As the days lengthen and spring gets even closer, March brings plenty of opportunities for adventure and explorations—especially in the art world. Here’s a selective rundown of some of this month’s best, not-to-miss picks.
Kicking things off is Armory Arts Week in New York. As the main event, the Armory Show is one of the biggest art fairs in the world. More than 204 galleries from 36 countries are presenting everything from old world masters to the latest in contemporary art. It is open to the public March 3-6, on Pier 92 and 94 at 711 12th Avenue.
Also running through March 6 in New York are several Armory satellite and affiliate shows. Volta NY is at Pier 90 with 100 galleries featuring emerging artists, Pulse New York has 45 galleries showing contemporary art at Metropolitan Pavilion on West 18th Street, and the oldest of these affiliates, in its 16th year is Scope New York, which has 48 exhibitors showing contemporary artists.
A couple of alternative fairs will also run concurrently in NYC, such as The Spring/Break Art Show, which features more than 800 artists. Several big-name gallery shows have also been timed to open this week, like Icelandic-born Erró's vibrant pop-art paintings and illustrations at Galerie Perrotin.
The Philadelphia Museum of Art has a fascinating exhibition called International Pop, which showcases pop art from 1956 to 1972. Running through May 15, the show features over 150 works from icons like Jasper Johns, Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein and Gerhard Richter, but also stars lesser-known artists from Brazil, Argentina, Slovakia, Japan and other creative centers.
The Vancouver Art gallery has an ambitious show featuring 371 works from 156 artists, tracing mashup art back to Picasso and George Braque. Marcel Duchamp, Frank Gehry, Robert Rauschenberg, Jean-Michel Basquiat and Jean-Luc Godard are featured. It runs now through June 11.
Catherine Opie’s 700 Nimes Road at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles is open and runs through May 8. Opie spent six months at Elizabeth Taylor’s Bel-Air mansion shortly before her death in 2011, documenting her environment and style. The intimate photos explore rooms, closets, shoes, clothing and jewelry of the style queen. Opie says the portraits reveal “the relationship to what is human.”
Tefaf Maastricht, one of Europe’s biggest and most prestigious antique, fine art and design fairs, will have 275 dealers from 20 countries on March 11-20. Paintings by art masters are usually the focus of the show, but you can pick up everything from Fabergé eggs to Giacometti furniture. The 28-year-old, Netherlands-based Tefaf also made news recently when it announced it had bought out New York’s Spring Masters fair and will hold its first event there next year.
Also in Holland through May 8 is the largest ever exhibit of Hieronymus Bosch, with 17 of his 24 known surviving paintings on display at the Noordbrabants Museum. Taking place in 's-Hertogenbosch (which is an hour train ride from Amsterdam, where the famed artist lived), the show is part of the town’s 500-year anniversary celebration. Hundreds of Bosch-related events are planned there throughout the year.
The Museum of Modern Art in New York is putting on Edgar Degas: A Strange New Beauty (March 26-July 24), which explores the artist’s mid-1870s discovery of the new monotype printing process. About 130 of the 300 monotypes he completed will be on display, chronicling how the technique liberated his work and led him into more improvisational and risqué realms.
The second edition of Art Basel in Hong Kong will feature over 3,000 artists, with more than half hailing from Asia and the Asia Pacific area. Both emerging artists and modern masters will be the March 24-26 event’s focus.
