Manhattan Bridge, a painting by Edward Hopper in Edward Hopper’s New York, is one of the blockbuster art exhibitions to see this fall

Pablo Picasso, Vincent Van Gogh, Edward Hopper,  John Singer Sargent, Johannes Vermeer, and Henri Matisse are a few of the art masters whose works will be on display in some of the blockbuster art exhibitions to see this fall.     

BY KAZEEM ADELEKE

Fall is one of those times that American museums present some of their must-see exhibitions. As with other years, there are many blockbuster fall art exhibitions to see. While some of these exhibitions focus on issues, others examine the developments in artistic traditions and influences. The fight for unionization and the impact of the pandemic did not seem to have affected the planning of the fall exhibition season.

Many of the fall exhibitions include some of the biggest names — Pablo Picasso, Vincent Van Gogh, Edward Hopper, Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, John Singer Sargent, Henri Matisse, and Johannes Vermeer, among several others.  There is also a show of works by Nasher Prize Laureate Nairy Baghramian at the Nasher Sculpture Center. But it is not just American museums that are staging blockbuster fall exhibitions. For example, the Royal Academy of Arts is hosting a blockbuster exhibition of works by William Kentridge, South Africa’s celebrated artist. These are just a few of the blockbuster fall art exhibitions.

Fall Blockbuster Art Exhibitions to See

Picasso Cut Papers

One of the blockbuster fall art exhibitions to look out for is Picasso Cut Papers at the Hammer Museum at UCLA. The exhibition examines an important yet little-known aspect of Pablo Picasso’s (1881–1973) artistic practice. It features some of Picasso’s most whimsical and intriguing works made on paper and in paper. While some of the works were created as independent works of art, others were exploratory pieces in relation to works in other media and models for Picasso’s fabricators. Some were gifts or games for family and friends. The works are signed, dated, and archived in the same way that he does his works in other mediums. There are approximately 100 works in the exhibition, many of which have never before been displayed in public.

This survey spans Picasso’s entire career, from his first cut papers, made in 1890, at nine years of age, through the 1960s, with works he made while in his eighties. The works will be on display alongside a select group of sculptures in sheet metal by the artist Picasso Cut Papers will be on view from October 1 to December 31, 2022. There are approximately 100 works in the exhibition, many of which have never before been displayed in public, with loans coming principally from museums and other art institutions. The exhibition will be accompanied by a publication focusing solely on Picasso’s cut papers. The first of its kind, this book features many works reproduced for the first time with newly commissioned photography, alongside new scholarship on a little-known aspect of one of the 20th century’s most pivotal practices.

Van Gogh in America

This exhibition at the Detroit Institute of Arts highlights the outstanding effort made by early promoters of modernism in the United States to introduce Vincent van Gogh, his biography, and his artistic production into the American consciousness.  Some of the promoters involved in inserting Van Gogh into American society included dealers and collectors. Others are private art organizations, public institutions, and the artist’s family. DIA was the first public museum in the United States to purchase a painting by Vincent van Gogh. The museum bought Self-Portrait (1887) in 1922.

This exhibition also celebrates the 100th anniversary of its acquisition.  Van Gogh in America features 74 authentic Van Gogh landscapes and portrait paintings from around the world. This exhibition not only allows visitors to view the artist’s incredible works but also tells the fascinating story of how this iconic artist became ingrained in the American psyche.  Some of the paintings in the art exhibition include The Bedroom, 1889, Chair, 1888, and Portrait of Postman Roulin, 1888. Van Gogh in America will be accompanied by a full-length, illustrated catalog with essays by the exhibition and Van Gogh scholars.  The Detroit Institute of Arts is the exclusive venue for this exhibition.

Edward Hopper’s New York

Edward Hopper’s New York at the Whitney Museum of Art is another of the blockbuster fall art exhibitions art lovers must see. The show brings together more than 200 paintings, watercolors, prints, and drawings that show the artist’s enduring fascination with the city. Works from the show are from Whitney’s preeminent collection of Hopper’s work and loans from public and private collections. There are also archival materials, including printed ephemera, correspondence, photographs, and notebooks. All the works in the exhibition offer an unprecedented examination of Hopper’s life and work in the city that he called home for nearly six decades (1908–67).  The exhibition is organized into thematic chapters spanning Hopper’s entire career. An accompanying exhibition catalog, features essays by curator Kim Conaty, writer and critic Kirsty Bell, scholar Darby English, and artist David Hartt. Edward Hopper’s New York runs from October 19, 2022, through March 5, 2023.

The Language of Beauty in African Art 

The concepts of beauty through the languages and perspectives of indigenous African communities are at the core of this outstanding show at the Kimbell Art Museum. It features over 300 works of art drawn from public and private collections around the world. The show was organized by the Art Institute of Chicago; it also includes important holdings from the institution.  This impressive assemblage of captivating masks, powerful figures, masterfully carved sculptures, and exquisitely crafted prestige objects gives visitors the opportunity to discover both their meanings and functions.

More importantly, the works allow for an understanding of original words as well as local aesthetic evaluations of traditional or historical works. Accompanying the exhibition is an ambitious publication highlighting indigenous perspectives on traditional artworks from Africa. It focuses on the judgments and vocabulary of members of the communities who created and used them. The exhibition will be on view from April 3 through July 31, 2022.

Murillo: From Heaven to Earth

Murillo: From Heaven to Earth at the Kimbell Art Museum is another blockbuster fall art exhibit to see. This comprehensive exhibition features works by the Spanish Golden Age painter Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (1617–1682). A leading religious painter of Seville during his time, Murillo was famous for his depictions of the life of Christ, Christian saints, and other Biblical scenes. His monumental paintings of the Virgin in celestial glory are other iconic works. However, the focus of this show is not on Esteban Murillo’s religious paintings but on earthly pictures of secular subjects and representations of everyday life in the 17th century. The group of works constitutes some of the artist’s most iconic pictures.

The show is inspired by the Murillo masterpiece Four Figures on a Step, which was acquired by the Kimbell in 1984 and is one of the museum’s most compelling and enigmatic paintings. Murillo: From Heaven to Earth will feature 50 paintings organized around concepts of youth and age, comedy, romance and seduction, compassion, narrative, and modern realism. Guillaume Kientz, director of the Hispanic Society Museum and Library in New York and former curator of European art at the Kimbell, serves as curator for the exhibition. The exhibition will be accompanied by a richly illustrated catalog with essays and commentaries by leading scholars of Spanish art and culture. On view from September 18 through January 29, 2023.

Sargent and Spain

What was John Singer Sargent’s (1856–1925) fascination with Spain? That question seems to be at the center of Sargent and Spain at the National Gallery of Art. Over seven extended visits between 1879 and 1912 to Spain, the artist painted many paintings and took a lot of photographs. More than 140 oils, watercolors, drawings, and never-before-published photographs, created by the artist on his many visits to Spain, are on display in this exhibition which seems to reveal the artist’s fascination with Spain. The collection includes stunning landscape views; detailed architectural studies; local people and traditions; dynamic scenes of flamenco dance; and everyday moments of Spanish Roma life.

Arranged in six thematic sections, Sargent and Spain trace the artist’s many and varied approaches to depicting Spain. It also, for the first time, examines how Sargent engaged with that country, in all its diversity, and depicted it in paintings, drawings, and photographs. The exhibition is curated by Sarah Cash, associate curator of American and British paintings at the National Gallery of Art, with Richard Ormond and Elaine Kilmurray, leading authorities on the artist and authors of the John Singer Sargent catalog raisonné. The show will be accompanied by a catalog that reveals Sargent’s fascination with Spain and the extraordinary body of work that resulted. The exhibition is on view from October 2, 2022, through January 2, 2023, in the West Building of the National Gallery of Art.

Vermeer’s Secrets 

What is the mystery about Johannes Vermeer (1632–1675)? For decades, art historians have been making effort to figure out the secrets of one of the most significant artists of the 17th century. Interestingly, despite all efforts, the Dutch painter’s life and practice remain a mystery. Vermeer’s Secrets offers a behind-the-scenes look at how the National Gallery curators, conservators, and scientists investigated the museum’s four treasured paintings by and attributed to Vermeer to get a better understanding of what makes Vermeer, Vermeer.

It all started during the COVID-related closures in 2020/2021. The museum got its specialists together and examined these paintings using advanced imaging techniques that virtually penetrate layers of paint to visualize what lies beneath, in combination with microscopic examination of the paintings’ delicate surfaces.  The National Gallery team also examined two 20th-century forgeries for comparison. The results of those investigations are at the core of Vermeer’s Secrets. Vermeer’s Secrets is curated by Marjorie E. Wieseman, curator and head of the department of northern European paintings, and Alexandra Libby, associate curator, department of northern European paintings, both of the National Gallery of Art. On view at the National Gallery of Art from October 8, 2022, through January 8, 2023, in the West Building, Ground Floor.

Nairy Baghramian: Modèle vivant

Nairy Baghramian, the 2022 Nasher Prize Laureate, will be presenting her first solo exhibition at the Nasher Sculpture Center this fall. The exhibition features new works by the versatile sculptor, who uses conventional and non-conventional media in creating her work. An Iranian-German, Nairy Baghramian is one of the most exciting sculptors working today. Her new works examine the connection between the body and trauma and other cultures in the museum’s collection. Using marble, wood, photography, Plexiglas, and other materials, she creates works that challenge the conventional presentation. Baghramian was born in Isfahan in 1971 and moved to Berlin in 1984. Nairy Baghramian: Modèle vivant runs from October 15, 2022, through January 8, 2023.

Matisse in the 1930s

The 1930s was a period of mixed fortune for Henri Matisse. Although the artist had already made a name for himself in the art world, he, however, found himself in a deep creative slump during this period. Adding salt to injury was the economic downturn that made art sales and commissions difficult. But when it seemed all hope was lost, Matisse got a helping hand. Albert Barnes gave him a commission to create a mural for his museum in Merion, Pa., just outside Philadelphia. The commission was titled The Dance (1930 –1933).

The project, which was recently transplanted to the city center, opened up Matisse’s creative vistas and impulses, and soon he was creating again. This fall’s blockbuster exhibition examined changes in the artist’s work as he explored different media, genres, and formats, including easel paintings, decorative art, sculpture, printmaking, drawing, and illustration. Additionally, it highlights Matisse’s changing artistic tradition and influences. Matisse in the 1930s is on view from Oct. 20 to Jan. 29 at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Cubism and the Trompe l’Oeil Tradition

When Cubism and the Trompe l’Oeil Tradition opens at the Metropolitan Museum in New York on October 20, 2022, art lovers will get the opportunity to rethink their views of Cubism. Many of the works in this show are from the trove of cubist works the American collector Leonard Lauder gave the museum a few years ago. Central to the idea of the exhibition is the Trompe l’Oeil painting tradition. Trompe l’oeil is French for “deceive the eye.”  The works from this artistic tradition create illusions of three-dimensionality that distort the viewer’s perception and psychological understanding of what is true or fiction.

Many of the qualities inherent in works by the Trompe l’oeil specialists are also evident in works by Cubist artists. Along with Cubist paintings, sculptures, and collages, the exhibition will present canonical examples of European and American trompe l’oeil paintings from the seventeenth through the nineteenth centuries. The juxtaposition will give art lovers the opportunity to appreciate the influences trompe l’oeil had on the works of Picasso, Georges Braque, and Juan Gris. Cubism and the Trompe l’Oeil Tradition is at the Metropolitan Museum in New York from October 20, 2022–January 22, 2023.

William Kentridge

One of the blockbuster fall art exhibitions to see is William Kentridge at the Royal Academy of Arts. For this single artist show, Kentridge will take over the Royal Academy of Arts Main Gallery and follow in the footsteps of other famous artists like Ai Weiwei, Anish Kapoor, and Antony Gormley, who have also shown their works in the gallery. Like many of the artists that used the space before him, Kentridge’s display will be large in scale, ambitious in scope, and astonishing in execution.  

The exhibition will include stop-motion animations, Kentridge’s signature charcoal trees and flowers, 4-meter wall-spanning tapestries, and the breath-taking three-screen film, Notes Towards a Model Opera, that follows in the tradition of the “immersive” experiences now in favor.  This will be the biggest exhibition of South Africa’s most celebrated living artist’s work in the UK. Many pieces are on display for the first time. William Kentridge is at the Royal Academy of Arts from September 24 —December 11, 2022.

The Space Between: The Modern in Korean Art

The first of its kind in the West, this groundbreaking exhibition explores the development of modern art in Korea from 1897 to 1965. The works—many never exhibited outside Korea—on display reveal how foreign influences, including European and American, shaped modern art in Korea during the period under investigation. American art lovers will get the opportunity to see how Korean artists’ encounters with Western traditions forced a shift from traditional media to Western oil paint and others. Some of the works show a hybrid or amalgam of western and traditional ideas.

The Space Between: The Modern in Korean Art is loosely organized chronologically, stylistically, and conceptually. The exhibition includes approximately 130 works that reflect the influx of foreign-introduced new media. The exhibition includes oils, ink, photography, and sculpture. The Space Between, curated by Dr. Virginia Moon, associate curator of Korean Art, is the second in a series of exhibitions as part of The Hyundai Project: Korean Art Scholarship Initiative, a global exploration of traditional and contemporary Korean art through research, publications, and exhibitions. Space Between: The Modern in Korean Art runs from September 11, 2022, to February 19, 2023, in the Resnick Pavilion at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

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