Selected Summer 2008 Art Exhibitions in New York (Updated to Include Waterfalls)

Picks for current and future museum exhibitions in New York for summer 2008. Blockbusters, as noted, are the big shows with catalogues, lots of gift store-related items (posters, tote bags, notecards, coffee mugs, T-shirts) and crowded galleries.

The New York City Waterfalls:

The BIG ART event of the summer is outside the museums - Olafur Eliasson's "The New York City Waterfalls," June 26-October 13, 2008. Here's the deal from the pages of the Public Art Fund, the entity that commissioned the project: "the project consists of four monumental, man-made waterfalls installed for three months at four sites along the shores of Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Governors Island: one by the Brooklyn anchorage of the Brooklyn Bridge, one between Piers 4 and 5 in Brooklyn, one in Lower Manhattan at Pier 35, and one on the north shore of Governors Island. The 90 to 120-foot tall installations, which have been designed to protect water quality and aquatic life, will operate from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m., seven days a week, and will be lit after sunset, adding a striking element to New York City's iconic skyline."

Here's the Official Site for the New York City Waterfalls.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art:

Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy
through September 1, 2008
Special Exhibition Galleries, 1st floor

American Landscapes
Robert Lehman Wing
Nine large American landscape paintings from the collection to see during the closure and restoration of the American Wing. When I read that the American Wing would re-open in 2010, I had visions that we would all have personal spaceships by then, but really, it's only a couple of more years. It should be finished around the time of the interminable Washington Square Park renovation, a convulsive erasure of bohemian history and grave desecration that has cut into my personal lifestyle.

Jeff Koons on the Roof
through October 26, 2008 (weather permitting) Roof Garden
Installation of sculptures by American artist Jeff Koons. See related post.

J. M. W. Turner
through September 21, 2008
The Tisch Galleries, 2nd floor
BIG exhibition with 140 paintings and watercolors that's now making its way here.

International Center of Photography:

Bill Wood's Business
through September 7, 2008
All about the amateur and professional photo images spawned by one Fort Worth photo supply store, capturing Cow Town in vivid black and white glory during the years 1937 to 1973.

Guggenheim:

Louise Bourgeois
through September 28, 2008
Full-career retrospective

Museum of Modern Art:

Dalí: Painting and Film
through September 15, 2008
The Joan and Preston Robert Tisch Exhibition Gallery, sixth floor

Home Delivery: Fabricating the Modern Dwelling
July 20-October 20, 2008
Prefab housing comes to MoMA with prefabs actually outside

Jewish Museum:

Action/Abstraction: Pollock, de Kooning, and American Art, 1940-1976
through September 21, 2008

Morgan Library & Museum:

Philip Guston: Works on Paper
through August 31, 2008

Brooklyn Museum:

Murakami, ongoing blockbuster, through July 13, 2008

American Museum of Natural History:

The Horse, ongoing blockbuster, through January 4, 2009

Whitney Museum of American Art:

Polaroids: Mapplethorpe, through September 7, 2008
self-portraits, portraits of friends, still lifes, and other genres.

Image above: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, with snow cones.

SEE FALL 2008 MUSEUM EXHIBITIONS IN NYC