of our favourite shows of the season – don’t miss out!
Armenia! at The Metropolitan Museum of Art
After the summer break, the Met is launching its new season with the first extensive exhibition on the Armenian culture. Reconstructing the story of Armenian Christianity through almost thirteen decades, the museum displays its pieces in an international context. The exhibition aims to create a journey through time and space to show the evolution and diaspora of the Armenian community, including rarely seen textiles, religious furnishings, and manuscripts, most of them loaned from important Armenian collections. The Met also has other significant shows, including a Delacroix Retrospective, making it a great time to visit the museum and observe some unique artefacts from the past, as well as discovering the paintings and drawing of the nineteenth-century master.
Marguerite Humeau’s current installation at the New Museum, Birth Canal
A rising French artist in her thirties, Marguerite Humeau develops each of her art projects by first undertaking a period of meticulous research with the help of specialists such as historians, anthropologists, linguists and engineers. With her first exhibition in the US at the New Museum, the artist presents a group of sculptures that play with the themes of abstraction and representation. The installation of light and sound around Humeau’s creates an atmosphere full of mystery at the boundaries of art/science.
Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power at the Brooklyn Museum
Marking a powerful moment of revolution in US history, the Brooklyn Museum has curated an exhibition featuring around 150 works by African-American artists in the 1970s. The show aims to celebrate a diverse range of black artists from different backgrounds and showcasing different artistic approaches, in memory of the seismic changes that arose from the Civil Rights movement. The work of the 60 artists exhibited in the museum reminds us of the part played by revolution in American history – in its social/political as well as aesthetic aspect.
Sarah Lucas: Au Naturel at the New Museum
Another feminist figure is on the Fall program at the New Museum. Sarah Lucas is a prominent artist in the UK and internationally with her provocative art that explores gender, sexuality and identity. Over the last 30 years, Lucas has transformed everyday objects into erotic forms as part of her exploration of gender and the notion of power. The exhibition will include some of Lucas’s most famous projects, as well as her early works. With feminist ideology becoming more powerful during the last decade in a global context, the debate launched by the artist is timelier than ever.
Bruce Nauman: Disappearing Acts at the Museum of Modern Art
October also sees the staging of an impressive retrospective of the work of Bruce Nauman at the Museum of Modern Art, starting the 21st of the month. The exhibition retraces Nauman’s artistic career through the presentation of videos, installations, neon signs and other art forms. As a central figure of the art scene of the 1960s and 70s, Nauman is recognised as a pioneer in the conceptual movement, showcasing his interest in the process and the psychology of his projects over the final result. The exhibition borrows its title, Disappearing Acts, from the concept of the artist’s ‘withdrawal as an art form’.
Featured image: © Andrew Russeth
