From Southern Shores to Northern Vales: Alabama Landscapes, 1819–1969 at the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, November 9 to January 26, 2020
This exhibition concludes the museum’s series celebrating the bicentennial of Alabama statehood. The rolling, expansive Southern landscape is captured in important nineteenth century oil paintings, and by Clara Weaver Parrish, Anne Goldthwaite, Kelly Fitzpatrick, and other twentieth-century artists. mmfa.org
Strange Days: Dada, Surrealism, and the Book at the Legion of Honor, to November 10
“When considering Dada and surrealism, intertwined art movements that shared practitioners in the period during and immediately after World War I, what comes to mind might be framable artworks: paintings by Salvador Dalí or Max Ernst, flyers for and photographs of inane performative spectacles,” wrote our senior editor Sammy Dalati. “But as Stephen Woodall, collections specialist at the Legion of Honor’s Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts, points out, ‘both Dadaism and surrealism were movements started not by visual artists but by poets.’”
Couture at Court: An Icon of Cosmopolitan Fashion circa 1890 at the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, to November 10
The work of Charles Worth, a couturier unmatched in reputation and prestige, and his Paris firm is on display. The splendor of spectacularly embroidered satin, the opulence of thousands of pearls, and luxuries show us a snippet of the beautiful formality of aristocratic life at the fin de siècle. thewadsworth.org
Marcel Duchamp: the Barbara and Aaron Levine Collection at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, November 9 to October 12, 2020
With his insistence that art is what you say it is, Marcel Duchamp may (for better or worse) the most influential artist of the past century. This exhibition features a number of his most famous “readymades” –including Hat Rack, Comb, Apolinère Enameled, With Hidden Noise, L.H.O.O.Q., and Why Not Sneeze? – and covers the entirety of his career. hirshhorn.si.edu
Strange Light: The Photography of Clarence John Laughlin at the High Museum of Art, to November 10
No one captured the romantic essence of decaying antebellum architecture quite like Laughlin, to the benefit of surrealists and other Southern photographers who followed. Less concerned with a consistent thematic approach – often jumping from the allegorical to the bizarre – Laughlin focused on innovative photographic approaches and experimentation. high.org
Impressionism in the Northwest at the Boise Art Museum, November 9 to February 9, 2020
What you think of as a typical American impressionist landscape might depict the rocky Maine coast, a quiet shoreline in Massachusetts, or sunlight on the Shinnecock Hills. But this exhibition calls attention to the often overlooked views of the mountains, fields, and forests of the American Northwest by artists that included Childe Hassam, Clyde Leon Keller, Sydney Laurence, C. C. McKim, Clara Jane Stephens, John Trullinger, Henry Frederick Wentz, Melville T. Wire, C. E. S. Wood, and Eustace Ziegler. boiseartmuseum.org
Horse Power: American Weathervanes from a Distinguished New England Collection at the Colby College Museum of Art, to November 10
Perhaps the most beloved beast of burden and a symbol of power and movement, the horse was naturally a popular weathervane motif. This exhibition features an enchanting and expressive array of the instruments from a private collection. colby.edu
From Dürer to Goya: Works by Old Masters from the Spence & Cinda Perry Collection at the Washington County Museum of Fine Arts, November 10 to January 26, 2020
This exhibition of prints by artists working from the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries – Albrecht Dürer, Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Hendrick Goltzius, Rembrandt van Rijn, Jacques Callot, and Francisco Goya – is a particularly noteworthy offering by a small regional museum. wcmfa.org
Nature by Design: Cochineal at the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, opens November 9
Cochineal – scaly insects native to the Americas that live on cacti – are pulverized to create a vivid red dye. Following the arrival of Europeans, a global market emerged for the pigment, which has been used to color everything from lacquer and textiles to food and cosmetics. cooperhewitt.org
Whistler and Company: The Etching Revival at the Knoxville Museum of Art, to November 10
James McNeill Whistler was a major force in the re-emergence of the etching as an artistic medium in the nineteenth century. This exhibition features nearly a dozen of scenic views of places such as London, Paris, and Venice, as well as 50 etchings by Whistler contemporaries, including Joseph Pennell and Frank Duveneck. knoxart.org
Antiques + Modernism Winnetka, November 8 to 10
“Ranging in styles from classic to modern, the Show is renowned for exquisite home furnishings and accessories, artwork, clothing, and jewelry, exclusively available for purchase from dealers who are nationally recognized specialists.” thewinnetkashow.com
Delaware Antiques Show, November 8 to 10
“More than sixty of the nation’s most distinguished antiques dealers present a spectacular showcase of art and design, including an array of American furniture, paintings, rugs, porcelain, silver, jewelry, and decorative arts.” winterthur.org
Antiques at Morristown Armory, November 9 to 10
“Bringing back your favorite exhibitors and adding new ones, you’ll find everything under the roof from fine art to jewelry, formal to country furniture, decorative objects, stoneware, porcelains, Oriental carpets, collectibles and so much more!” barnstar.com
