Must-see New York City museum exhibitions this fall

This fall, the Whitney goes pop with a sprawling Roy Lichtenstein retrospective. Considering the ubiquity of the digital image on social media and beyond, the artist’s explorations of image culture and duplication feel more relevant than ever. With more than 150 works on view, the exhibition will also offer visitors the chance to step back in time, as, for the first time, it will reunite all eight works from the artist’s seminal 1962 Leo Castelli debut in an intimate gallery setting.

In addition to being Taryn Simon’s most expansive and personal project to date, this exhibition marks two major firsts for the Guggenheim: the first time a photography-based artist will take over the rotunda, as well as the first time the museum has devoted its entire rotunda to a new body of work. Ten years in the making, this interactive exhibition is inspired by Simon’s father, who travelled the world while working for the U.S. government. Simon never learned the details of his mysterious career before he was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. This body of work, which will enter the Guggenheim’s permanent collection, poses several possible trajectories.

Reflecting The Met’s commitment to reexamining canonical narratives, this exhibition promises to be a watershed moment for two of modern art’s most influential figures. Not only is this survey of Lee Krasner and Jackson Pollock the first major New York presentation of either artist’s work in over two decades, but it is also their first at The Met. Featuring over 120 works from more than 80 U.S. and international lenders, the show charts Krasner’s and Pollock’s parallel lives and careers as an artist couple and as individuals, each uniquely pushing the possibilities of abstraction.

Surrealism’s reign continues into 2027 with MoMA’s fascinating showcase of books made as works of art by the likes of André Breton, Salvador Dalí, Max Ernst and more. The exhibition is anchored by the Helen and Sam Zell Collection, one of the most significant collections of artists’ books formerly in private hands. These rare, fascinating volumes feature unusual papers, sculptural bindings and idiosyncratic sketches and collages. Exhibition co-curator Starr Figura writes, ‘For the Surrealists, a book was like a door, a portal to a higher realm, where untold surprises and liberatory revelations await.’

Presenting some of the artist’s best and rarest etchings alongside drawings and paintings, the Morgan’s Rembrandt exhibition explores the overlooked role of exile, migration and refuge within the Dutch master’s œuvre. It is estimated that during the 17th century, more than half of the residents in Amsterdam, where the artist lived, were foreigners. The lion became a symbol for the Dutch Republic as a beacon of religious and political tolerance (though not all were privy to such freedoms, as demonstrated by Dutch colonial territories). Thus, in Rembrandt’s work, the lion reflects a diaspora in his rapidly changing world.

After unveiling its newly expanded building this spring, the New Museum continues its exciting programming with Arthur Jafa’s largest survey to date. Spanning two floors, the exhibition follows Jafa’s four-decade journey from a cinematographer to a multi-disciplinary artist whose groundbreaking work encompasses photography, painting, sculpture and installation. Uniting these works is Jafa’s unflinching view of Black life in America, which can be seen in his most celebrated films, such as the Golden Lion-winning The White Album (2019), and in work on view for the first time.

Following LACMA’s presentation in early 2025, the extraordinary Pearlman collection of modern art will travel to the East Coast. This is the final opportunity to see the 50-plus works by Cézanne, Degas, Modigliani, Van Gogh and more before they head to their respective institutions: Henry and Rose Pearlman’s transformative gift benefits the Brooklyn Museum, LACMA and MoMA. The Brooklyn Museum’s iteration of the exhibition will also include a biographical component, as the Pearlmans had a special connection to the museum and Brooklyn, where both grew up (Henry was the son of Russian-Jewish immigrants, and Rose immigrated to the U.S. from Belarus at age four).

While America celebrates its 250th anniversary this year, the New York Historical is taking a more recent point of view, reflecting on what New York looked like 50 years ago. This exhibition highlights the metropolis as a city of contradictions: on one hand, America’s 200th birthday was being celebrated with performances and parades; on another, New York was battling crime and housing and drug crises, while on the brink of bankruptcy. Through music — from disco to hip-hop — fashion, photographs and more, You Should Be Dancing brings New York’s ‘glitz and grit’ centre stage.

A hilltop town in Tuscany, Siena was a centre of artistic innovation in Renaissance Italy, as demonstrated by the 2024–25 landmark exhibition, Siena: The Rise of Painting, 1300–1350 at The Met and the National Gallery in London. This fall the Frick will spotlight Sienese bronze sculpture as an underappreciated art form in the first exhibition devoted to the subject. Many of the nearly 40 masterworks, from statues and reliefs to candelabra and medals, have never been shown outside of Italy.

Since opening in 2001, the Neue Galerie has become one of New York’s most beloved jewel-box museums. This fall, the anniversary exhibition will fill the entirety of the landmarked building with works by Austrian and German masters of art and design, such as Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele, Josef Hoffmann and Otto Wagner. Expect Wiener Werkstätte, Expressionist and Bauhaus treasures, best enjoyed after an indulgent kaiser mélange at the iconic Café Sabarsky.