New York - As the world's major museums roll out an extraordinary lineup of shows this year, there's a lot to be excited about.
Some are blockbusters that have already garnered significant (expected) attention-MoMA's Picasso show has received almost uniformly gushing reviews-and others, like the Hammer Museum's quiet but superb exhibition of jewel-like landscape paintings by the little-known artist Lawren Harris, promise to be the season's sleeper hits.
Not everyone can be everywhere, of course, so we've compiled a list of some of the most exciting shows from around the globe. Consider it your cultural passport for fall.
“The Best Designed Books of 2014,” Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, through October 25
Questionable as it might seem to institutionalise books as design objects rather than things to be read, the Stedelijk's Best Designed Booksexhibition is a nice reminder that there's an art to good design. The annual competition-in place since 1932-is a concise, usually rewarding shortcut to discovering the tomes that the industry's own leaders consider the best of the best.
Lee Miller at the Museo de Arte Moderno, Mexico City, through February 21
Lee Miller managed the remarkable feat of transitioning from surrealist photography to war photography. (Although she sometimes blurred the two, like this photo of herself in Hitler's bathtub in Munich.) Inarguably she's one of the most accomplished photographers of the 20th century. Lee Miller: Surrealist Photographeris comprised of a number of her earlier works, many of which were part of a trove of 60,000 negatives discovered in her attic after her death.
“Picasso Sculpture” at the MoMA, New York, through February 7
Not always the case when it comes to exhibitions conceived and executed as “blockbusters,” the superlatives heaped uponPicasso Sculpture by the world's critics (“a dumbfounding triumph”) are totally deserved. Over 100 sculptures large and small and in every conceivable medium-clay, bronze, steel, wood, even cardboard-are spread across the fourth-floor galleries. The only downside to the show? The crowds, which have been (unsurprisingly) unrelenting.
“The World Goes Pop” at the Tate Modern, London, through January 24
Finally, a show about pop art where women are the artists and not the objects. Sure, The World Goes Pop isn't exclusively about female artists but its mission-displaying pop art by under-represented practitioners of the genre-includes 25 women artists, and is stronger for it. It's always refreshing when a blockbuster show puts the record straight, and this one, which includes artists from around the globe, promises to correct, or at least amend, conventional narratives.
“Who Interprets the World?” at the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, Japan, through December 13
Exhibitions grappling with The Contemporary always have the potential to be fraught or boring or both. But Who Interprets the World?, a group show that involves artists like El Anatsui, Pedro Reyes, and Susanta Mandal, promises to be an interesting variation on the theme, and the Kanazawa museum building-a gorgeous, low-slung glass circle-is worth a visit no matter what's inside.
Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun at the Grand Palais, Paris, through January 11
Unbelievably, France has never before held a retrospective for Le Brun, who rose from a relatively modest background to become a painter at the court of Marie Antoinette. It would be a remarkable story in itself, but the fact that she was a woman makes her achievement even more astonishing. (Her massive portrait of Antoinette, surrounded by her three children, is arguably her most famous painting.) Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun, comprised of over 150 pictures, is one of the most anticipated fall shows in Europe.
Jim Shaw at the New Museum, New York, October 7-January 10
The New Museum has been on a roll recently, with exceptional solo exhibitions of Sarah Charlesworth and Albert Oehlen. Now, they've organized the first New York retrospective of the L.A.-based artist Jim Shaw, whose cartoon-like drawings, paintings, and videos, and room-size installations interrogate and occasionally subvert mainstream American culture. Jim Shaw: The End is Here will fill the second, third, and fourth floors of the museum.
Lawren Harris at the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, October 11-January 24
Often, when a museum introduces someone from outside of the well-trodden western canon of modern art, it can feel like a novelty for novelty's sake. But the Hammer's exhibition The Idea of North: The Paintings of Lawren Harris has unearthed that rare gem: an astonishingly gifted painter with whom many people in the US are unfamiliar.
“Ancient Egypt Transformed: The Middle Kingdom at the Metropolitan Museum,” New York, October 12-January 24
It doesn't matter if you're an academic or a 5-year-old: The wonderful thing about the Met's Egyptian exhibitions is that the material is so superb, and so stunningly beautiful, that you can enjoy it no matter what. A major international exhibition, Ancient Egypt Transformed: The Middle Kingdom includes 230 objects from the Met's collection and 37 lenders across the US and Europe.
“Alfred Stieglitz and the 19th Century” at the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, October 31-March 27
The Art Institute has one of the best photography collections in the country, which is due in no small part to the Stieglitz Collection, which Georgia O'Keefe donated to the museum in 1949. Drawing exclusively from this collection, Alfred Stieglitz and the 19th Century contains gems from masters including Julia Margaret Cameron and the Scottish duo David Octavius Hill and Robert Adamson.
Washington Post-Bloomberg