Ten must-see art exhibitions in New York City this fall

New York City’s 2012 autumn art world is marked by various exhibitions – from black-and-white Picasso to an inside look in the workshop of the great Baroque sculptor Bernini, from Brooklyn warehouse happenings to the art revolution in post-war Japan. Here are some highlights:

1. Picasso, Black and White (October 5, 2012 – January 22, 2013) at Guggenheim museum, 1071 Fifth Avenue, NY

This first-of-its-kind Picasso exhibition is showing 118 monochrome-colored paintings, several sculptures and works on paper, created by the Spanish artist from 1904 to 1971. Better known for his Blue and Rose periods, Cubism works, neoclassical figurative paintings and explorations in Surrealism, Picasso has claimed that color “weakens”. Picasso, Black and white shows how he skillfully purges color from his works not only to highlight their formal structure and autonomy, but also to hail great masters like El Greco, José de Ribera, Diego Velázquez, Francisco de Zurbarán and Francisco de Goya who predominantly used black-and-white in their paintings.

2. Bernini: Sculpting in Clay (October 3, 2012  – January 6, 2013) and Regarding Warhol: Sixty artists, fifty years (September 18 – December 31, 2012) at the MET museum, 1000 5^th Avenue, NY

This autumn the Metropolitan Museum of Art is exposing the clay models Baroque sculptor Gian Lorenzo Bernini created as studies for his later works. A few floors up the visitors can see 45 pieces from an array of artists including: pop-art king Andy Warhol and over 100 works of 60 artists that he inspired – including Warhol’s Red Jackie (1964), Tom Sachs’ Chanel Chainsaw (1996) and Jean-Michelle Basquiat’s Untitled  (1981).

3. Guido van der Werve: Works 2003-2009 at Luhring Augustine Gallery Bushwick (September 9 – December 16, 2012) and Nummer veertien, home (September 7 – October 20, 2012) at Luhring Augustine Chelsea, 25 Knickerbocker Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11237 and 531 West 24^th Street, NY 10011

In Chelsea Guido van der Werve, the Dutch artist, triathlete, concert pianist and composer’s latest art movie Nummer veertien, home is playing. The film captures, in 54 minutes, his 1,200 miles journey from Warsaw’s Church of the Holy Cross to Paris’s Père Lachaise cemetery, where Frederic Chopin was buried without his heart, to which the filmmaker alludes. At the same time the gallery’s Bushwick location will show in the weekends until December 16 eight of his previous films to match the poetic, melancholy cravings of an autumn soul.

4. Quay Brothers: On Deciphering the Pharmacist’s Prescription for Lip-Reading Puppets (August 12, 2012 – January 7, 2013) at Museum of Modern Art (MoMa) 11 West 53^rd Street, NY

Stephen and Timothy Quay, influential experimental stop-motion animators and identical twins, are the focus of this strange and dark exhibition. Born outside Philadelphia in 1947, the Quay Brothers worked from their London studio Atelier Koninck since the late 1970s, where they created their most well-known animation Street of Crocodiles (1987) and designed sets and projections for opera, drama, and concert performances such as Tchaikovsky’s Mazeppa (1991) and Ionesko’s The Chairs (1997), nominated for a Tony award. The exhibition explores their uncanny world with never-seen-before moving image works and graphic design, drawings, and calligraphy; animated and live-action films alongside installations, objects, and works on paper. The album cover they created for Blood, Sweat & Tears can also be seen.

5. Tatzu Nishi – Discovering Columbus (September 20 – November 18, 2012) at Columbus Circle, West 58^th Street, NY

It doesn’t happen everyday that Gaetano Russo’s colossal 13-foot-tall statue of Columbus, normally residing on Columbus Circle in Midtown Manhattan, is in a fully furnished, modern living room. Japanese artist Tatzu Nishi places the 200-year old statue in a modern New York style room in his new installation called Discovering Columbus, available for viewing with free tickets here.

6.  Secret Project Robot’s alternative art at Bushwick, 289 Melrose street, Brooklyn NY

It’s always a good time to swing by and check what’s going on in Secret Project Robot – the very alternative non-profit cultural institution located in a warehouse in the heart of Bushwick. On October 24, Casa de la Castle of Doom Artists will collaborate to make a haunted castle and on the 27^th it’s time for Flown, Delphic Sybil, Holy God, Knyfe Hyts, Rat Attack’s Halloween Party. Highlights of next month are Impose Magazine‘s ten year anniversary pop-up art show on November 2, and Noise Salon curated by Mark Shue, opening on November 14. A lot of alternative art is going on there, keep updated on secretprojectrobot.org.

7. Wondering about wandering (September 16 – November 20, 2012) Mike Perry Studio, 983 Dean Street, Brooklyn NY

Artist/graphic designer Mike Perry and friends take over a 7,000 square-foot warehouse space to host a three-month community exhibition and series of art events including workshops, screenings, gatherings and open discussions. The event also marks the publishing of Perry’s first monography Wondering About Wandering and his first exhibition in NYC since 2008. Don’t miss Salon No. 4 Still Life opening on November 3,  including free Duvel beer! More info on the project’s website: http://www.mikeperrystudio.com/waw .

8. Cy Twombly: A Survey of Photographs/The Last Paintings (November 1 – December 22, 2012) – Gagosian Gallery Madison Avenue, 980 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 

Gagosian’s gallery on Madison Avenue shows the last works of Cy Twombly, along with 100 of his photographs. The American artist is well-known for his large-scale, freely scribbled, calligraphic-style graffiti paintings on solid fields of mostly gray, tan, or off-white colors. The last paintings opened in Los Angeles earlier this year and traveled all the way to Hong Kong and London before coming to New York.

9. A Visual Essay on Gutai at 32 East 69^th Street (September 12 – October 27, 2012) at Hauser & Wirth New York  32 East 69^th Street, New York, NY

Over 30 works by twelve members of the Gutai art movement in Japan are shown in the Hauser & Wirth gallery on the Upper East Side. The Guitai Art Association (Gutai Bijutsu Kyokai in Japanese,) was born from the cultural void in devastated Japan, after World War II & the nuclear bomb in Hiroshima, to shake Japan’s art world with aesthetic experimentation. It was dismissed by the local critics but influenced Western critics and predated Abstract Expressionism, Arte Povera, Fluxus, and Conceptual Art.

10. Tokyo 1955 – 1970: A New Avant-Garde (November 18, 2012 – February 25, 2013) at Museum of Modern Art (MoMa), 11 West 53^rd Street, NY

Another exhibition revealing the cultural transformation of post-war Japan into an art & commerce center opens in November at MoMa. Tokyo 1955-1970: A New Avant-Garde includes works of artist figures like Yoko Ono and Shiomi Mieko, along with photographers Moriyama Daido and Tomatsu Shomei, illustrators and graphic designers Yokoo Tadanori & Sugiura Kohei and architects Tange Kenzo & Kurokawa Kisho.

Martina Dechevska