“Superfine: Tailoring Black Style”
Where: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
When: May 10–October 26, 2025
What: The Met Costume Institute’s annual spring exhibition—which opens each year with the legendary Met Gala—will focus on the Black dandy. The show traces the roots of the fashion phenomenon back to when enslaved Black men were required to dress fashionably and during a developing era of heightened American consumerism. The same sartorial tools were later used by the community to express humor, agency, and irony—and to leave an indelible impression on American style.
“Frida Kahlo’s Month in Paris: A Friendship with Mary Reynolds”
Where: The Art Institute of Chicago
When: March 29–July 13, 2025
What: The artist Mary Reynolds isn’t as well-known as many of her peers in Paris during the height of the Surrealism movement, but she was incredibly influential. She often collaborated with her partner, the artist Marcel Duchamp, and once invited Frida Kahlo to stay with her while she was visiting Paris and came down with a kidney infection. This exhibition focuses on Kahlo’s month with Reynolds through some 100 objects—including paintings, letters, book bindings, and other works of art.
“Jack Whitten: The Messenger”
Where: The Museum of Modern Art, New York
When: March 23–August 2, 2025
What: This landmark retrospective will showcase the incredible innovations the abstract painter and sculptor Jack Whitten achieved across his six-decade career. Whitten, who died in 2018, considered himself a “messenger” for the spirit of art that flowed through him, giving the show its title. The 175 works on view, including several that have never been seen before, “present the artist’s revelatory exploration of culture, race, technology, jazz, love, and war,” the museum says in a statement.
“In Creative Harmony: Three Artistic Partnerships”
Where: The Blanton Museum of Art, Austin
When: February 16–July 20, 2025
What: In three parts, this exhibition explores the creative dialogues between three pairs of artists—Mexican printmakers José Guadalupe Posada and Artemio Rodríguez, abstract artists Arshile Gorky and Isamu Noguchi, and mother-daughter artists Nora and Eliza Naranjo Morse—to reveal how they shape and inspire each other.
“Rashid Johnson: A Poem for Deep Thinkers”
Where: The Guggenheim, New York
When: April 18, 2025–January 18, 2026
What: It’s hard to sum up Chicago-born artist Rashid Johnson, but the Guggenheim, in a statement about his upcoming mid-career survey, describes him as “a scholar of art history, a mediator of Black popular culture, and a creative force in contemporary art.” The show features 90 works by the powerhouse—including black-soap paintings, sculptures, and film—plus a monumental site-specific work at the top of the ramp, which involves a piano that will be played during performances.
“Breaking the Mold: Brooklyn Museum at 200”
Where: The Brooklyn Museum, New York
When: February 28, 2025–February 22, 2026
What: To celebrate the museum’s bicentennial, the museum is staging a trio of shows. The first, “Brooklyn Made,” showcases a sprawling range of art and design objects made in the borough from the 17th century to today. The second, “Building the Brooklyn Museum and Its Collection” will reflect on the history of the museum itself—its building, the creation of its collection, and stand-out works. Finally, “Gifts of Art in Honor of the 200th” looks at some of the most important work given to the museum by its donors.
“Christine Sun Kim: All Day All Night”
Where: The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
When: February 8–July 2025
What: The title for Christine Sun Kim’s first major museum show comes from the artist’s creative energy, the Whitney says: “She is relentlessly experimental, iterative, and dedicated to sharing her lived experiences with a broad spectrum of audiences.” And that can certainly be seen in the vast scope of the art she’ll have on view: site-specific murals, video works, sculptures, and paintings. She often uses language and musical notation in her work, and translates them into both English and her native American Sign Language.
“Van Gogh: The Roulin Family Portraits”
Where: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
When: March 30–September 7, 2025
What: He’s an iconic figure in Vincent Van Gogh’s paintings: the burly postman with a blue cap, blue uniform, and a bushy forked beard. He was also one of the artist’s favorite subjects, and now the MFA Boston is dedicating a show to Van Gogh’s 20 portraits of the man, Joseph Roulin, and his family, who were the artist’s neighbors in Arles from 1888 to 1889. The show will then travel to the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.
“Tamara de Lempicka”
Where: Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
When: March 9–May 26, 2025
What: The first American museum retrospective for Polish art deco painter Tamara de Lempicka—a favorite of celebrity collectors including Madonna, Elton John, and Barbra Streisand—features more than 90 works by the artist, drawn from her time in Paris, New York, Los Angeles, and, eventually, Houston. The show was organized by the MFA Houston alongside the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, and it first appeared at the de Young Museum this past fall. This iteration will also include works from the MFAH’s art deco collection of costume and design.
