Floating Island
Earthworks artist Robert Smithson once conjured up a “floating island” that would circle the fixed island of Manhattan like a slow-moving planet. This fall, the whimsical idea will be realized.
• organized by the Whitney Museum and Minetta Brook; September 17 through 25.
Performa05
The Finnish Screaming Men’s Choir may seem like something out of Spamalot, but it is in fact an actual group of besuited men who shout song lyrics in violent, percussive fashion.
• See performa-arts.org for locations; November 3 through 21.
Elizabeth Murray Retrospective
The bedrock consistency of Elizabeth Murray pays off.
• MoMA, October 23 through January 9.
RUSSIA! and Prague
The Met and the Guggenheim celebrate czars and Czechs.
• RUSSIA!; Guggenheim Museum, September 16 through January 11
• Prague: The Crown of Bohemia; Metropolitan Museum of Art, September 20 through January 3.
Vicent Van Gogh: The Drawings
The Metropolitan Museum of Art will give us a somewhat less familiar portrait of the popular Dutch master than we are accustomed to seeing.
• Metropolitan Museum of Art, October 18 through December 31.
The Perfect Medium: Photography and the Occult
A century of attempts to catch a spirit in the act.
• Metropolitan Museum of Art, September 27 through December 3.
Manufactured Landscapes: The Photographs of Edward Burtynsky
Edward Burtynsky’s industrial landscapes are at once beautiful and horrible.
• Brooklyn Museum, October 7 through January 15.
Mad Hot Penmen
As the American Folk Art Museum’s “Obsessive Drawing” proves, you don’t need an M.F.A. to make the kind of detailed marks that lead viewers to question your sanity. A math degree might help, however. Martin Thompson bases patterned diptychs on multiples of ten, patching mistakes with a scalpel and Scotch tape. Eugene Andolsek (detail of Untitled 13A, pictured) uses a straightedge and compass. And Hiroyuki Doi inks circles representing “every creature… which exists in this world”- an infinite set, by the look of it.
• American Folk Art Museum; September 14 through March 19.
Fasten Your Seat Belts
Let the paranoia begin! Heighten your senses at “SAFE: Design Takes on Risk,” the Museum of Modern Art’s paean to Kevlar and babyproofing—then go home and realize what a death trap your apartment is.
• Opens October 16.
Best of the Rest
Philip-Lorca diCorcia
Pole-dancing is an art form in “Lucky Thirteen,” a series of monumental color prints.
• PaceWildenstein Chelsea; September 9 through October 8.
“Odd Lots”
Emerging artists respond to Gordon Matta-Clark’s conceptual real-estate project Fake Estates (1973), a comment on property demarcation lines.
• White Columns; September 9 through October 15.
Lucy McKenzie
Spirited works on paper in gouache and charcoal by a leading Glasgow artist.
• Metro Pictures; September 10 through October 8.
André Kertész
A look at the Hungarian “visual poet” (1894–1985) who influenced Brassaï and Henri Cartier-Bresson.
• International Center of Photography; September 16 through November 27.
Laurie Anderson
Multimedia artist shows a video installation inspired by her dreams.
• Sean Kelly; September 17 through October 22.
Roy McMakin
Furniture designer–architect–sculptor turns the gallery into a two-room home.
• Matthew Marks; September 17 through October 29.
Sam Durant
Influential L.A. sculptor has first East Coast solo show.
• Paula Cooper; September 23 through October 29.
“Oscar Bluemner: A Passion For Color”
The painter, a nearly forgotten member of Alfred Stieglitz’s “291” circle, gets a retrospective.
• The Whitney Museum of American Art; October 7 through February 12.
“Memling’s Portraits”
Striking, exquisitely nuancedportraits by the celebrated Netherlandish artist Hans Memling and his school.
• The Frick Collection; October 12 through December 31.
“The Plain of Heaven”
Artists react to the impending redevelopment of the High Line railway, in a show in the meatpacking-district site Dia hopes to call home.
• 820 Washington St. at Gansevoort St., October 14 through November 20.
Luc Tuymans
New work from the brooding Belgian who started the vogue for muted, subtly political painting.
• David Zwirner; October 14 through November 19.
“The Imagery of Chess Revisited”
Kings, queens, and pawns go avant-garde in the hands of André Breton, Man Ray, Marcel Duchamp, and others.
• Noguchi Museum; October 20 through March 6.
Egon Schiele
More than 150 paintings by the Viennese master of the sinuously angst-y figure.
• Neue Galerie; October 21 through February 20.
“Stephen Shore: American Surfaces”
More than 300 works by a pioneer of color art photography.
• P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center; October 23 through January 23.
“Persistent Vestiges: Drawing from the American-Vietnam War”
Artists on the Vietnam War and its cultural aftershocks.
• The Drawing Center; November 5 through February 11.
“Frequency”
Follow-up to 2001’s “Freestyle” show spotlights 30 emerging black artists.
• Studio Museum in Harlem; November 9 through March 12.
Richard Tuttle
Whether it’s a subtle wire sculpture or a clunky wood relief, his work is humble and often improvisational.
• The Whitney Museum of American Art; November 10 through February 5.