Both on view through August 31, 2025
Neue Galerie
Next up at the Neue? German Masterworks from the Neue Galerie, which will pull from the museum’s vast stores of German art from the period 1890 to 1940. As Austria enjoyed the Expressionist movement, Germany during this time saw major developments in color and form from the Brücke (Bridge) and Blaue Reiter (Blue Rider) groups. Expect unexpected colors from Vasily Kandinsky, August Macke, and more.
On view from June 26, 2025 through May 4, 2026
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Guggenheim
Filling this wondrous museum’s rotunda through January of next year are 90 works by Rashid Johnson. A Poem for Deep Thinkers brings the contemporary artist’s black-soap paintings, large-scale sculptures, film installations, and more to the Upper East Side, continuing the museum’s 2025 trend toward vibrant and colorfully optimistic artwork. It’s more than welcome.
On view through January 18, 2026
The Jewish Museum
Rembrandt van Rijn was inspired heavily during his time by the biblical Book of Esther, and The Book of Esther in the Age of Rembrandt explores that point of interest for the artist. Immigrant Jewish communities lived in relative freedom in 17th century Amsterdam, where Rembrandt lived and worked, and the celebration of heroic Esther during Purim led to her becoming a symbol of Dutch national identity. Pieces by Rembrandt show here alongside those of his contemporaries, as well as Jewish ceremonial art related to Purim from the period. Opening May 23 is Ben Shahn, On Nonconformity, a retrospective on the titular social-realist artist and activist’s work in paintings, mural, printmaking, and photography. The title comes from Shahn’s conviction that nonconformity is “an indispensable precondition for both significant artistic production and all great societal change. This philosophy is centered in the exhibition as the foundational thread that runs through the artist’s oeuvre.” An exhibit for the times, to be sure.
The Book of Esther in the Age of Rembrandt on view through August 10, 2025
New York Historical Society
With Real Clothes, Real Lives, meanwhile, New Yorkers and visitors are treated to the most extensive repertoire of women’s clothing to be housed under one roof—two centuries’ worth, in fact. Originally the title of a book by artist Kiki Smith—who helped curate this exhibition—it is aimed at celebrating the kind of everyday clothing that rarely finds museum attention: the hardworking house dresses, Girls Scout uniforms, and the tailored suits of urban office-goers. But it isn’t just a celebration of form and function. It is a sociological scrutiny of how women’s role have shifted in society, and how race and class have played a role in these changes. Each piece holds colorful stories about the woman who wore it, as well as those who made it, and their context in place and time.
Real Clothes, Real Lives on view through June 22, 2025.
Museum of Modern Art
Midtown’s Museum of Modern Art is looking at design’s fundamental impact on our daily lives in Pirouette: Turning Points of Design. From Spanx and Post-it notes to symbols like the Accessible icon and the I ♥️ NY logo, you’ll learn what it takes to create an object that changes the world in ways large and small. Altogether, this is a celebration of designers and their power to transform society through their creativity and inventiveness. There’s also the cinematic Rosa Barba: The Ocean of One’s Pause installation, which melds Barba’s film and sound design with a series of performances, which Barba describes as “explosive poems”—keep an eye on that schedule. In an on-the-nose (wonderfully so) piece of springtime programming, Hilma af Klimt: What Stands Behind the Flowers opens May 11 with Klimt’s massive portfolio of drawings depicting Sweden’s flora. There’s not just beautiful blossoms here but also precise diagrams. Whimsy meets workmanship.
