Summer is blockbuster season at the movies, but come fall, it's the museums' turn.
Around the globe, institutions large and small (mostly large) are rolling out massive exhibitions filled with hundreds of objects compiled, in large part, from dozens of other global institutions. Think of it as a global swap meet in which all the objects are priceless.
Following are the shows we're most anticipating this season, presented in chronological order. While very few people will be lucky enough to see them all, here's hoping most can make it to at least one or two. Start planning now.
William Kentridge: Thick Time at the Whitechapel Gallery, London
Sept. 21, 2016 – Jan. 15, 2017
Six of Kentridge's major artworks dating from 2003 to 2016 will fill much of the Whitechapel's special exhibition space. Two of the South African artist's trademark immersive audio-visual installations will be crowd-pleasers; equally exciting will be his series of massive tapestries, based on his Met Opera production of Shostakovich's The Nose.
Jerusalem 1000–1400: Every People Under Heaven at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Sept. 26, 2016 – Jan. 8, 2017
The Met has put together one of its trademark mixes of scholarship and showmanship. Using medieval Jerusalem as an anchor, the exhibition contains over 200 visual and decorative works of art that not only showcase the diverse range of the city's influence but also the intertwined stylistic similarities among cultures.
Los Angeles to New York: Dwan Gallery, 1959-1971 at the National Gallery of Art, Washington
Sept. 30, 2016 – Jan. 29, 2017
As artists outside the 20th century's White Heroic Male archetype belatedly get their due, it stands to reason that overlooked gallerists get their turn in the spotlight, too. Virginia Dwan was one of the most important dealers and patrons of the 1960s. From her Los Angeles and then New York galleries, she championed unknown artists who then became superstars: Dan Flavin, Sol LeWitt, Robert Ryman, Carl Andre, and dozens of others blossomed under her patronage. This show, which has close to 100 works, many from Dwan's personal collection, is the result of a promised gift: She plans to give more than 25o artworks to the National Gallery.