Some travelers plan their trips around sightseeing tours while others book dining reservations before their plane tickets. Many art aficionados, on the other hand, scour museum listings for Matisse or Michelangelo before reaching their destinations. We’ve highlighted six new exhibits from around the world that explore a variety of themes, including the similarities between Joan Mitchell and Claude Monet and Korean contemporary art in the postcolonial era.
1. “Coming Attractions: The John Waters Collection”
- Where: Baltimore, Maryland
- Tickets: free entry
The last time John Waters headlined an art exhibit at the Baltimore Museum of Art was four years ago, when the groundbreaking filmmaker displayed his comical but thought-provoking collection of photos, prints, videos, and sculptures created by the Pope of Trash himself. This fall, the Baltimore native will showcase his own personal art collection, featuring 90 paintings, sculpture, prints, and photos from Andy Warhol, Cindy Sherman, Tadashi Kawamata, and other cutting-edge and thought-provoking artists, some of whom are also his friends. Coming Attractions, which runs November 20 to April 16, 2023, offers a sampling of Waters’s nearly 400 works that were bequeathed to the BMA—where Waters is a trustee—and are on view for the first time.
2. “Van Gogh in America”
- Where: Detroit, Michigan
- Tickets: $7 to $29, free for members
A spate of immersive art installations around the world celebrating Vincent van Gogh highlight the public’s enduring infatuation with the Dutch post-Impressionist 122 years after his death. The latest exhibit, Van Gogh in America at the Detroit Institute of Art, features 74 of his paintings (this is not an immersive light show) and commemorates the 100th anniversary of the museum’s first van Gogh acquisition. The exhibit spans nine galleries featuring some of his most famous works, including Starry Night, painted during his stay at an asylum in Provence, and The Bedroom, a depiction of the artist’s own bedroom in Arles. The exhibit began October 2 and runs until January 22, 2023.
3. “Monet-Mitchell”
- Where: Paris, France
- Tickets: 5 to 16 euros, free for journalists, critics, and disabled individuals; 32 euros for a family of two adults and up to four children; reservations required
American artist Joan Mitchell was born in 1925—one year before French impressionist Claude Monet died. Yet the two shared a fascination with the interplay of light and color in French landscapes, which is the focus of the Monet-Mitchell exhibit that runs until February 27, 2023, at the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris. The show’s 60 pieces from both artists depict their abstract artistic renderings that represent their feelings and memories of their natural surroundings. Complementing the show is a Joan Mitchell retrospective featuring 50 of her works, billed as the largest Mitchell retrospective in Europe in more than 30 years.
‘Jawbone of an Ass’ by Jean-Michel Basquiat, who is having quite a moment right now.
Courtesy of The Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat Licensed by Artestar New York
4. “Jean-Michel Basquiat: King Pleasure”
- Where: New York City
- Tickets: $32 for adults, $30 for seniors and $25 for kids (3–13); timed tickets required
Interest in the late neo-expressionist artist Jean-Michel Basquiat has resurged in pop culture. A play and a movie currently in production, The Collaboration, depicts his friendship with pop artist Andy Warhol while the Gap sells T-shirts showing his street art–inspired paintings. For a more intimate look at his work, fans can head to an exhibit in Chelsea that features 200 rarely or never-seen paintings, drawings, and multimedia presentations. Organized by Basquiat’s family, King Pleasure takes its name from one of the artist’s paintings and a bartender turned jazz vocalist. It runs through January 1, 2023.
5. “The Space Between: The Modern in Korean Art”
- Where: Los Angeles, California
- Tickets: tickets vary in price, from $10 to $25; free for members and kids in Los Angeles County
The exploration of Korean modern art’s perseverance in the face of colonial rule and the Korean War is the subject of The Space Between, which kicked off September 11 and runs until February 19, 2023, at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Organized in five sections, the show features oils, sculpture, and photography, beginning with photographs taken of the last Korean dynasty in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and ending with works from contemporary artists who rebelled against government-sponsored art exhibitions.
6. “What’s Going On”
- Where: Washington, D.C.
- Tickets: $15 for adults and $10 for youth and students; tickets good for the day
Recognized as one of the nation’s best contemporary art venues, Miami’s Rubell Museum will open a second location October 29 in Washington, D.C. Located in a former high school listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the D.C. museum will contain 7,400 pieces in its exhibition space, plus a bookstore and café. The inaugural exhibit, What’s Going On, features nearly 200 pieces of art from Keith Haring, Rashid Johnson, Carrie Mae Weems, Kennedy Yanko, and others whose pieces highlight social and political issues in the U.S. The title takes its name from Marvin Gaye’s seminal 1971 album that took on the Vietnam War, environmental destruction, and social injustices, which are themes highlighted in the exhibit. Museum officials don’t yet have an end date for the exhibit but say it will continue at least throughout 2022.
Art lovers visiting D.C. can also view the Peacock Room, which reopened in September after a three-month conservation project at the National Museum of Asian Art, less than a mile from the Rubell. Designed by artist James McNeill Whistler, the room was originally a dining room for British shipping magnate Frederick Leyland and showcases Chinese blue and white porcelain.
