Many art museums across the country are starting the new year right with blockbuster exhibitions guaranteed to visually tantalize even the most discriminating museumgoer. Here are some of them:
NEW YORKTHE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART:
After a major two-year renovation and reconstruction, the museum opened the new 19th Century European Paintings and Sculpture Galleries in September. Inside this suite of 20 rooms are the museum's extensive collections of Romantic, Barbizon, Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings and 19th-century European sculpture.
Last month, the Florence Gould Galleries for 18th-Century European Decorative Arts opened. These four new galleries complete the installation of the museum's Henry R. Kravis Wing and allow the museum to exhibit in its entirety its renowned collection of European decorative arts.
Other impressive exhibitions:
"The Gold of Meroe," through April 3. The complete jewelry of Nubian ruler Queen Amanisha-kheto is presented for the first time outside Germany. Dating around 20 B.C., this treasure includes some 200 extraordinary pieces of gold and silver jewelry set with semi-precious stones, colored glass and early glass enamel.
"Sixteenth-Century Italian Renaissance Drawings in New York Collections," Jan. 11 through March 27. The exhibit includes little-known works by Raphael, Michaelangelo and Titian as well as major works by Raphael's principal Roman followers Giulio Romano, Perini del Vaga, Polidoro da Caravaggio and others.
"Degas Landscapes," Jan. 21 through April 3. Included here are 61 landscapes (pastels, monotypes and oil paintings) by one of the most famous figures of French art.
MUSEUM OF MODERN ART:
"Joan Miro: A Retrospective," through Jan. 11. This full-scale retrospective containing 325 works spans the entire range of Miro's creative activity from 1915 through late 1970.
"Frank Lloyd Wright: A Retrospective," Feb. 20 through May 10. This exhibition is the most comprehensive presentation of Wright's architectural work to date. It includes 425 original drawings, 40 scale models, 15 full-scale constructions representative of his spatial and material qualities as well as a selection of decorative arts and furnishings.
SOLOMON R. GUGGENHEIM MUSEUM:
"Roy Lichtenstein," through Jan. 16. This exhibit is the first in-depth survey since 1969 of the work by one of the most influential artists of the postwar period. It consists of 120 major paintings, 33 sculptures and 10 working drawings and collages. During the 1960s, Lichtenstein was propelled to the forefront of the American Pop art movement because of his mass-produced American cultural icons - comic strips, advertisements and consumer products - rendered in flat planes and primary pigments. After the exhibit closes here, it will travel to The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (Exhibition dates there will be Jan. 30 through April 3.)
GUGGENHEIM MUSEUM SOHO:
"Watercolors by Kandinsky at the Guggenheim Museum," through February. The works in the exhibit have been drawn from the collections of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and the Hilla von Rebay Foundation, two of the richest repositories of Kandinsky's work. The watercolors are presented chronologically through the artist's years in Russia, at the Bauhaus and finally in Paris.
WASHINGTON
NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART:
"The Age of the Baroque in Portugal," through Feb. 6. The first major art exhibition to be sent by the Portuguese to the United States, it surveys the opulent art of the 18th century. Among the 115 extraordinary treasures is a 66-foot, blue-and-white, hand-painted tile frieze depicting the Lisbon skyline as it appeared around 1700.
"Cesarini Venus," through Jan. 17. Spotlighted is this marble female nude plus works in bronze by the great European sculptor Giambologna (1529-1608).
"Willem de Kooning," May 8 through Sept. 5. Celebrating the artist's 90th birthday, the exhibit will present 75 of the artist's finest paintings from the late-1930s to the mid-1980s.
NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART:
"Thomas Cole: Landscape into History," March 18 through Aug. 7. A major retrospective of more than 70 important landscape paintings by the early 19th century artist.
LOS ANGELES
LOS ANGELES COUNTY MUSEUM OF ART:
"Picasso and the Weeping Women," Feb. 13-May 1. This is the first exhibition devoted exclusively to Picasso's stirring and dramatic depictions of weeping women. The exhibition will focus on the artist's fascination with and artistic transformation of the human face. Spotlighted will be about 60 paintings, drawings and prints from international public and private collections that are among the most emotionally expressive portraits in the artist's body of work.
Following its debut in Los Angeles, the exhibit will be viewed at The Metropolitan Museum of Art ( June 12 through Sept. 4) and the Art Institute of Chicago (Oct. 8, 1994 through Jan. 8, 1995).
"Magdalene with the Smoking Flame" by Georges de La Tour - an exhibit focusing on one of the masterpieces of French painting. On display with a slightly earlier version on loan from the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. The exhibit continues through Feb. 6.
DENVER
DENVER ART MUSEUM:
"Pathways to the Afterlife: Early Chinese Art from the Sze Hong Collection," through April 17. Ceramic and bronze vessels provide an intimate look at Chinese ritual art and its relationship to everyday life from the 5th millennium B.C. through the 9th century A.D.
"Glorious Nature: British Landscape Painting 1750-1850," through Feb. 6. Selected from great collections throughout the U.S., this exhibition features 91 paintings and watercolors by 44 British artists, including Constable, Gainsborough and Turner.