Sampling the Riches of the Fall Season

The year 2006 has so far been a celebratory one—at least where the arts are concerned. While the concert halls have been reverberating with the sound of Mozart's music, in honor of the 250th anniversary of his birth, museums have been observing the 400th birthday of Rembrandt Harmensz van Rijn (1606-69) by featuring his art.

Rembrant: Self-Portrait in a Cap, 1630, etching, The Pierpont Morgan Library. (Courtesy the Morgan Library)

Rembrandt's renown in today's art world is rivaled only by that of Leonardo da Vinci. The Dutch artist, unique among his peers, dealt with wide-ranging themes in his art; nothing escaped his penetrating gaze. Most 17th-century Netherlandish artists confined themselves to only one field of painting, such as still life, portraiture, landscape, or genre (scenes from everyday life), but Rembrandt did it all.

At least three Rembrandt exhibitions will be taking place in New York this fall.

The Morgan Library and Museum will be showing about 300 of their splendid works on paper in two separate exhibits. "Celebrating Rembrandt: Etchings from the Morgan" and "From Rembrandt to van Gogh: Dutch Drawings from the Morgan" are on view through October 1. The shows include examples of the master's portraiture, Biblical illustrations, genre scenes, nudes, and landscapes. The first opens with Rembrandt's early portraits from his student days, comprising mainly self-portraits and depictions of his own family. Of the numerous Biblical scenes, the most famous is the so-called

Maurice de Vlaminck: Harvest, 1904, oil on canvas, private collection. (Courtesy the Metropolitan Museum of Art)

Hundred Guilder Print, 1647-49 (officially titled Christ Preaching). This etching, a turning point in the artist's career, marks the emergence of printmaking as an independent art form in relation to painting. Here Rembrandt portrays Christ preaching to the poor, illustrating the Gospel's teaching that the last shall be first. A rich young man ponders the scene, while Rembrandt includes a camel in the background, alluding to Christ's statement to his apostles that it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to get into heaven. Because Rembrandt, in a manner unusual for a Protestant, emphasized visual meanings of the Bible, some have equated this print with a Catholic altarpiece.

Rembrandt's fascination with those on the fringes of Dutch society is further demonstrated in several works. Numerous genre and landscape scenes follow. The show ends with the artist's late, psychologically intense portraits.

The Metropolitan Museum also pays tribute to Rembrandt in a show titled "Rembrandt and his Circle: Drawings and Prints," on view until October 15. Here we can see a selection of 58 drawings and prints—44 of them by Rembrandt—from the museum's own collection.

Lois and Richard Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art, Cincinnati, 1997-2003, courtesy Zaha Hadid Architects, London. (Photo: Roland Halbe. Courtesy the Guggenheim Museum)

The Morgan deserves special mention apart from the Rembrandt exhibitions. The museum itself is the subject of one of its own ongoing exhibitions. After having been closed for renovation for four years, it reopened in April. Renzo Piano's acclaimed design is, in a way, comparable to that of I. M. Pei in his additions to the Louvre and the National Gallery in Washington, D.C., and Yoshio Taniguchi, in his remodeling of New York City's Museum of Modern Art. Instead of attempting to imitate existing structures, all three chose contemporary design, employing vast walls of glass to reflect the vitality of the cities outside.

In addition, the Morgan's permanent collection houses important musical, artistic, literary, and historical works. These include original scores by Mozart and Beethoven; medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque drawings; and three Gutenberg Bibles.

The Solomon R. Guggenheim hosts at least two noteworthy exhibitions this fall. The first, "Zaha Hadid," on view through October 25, is a show of architectural drawings, paintings, and models by the Iraqi-born architect whom The New York Times has called "a Diva for the Digital Age." The second, a Jackson Pollock exhibition, closes on September 29. Instead of featuring Pollock's large canvases, this show concentrates on the painter's smaller works on paper.

Fantastic Four #50, May 1966, comic book cover, collection of Michigan State University Libraries. (TM and © 2006 Marvel Characters, Inc. Used with permission) (Photo: Courtesy the Jewish Museum)

On quite a different note, the Jewish Museum will feature "Superheroes: Good and Evil in American Comics" and "Masters of American Comics," both opening on September 15 and on view through January 28, 2007. The latter began as a collaboration between two Los Angeles museums; the press release calls this a "landmark" exhibition, the first major museum exhibition of one of "America's great art forms." It will be held in two parts, one at the Jewish Museum and one at the Newark Museum, and will feature more than 600 original works by 14 artists, including Winsor McCay, Lyonel Feininger, George Herriman, Charles M. Schulz (originator of "Peanuts"), Will Eisner, and R. Crumb. The drawings, proofs, and printed newspaper pages will be divided chronologically between the two museums: comic strips from the first half of the 20th century at Newark, and comic books from the 1950s and beyond at the Jewish Museum.

The Met will also host an exciting exhibit titled "Cezanne to Picasso: Ambrose Vollard, Patron of the Avant-Garde," from September 14 through January 7. Vollard (1866-1939) a celebrated Paris dealer, bought and sold works by Cezanne, Bonnard, Degas, Gauguin, van Gogh, and others. The show includes seven paintings from Vollard's 1895 Cezanne exhibition, a triptych from his 1896 Van Gogh retrospective, and Gauguin's masterpiece, Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going? It will also feature works from Picasso's first French exhibit in 1901, Matisse's first solo show in 1904, and numerous portraits of Vollard by major artists. Dozens of ceramics, sculptures, prints and artists' books commissioned by Vollard will complete the show, which has been co-organized by the Art Institute of Chicago and two Paris museums.

The foregoing list represents only a fraction of the diverse art New York City has to offer. It is meant only as an appetizer for the rich feast that the art world has in store for us this season:

Morgan Library and Museum: 225 Madison Avenue (at 36th Street).

Metropolitan Museum of Art: 1000 Fifth Avenue (at 82nd Street).

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum: 1071 Fifth Avenue (at 89th Street).

Jewish Museum: 1109 Fifth Avenue (at 92nd Street).

Art historian Greta Berman has been on the liberal arts faculty since 1979.