Autumn Art Moments
A round up of exhibitions to check out across New York this fall
A wise rando on the platform formerly known as Twitter once said that August is basically the Sunday of summer. And while I’m big on squeezing every moment out of the seventh day of the week, it can be fun to look ahead and get excited for what’s around the corner.
Before each season’s start, I typically make a list of exhibitions across the city I want to see. This time around, I figured I’d make it public for New York-based subscribers to use as a guide!
So, without further ado:
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Drink Pairing: The Met stays open late on Friday and Saturday nights. Head to Poppi on 69th and Madison for early evening spritzes and charcuterie, then uptown to check out one of the following exhibitions.
![Walker Evans | [Subway Passengers, New York City] | The Metropolitan Museum of Art](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!wHxH!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fdae929ec-eb2f-4796-a206-0eb645cb7118_600x400.jpeg "Walker Evans | [Subway Passengers, New York City] | The Metropolitan Museum of Art")
Art for the Millions: American Culture and Politics in the 1930s (Opening Date: 9.7) — I love well-curated exhibitions focused on how artists grapple with the social issues plaguing their times, with The Whitney’s An Incomplete History of Protest from 2017 topping the list. So, naturally, I’m looking forward to this upcoming show.
Upheaval unsurprisingly plagued the United States in the 1930s, an interwar period now infamous for its economic instability. Artists at the time gravitated toward social realism, the authenticity of daily life supplanting idealistic depictions. This exhibition will feature more than 100 works across mediums from artists including Georgia O’Keeffe, Stuart Davis, and Walker Evans, revealing how they distilled the era’s sociopolitical concerns on a visual plane.
Manet/Degas (Opening Date: 9.24) — I famously adore any exhibition that places two artists in dialogue with each other, which is why I haven’t shut up about The Frick’s 2014 decision to exhibit Cy Twombly and Auguste Rodin together for almost a decade. The Met’s upcoming show about the parallel careers of Edouard Manet and Edgar Degas, born only two instead of 88 years apart, will be a bit less out of the box. Inclusive of over 150 paintings and works on paper, it will explore the complex relationship between two tour de forces of the Impressionist period.
Vertigo of Color: Matisse, Derain, and the Origins of Fauvism (Opening Date: 10.13) — Emotional use of color in art always affects me (see: Van Gogh’s Irises at The Getty). But beyond having studied Matisse in college (and visited MoMA’s highly-Instagrammed Cut-Outs exhibition in 2015), I know very little about the origins of Fauvism and look forward to learning more through this exhibition, which will display 65 works by Henri Matisse and André Derain on loan from museums around the world.
Predicated on the notion of color as expressive of an artist’s feeling rather than environmental reality, Fauvism emerged in the summer of 1905 as Matisse and Derain experimented with their palettes in the French fishing village of Collioure. The movement went on to get its name from a journalist’s review of their work at the Salon d’Automne that fall.
Museum of Modern Art (MoMA)
Drink Pairing: On a Saturday or Sunday morning, head to The East Pole on 65th between Park and Lexington for banana bread (pumpkin bread once October hits) and a Bellini outside or at the bar. Then, walk down Madison to MoMA.
ED RUSCHA / NOW THEN (Opening Date: 9.10) — MoMA’s site quotes Ed Ruscha as saying: “I don’t have any Seine River like Monet. I’ve just got US 66 between Oklahoma and Los Angeles.” So true, king.
Ed Ruscha made his career when he left his hometown in Oklahoma for LA in 1956, going on to hang with his brother Paul and my girl (and cat’s namesake) Eve Babitz in the 1960s. This exhibition will gather over 200 of his works across mediums and materials, the totality of which reimagines American art for and beyond the postwar generation through its unique engagement with text and iconography.
Picasso in Fontainebleau (Opening Date: 10.8) — I’m honestly not a big Picasso girlie, mostly because I read Francoise Gilot’s memoir, My Life with Picasso, but I digress. I probably wouldn’t go to this exhibition in and of itself, but I would time my visit to the Ruscha exhibition for post-10.8 with the goal of doing a walkthrough of it. Especially since I actually really liked The Guggenheim’s recent Picasso exhibition, a tightly curated one focused on his initial years in Paris.
Displaying two different six-foot-high canvases painted in the summer of 1921 along with smaller pieces and archival content, this upcoming MoMA exhibition will highlight the body of work Picasso developed while renting a villa in Fontainebleau.
The Whitney Museum
Drink Pairing: Head to Moonflower, a new-ish natural wine bar on Seventh and West 11th Street, for small bites with fresh ingredients from the Union Square Greenmarket. In September, sit outside with a glass of orange wine. For October onward, settle into the bar with a glass of red. Then, walk west to The Whitney.
Ruth Asawa Through Line (Opening Date: 9.16) — David Zwirner mounted an exhibition centered on American sculptor Ruth Asawa back in 2017 after taking over representation of her estate. The show marked one of my favorites that year, so I’m looking forward to this upcoming retrospective at The Whitney, which will focus her drawing practice and its impact on her sculptures. I recommend reading this Vogue feature on Asawa that coincided with a different Zwirner retrospective in 2021 as prep!
Henry Taylor: B Side (Opening Date: 10.4) — I love an LA-based artist and know very little about Henry Taylor. Renowned for his portraiture and representations of Black America, Taylor’s work spans mediums and focuses on “friends, relatives, strangers on the street, athletes, politicians, and entertainers.” You can read more about him and get a sense of his style here.
This exhibition will showcase over 150 pieces from the 1980s onward, “among them: his family members and artistic community, street scenes from Los Angeles and beyond, icons of politics and the music world (including portraits of Eldridge Cleaver, Barack and Michelle Obama, and Jay-Z), and often wrenching encounters with racism, policing, and American history.” Assemblages and drawings from Taylor’s time as an employee at Camarillo State Mental Hospital will round out the show.
New-York Historical Society
Drink Pairing: Stop by The New-York Historical Society on a Friday evening between 6:00 and 8:00 PM for pay-as-you-wish admission. Then, walk over to The Owl’s Tail on 75th between Broadway and Amsterdam for seasonal cocktails and the best cornmeal biscuits with jalapeño butter.
Enchanting Imagination: The Objets d’Art of André Chervin and Carvin French Jewelers (Opening Date: 9.8) — Gorgeous jewels — yes, please. This exhibition will mark the public’s inaugural introduction to a series of art objects meticulously crafted by French jeweler André Chervin and his New York-based atelier, Carvin French. Learn more and preview some of the work, from sparkling strawberries to a ruby-plated lamp, via The New York Times here.
Acts of Faith: Religion and the American West (Opening Date: 9.22) — Exploring the interplay between religion and western expansion in the United States, this exhibition will aggregate over 70 objects, images, and documents to paint a nuanced portrait of how spirituality shaped the much-mythologized American West.
Women’s Work (Ongoing) — This exhibition showcases 45 different objects from The New-York Historical Society’s collection to tackle the complex question of what constitutes “women’s work,” making the case for its value and ubiquity.
Miscellaneous
The Guggenheim: Only the Young: Experimental Art in Korea, 1960s–1970s (Opening Date: 9.1) — This show will focus on works from artists who came of age in the decades following the Korean War, a tumultuous period of increased globalization. It will mark the first North American museum exhibition focused on silheom misul, aka: Korean Experimental art, teasing out how artists within the movement shaped avant-garde practices worldwide.
Drink Pairing: Tuck into gluten-free bakery Noglu for an admittedly overpriced hot chai on a Saturday afternoon, then head over to Fifth and down to 89th for a visit to The Guggenheim.
![Paris Society [Max Beckmann] | Sartle - Rogue Art History](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!r1mj!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F2606bdb3-3664-4594-9696-e186da6a5683_1744x1059.jpeg "Paris Society [Max Beckmann] | Sartle - Rogue Art History")
Neue Galerie New York: Max Beckmann: The Formative Years, 1915-1925 (Opening Date: 10.5) — The Neue has been closed for renovations all summer, with plans to reopen on 9.1 ahead of this new exhibition centered on German painter Max Beckmann. I adore Beckmann’s work, with his painting Paris Society (pictured above), a chilling representation of Paris on the brink of Nazi invasion, being one of my favorites. The Met mounted a retrospective on Beckmann back in 2016, and The Neue previously included his work as part of its 2019 exhibition, “The Self-Portrait: From Schiele to Beckmann.”
This upcoming exhibition will focus on Beckmann’s stylistic shift from Impressionistic influence to New Objectivity, a style that emerged in 1920s Germany as a challenge to Expressionism.
Drink Pairing: Cafe Sabarsky, duh. For those of you unfamiliar, The Neue is a museum of early 20th century German and Austrian art located inside a gorgeous Upper East Side townhouse on 86th and Fifth. Cafe Sabarsky sits on the first level of the space, featuring delectable Austrian and German treats from Spätzle to Viennese sausage to apple strudel, as well as a full drink menu and the occasional live jazz performance.
Brooklyn Museum: Spike Lee: Creative Sources (Opening Date: 10.7) — Brooklyn Museum exhibitions can be hit or miss for me (and others, seemingly), but this one seems interesting. It will aggregate objects from Spike Lee’s personal collection that inspire his filmmaking. According to the museum site, “Artworks by prominent Black American artists, including Kehinde Wiley, Deborah Roberts, and Michael Ray Charles, are displayed alongside instruments once owned by legendary musicians, as well as historical photographs, sports and movie memorabilia, and more. Together, they reveal the connections among the people, places, and ideas that have fueled Lee’s incisive storytelling.”
Drink Pairing: Clock out of work early on a Friday for a late afternoon visit to the Brooklyn Museum before it closes at 6:00 PM. Then, walk over to gertrude’s, Prospect Heights’s new neighborhood spot inspired by the holy trinity of of iconic New York restaurants, Jewish cuisine, and European bistros. Located on the corner of Carlton and St. Marks Avenue, it’s the perfect spot for a martini, a killer cheeseburger, and a side of fries to bring in the weekend!
The Morgan Library: Bridget Riley Drawings: From the Artist’s Studio (Closing Date: 10.8) — English painter Bridget Riley became known for her color compositions in the 1960s. Open through the first week of October, this show focuses exclusively on her drawing practice and how it shaped her work over the course of seven decades.
Drink Pairing: Nothing says old New York like The Morgan Library. Head to The Campbell Bar inside Grand Central for a 5:00 PM Friday cocktail at the bar, then down to The Morgan for free hours between 6:00 and 8:00 PM, complete with live music.
The Brant Foundation: Basquiat x Warhol (Opening Date: 11.1) — Only the most iconic art historical friendship of the 1980s.
Drink Pairing: After exploring The Brant Foundation’s industrial-style space on 6th between First and Avenue A, head over to Book Club Bar. Located on 3rd between Avenues A and B, this cozy little spot has a full bookstore inside and a full menu of literature-inspired cocktails, including Grapefruits of Wrath, Old-Fashioned Man and the Sea, and Master on the Orient Espresso Martini.
Art Fairs
So, what exactly is an art fair? Great question.
Art fairs serve as opportunities for galleries around the world to come together in hopes of selling their work. But for those of us not quite in the art buying phase of life yet or maybe ever, these events serve as opportunities to gain exposure to pieces in smaller collections that we might not see outside of a massive exhibition or big-deal artist retrospective.
Quite a few fairs are coming up this fall, including:
The Armory Show (Dates: 9.8-9.10)
Location: The Javits Center (429 11th Avenue)
Ticket Price: Happy Hour Admission after 5:00 PM ET on 9.8 and 9.9 and and after 4:00 PM ET on 9.10 for $35
Independent 20th Century (Dates: 9.7-9.10)
Location: Cipriani South Street (10 South Street)
Ticket Price: Single-day tickets for $65, run-of-show tickets for $90
Art on Paper (Dates: 9.7-9.10)
Location: Pier 36 (299 South Street)
Ticket Price: Single-day tickets for $35, run-of-show tickets for $65
Affordable Art Fair (9.20-9.24)
Location: Metropolitan Pavilion (125 West 18th Street)
Ticket Price: Advanced purchase single-day tickets for $27.25
XO,
Najet