When looking at the coming season of art exhibitions in Chicago museums, it’s always unwise to assume intent if any sort of pattern should assert itself.
So this season it doubtless is serendipity that more than half of the noteworthy exhibitions are for individual artists and nearly all the biggest shows are scheduled after the turn of the year.
Certainly, the calendar did not start out that way. The Art Institute of Chicago was tentatively to host “Picasso and the Weeping Women” in October, only to withdraw its welcome because of the dropping out of pieces that often occurs in touring shows but seemed particularly damaging to the theme here.
Then, too, the Institute planned to reinstate a version of its famous “American Exhibition” that for more than a century intermittently attempted surveys of the most up-to-date art in the land. A geographically expanded installment of the show will happen, but in the spring, leaving the museum without a major draw after the Odilon Redon and Francisco Goya exhibitions close this month and next.
The presence of so many one-person exhibitions is inexplicable but nice. Even when the shows are small-as, indeed, several are this year-they still give the best opportunity for getting acquainted with artists or taking old love affairs to a new level of depth. (The best theme exhibitions do is provide ideas through which we barely catch a glimpse of the artist.)
Overall, there’s a little more sense of adventure this year than last; perhaps it will make up for some of the conservatism that has fallen, shroudlike, over our commercial galleries.
Here are the highlights:
Art Fashion: Fashion Illustrations, 1910-93: More than 100 original watercolors and drawings by 30 European and American designers. Chicago Historical Society, through Nov. 20.
Displacements: South African Works of Art on Paper, 1984-1994: The diversity of prints, watercolors and collages during the later years of apartheid. Mary and Leigh Block Gallery at Northwestern University, Sept. 22-Dec. 4
Gary Hill: The first U.S. exhibition for the Seattle-based artist who uses video as a sculptural medium in installations. Museum of Contemporary Art, Sept. 24-Nov. 27.
Felix Gonzalez-Torres: The first American museum show for the Cuban-born artist who employs ephemeral materials to create sculpture about personal history and the body. Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago, Oct. 2-Nov. 6.
Hanukah Menorahs: The First International Biennial Philip and Sylvia Spertus Judaic Prize Exhibition: Twenty-six original designs created for the Chicago-based competition. Spertus Museum, Oct. 2-February.
Robert Laurent and the American Figurative Sculpture Tradition 1910-1960: A retrospective for a pioneer of direct carving set within the context of American figurative sculpture. David and Alfred Smart Museum of Art, Oct. 6-Dec. 11.
Revisiting Amni Phillips: 50 Years of American Portraiture: Folk portraits by the itinerant 19th Century painter. Terra Museum of American Art, Oct. 8-December.
Still Working: Paintings and sculpture by 32 artists, aged 60 to 98, who continue to actively pursue their careers. Chicago Cultural Center, Oct. 22-Dec. 23.
Forces of Change: Women Artists of the Arab World: Contemporary art by 70 women artists from 15 countries of the Arab world. Cultural Center, Oct. 29-Dec. 16.
Daniel Buren: A new site-specific installation by the celebrated French artist. Arts Club of Chicago, Nov. 3-Dec. 10.
Jeanne Dunning, Jim Lutes, Dan Peterman: Three separate exhibitions for Chicago artists who work, respectively, with photographs, paint and recycled objects. Museum of Contemporary Art, Nov. 12-December (Peterman, Jan. 8).
Plane/Structure: A New Spectrum of California “Light-and-Space” Artists: Fourteen artists from Los Angeles whose works relate to the perceptual investigations of such pioneers as Robert Irwin and James Turrell. Renaissance Society, Nov. 20-Dec. 30.
Some Went Mad . . . Some Ran Away: Fifteen international contemporaries explore such themes as evolution, criminology and pornography through a variety of media. Museum of Contemporary Art, Jan. 14-March 12.
Luc Tuymans: The American debut of a young Flemish artist who creates representational paintings that take off from perverse media images. Renaissance Society, Jan. 15-Feb. 26.
Black Creativity: The annual juried multi-media exhibition for African-American artists. Museum of Science and Industry, February.
Gustave Caillebotte: Urban Impressionist: An international retrospective commemorating the centenary of the death of one of the least examined major figures of the Impressionist movement. Art Institute, Feb. 18-May 28.
The Americas Exhibition: A survey of the work of 15 challenging contemporary artists from Canada, Mexico, Latin America and the United States. Art Institute, March 11-May 21.
Diana Thater: The first solo museum exhibition for a Los Angeles artist who works with videotapes and projected video installations to explore the nature of television. Renaissance Society, March 12-April 23.
Franz Kline: The first exhibition to focus exclusively on works created by the Abstract-Expressionist painter between 1950 and 1961, the seminal period in his career. Museum of Contemporary Art, March 25-June 4.
Korrespondenzen/Correspondences: 14 Berlin and Chicago Artists: An exhibition indicating certain affinities between younger European and American artists. Cultural Center, April 22-June 25.
The Many Faces of Wenceslaus Hollar: Works by a master printmaker of the 17th Century who focussed on the particulars of everyday life. Block, April 23-June 19.
Latino Horizons: An annual juried exhibition of contemporary work in all media. Museum of Science and Industry, May.
Stan Douglas: “Hors-Champs” and “Evening”: The American premiere of video projects produced in Paris and Chicago, the latter based on local news coverage of the civil rights movement. Renaissance Society, May 5-June 30.
Dictated by Life: Marsden Hartley’s German Paintings and Robert Indiana’s Hartley Elegies: The most daring works by an early American modern and extrapolations from them three-quarters of a century later. Terra, July 11-Sept. 24.
Claude Monet: 1840-1926: The first comprehensive examination of the Impressionist master’s work in an American museum in more than 40 years. Art Institute, July 22-Nov. 26, 1995.
