Harmony and Dissonance: Orphism in Paris, 1910-1930 on view through March 9, 2025
MoMA
As of September 15, there are two exhibitions of witnesser of American strife, Robert Frank’s art: Life Dances On: Robert Frank in Dialogue and Robert Frank’s Scrapbook Footage with over 200 works by Frank including footage that was only uncovered after his death in 2019.
Life Dances On: Robert Frank in Dialogue on view through January 11, 2025
New York Historical Society
Do you ever find yourself lamenting disappointedly that “we just don’t do things like we used to.” The complaint can be levied against almost anything, but as the holidays are nigh let’s apply it to the festive spirit of Christmas. Just in time for the holiday season, Holiday Express: Toys and Trains from the Jerni Collection has pulled into the station to show us the playthings of our forerunners. Delicate and hand-painted, these pieces date between 1850 and 1940.
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. Another look at the lives on New Yorkers is Pets and the City, which traces the (post-pandemic, soaring) population of animals and animal owners in the Big Apple via art, documentation, and clips from film and television.
