Five reasons to visit NYC soon...

This is why my subscription to the New Yorker is so expensive.

1. "Gravity and Grace: Monumental Works by El Anatsui" at the Brooklyn Museum of Art until August 4.

El Anatsui (Ghanaian, b. 1944). Earth’s Skin, 2007. Aluminum and copper wire, 177 x 394 in

The first solo exhibition in a New York museum by the globally renowned contemporary artist El Anatsui, this show will feature over 30 works in metal and wood that transform appropriated objects into site-specific sculptures. Anatsui converts found materials into a new type of media that lies between sculpture and painting, combining aesthetic traditions from his birth country, Ghana; his home in Nsukka, Nigeria; and the global history of abstraction.

2. "John Singer Sargent Watercolors" at the Brooklyn Museum of Art until July 28.

John Singer Sargent (American, 1856–1925). (left) Simplon Pass: Reading, circa 1911. Opaque and translucent watercolor and wax resist with graphite underdrawing, 20 1/16 x 14 1/16 in.  (right) Bedouins, circa 1905–6. Opaque and translucent watercolor, 18 x 12 in. 

The ninety-three pieces on display provide a once-in-a-generation opportunity to view a broad range of the artist’s finest production in the medium.

3. "'Workt by Hand'": Hidden Labor and Historical Quilts at the Brooklyn Museum of Art until September 15.

Mary A. Stinson (American). Crazy Quilt, circa 1880. Silk, 81¼ x 81⅝ in.

...showcases approximately thirty-five American and European quilt masterpieces from the Brooklyn Museum’s renowned decorative arts collection. The exhibition examines the impact of feminist scholarship on the ways historical quilts have been and are currently viewed, contextualized, and interpreted. 

4. Hopper Drawing at the Whitney Museum, May 23 to October 6.

Edward Hopper (1882–1967), Study for Nighthawks, 1941 or 1942. Fabricated chalk and charcoal on paper; 11 1/8 × 15 in. 

Hopper Drawing is the first major museum exhibition to focus on the drawings and creative process of Edward Hopper (1882—1967). More than anything else, Hopper’s drawings reveal the continually evolving relationship between observation and invention in the artist’s work, and his abiding interest in the spaces and motifs—the street, the movie theatre, the office, the bedroom, the road—that he would return to throughout his career as an artist. This exhibition showcases the Whitney’s unparalleled collection of Hopper’s work, which includes over 2,500 drawings bequeathed to the museum by his widow Josephine Hopper, many of which have never before been exhibited or researched. The exhibition will survey Hopper’s significant and underappreciated achievements as a draftsman, and will pair many of his greatest oil paintings, including Early Sunday Morning (1930), New York Movie (1939), Office at Night (1940) andNighthawks (1942), with their preparatory drawings and related works. This exhibition also features groundbreaking archival research into the buildings, spaces and urban environments that inspired his work.

5. "As It Were...So to Speak: A Museum Collection in Dialogue with Barbara Bloom", The Jewish Museum until August 4.

Here's some of what the New Yorker had to say:
Scent, in the Jewish tradition, is a gateway to the soul. In this beautiful exhibition, a selection of spice containers stand in for the historical figures (including Marilyn Monroe and Vladimir Nabokov) who had the gift of synethesia. They are just a few of the two hundred and sixty-seven domestic objects chosen by the whip-smart New York conceptualist from the museum's vast collection.... Inspired by scholars' commentaries on the Talmud - conversations across generations - Bloom uses the objects to reflect on eclectic subjects in essays displayed in the form of open books. Marriage contracts lead to musings on the Song of Songs as it relates to the lyrics of Leonard Cohen.... By looking at the overlooked - privileging the personal and anecdotal over the public and official - Bloom does more than search for lost time; she makes us feel as if we've found it along with her.

What makes it tricky is that no sooner have some of these fine shows closed than MOMA opens with "American Modern: Hopper to O'Keefe", August 17 - January 26. Decisions, decisions....

Edward Hopper. House by the Railroad. 1925. Oil on canvas, 24 x 29"