One of the best features of the Upper East Side — among a very long list of wonderful features — is the neighborhood’s abundance of art museums. From modern to classic, design-focused to Asian-influenced, no district in the city can match the breadth of art available to dazzle the senses and lift the spirits found on the UES.
Below, we’ve captured five of the best exhibits showing at neighborhood institutions through the end of 2016.
The Guggenheim Museum, 1071 Fifth Ave. (at 88th Street)
In a space newly devoted to the museum’s permanent collection, the Guggenheim will feature its expansive holdings in the genre of early modernism, including works by Chagall, Miró and Mondrian. This premiere exhibition demonstrates the revolutionary artwork created in the 1920s that set a course for the future of modern art. Many of the featured works were acquired for the museum by Solomon R. Guggenheim himself. Now through Feb 1, 2017.
The Asia Society, 725 Park Ave. (at 70th Street)
(Image: Wikipedia)
Chinese-French painter Zao Wou-Ki was a master of post-war abstraction influenced by a wide range of artists in Asia and Europe. He also experimented with lithography, engraving and watercolor over the course of his lengthy career. No Limits, the translation of the artist’s given name, is the first-ever museum retrospective of the artist’s work in the United States, drawing from public and private collections around the globe. Sept 9 through Jan 8, 2017.
3. Klimt and the Women of Vienna’s Golden Age, 1900-1918
Neue Galerie, 1048 Fifth Ave. (at 86th Street)
Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I (Image: Wikipedia)
An exhibition of paintings, drawings, decorative art and photographs, this collection will examine Klimt’s sensual portraits of women who embody the Vienna of the early 20th century. Organized by noted Klimt scholar Dr. Tobias G. Natter, the exhibit will display the Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I (1907) and Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer II (1912) side-by-side for the first time in a decade. The 1907 painting was the subject of the 2015 feature film “Woman in Gold” starring Helen Mirren. Running Sept 22 through Jan 16, 2017.
4. Valentin De Boulogne Beyond Caravaggio
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1000 Fifth Ave. (at 82nd Street)
The Fortune Teller (Image: Wikipedia)
Valentin De Boulogne is an oft-overlooked French painter who studied under Caravaggio. Now, for the first time, his work will be the focus of a monographic exhibit. He produced only 50 works in his short 41 years, and this exhibit will feature 45 them. Known for the humanity of his subjects and his ability to vibrantly depict dramatic events, De Boulogne’s art was a reference point for the likes of Courbet and Manet. Showing Oct 7 through Jan 16, 2017.
5. Kerry James Marshall: Mastry
The Met Breuer, 945 Madison Ave. (at 75th Street)
Born in 1955, Kerry James Marshall has been a prolific and imaginative chronicler of the African American experience throughout his 35-year career. Known for his large-scale paintings featuring black figures, his work features “defiant assertions of blackness in a medium in which African Americans have long been invisible.” Encompassing nearly 80 works of art, this major exhibition is the largest museum retrospective to date devoted to Marshall, Running Oct 25, 2016 to Jan 29, 2017.