May, the Big Art Month in New York מאי, חודש האמנות הגדול בניו יורק

🎨 For lovers of classical art, The Frick Collection presents Gainsborough: The Fashion of Portraiture, which explores the connection between Thomas Gainsborough's portraits and fashion, status, and visual culture in 18th century England. A beautiful exhibition of stunning portraits, on view through May 25. In general, this is one of my favorite museums in the city, and it holds several masterpieces of art history. An impressive achievement for a relatively small museum.

👗 And speaking of fashion, at The Metropolitan Museum of Art the spring exhibition has opened in the new Conde Nast galleries. Costume Art, from the museum's fashion department, sets out to examine the relationship between fashion and art through "the dressed body," presenting historical and contemporary garments alongside paintings, sculptures, and objects from the museum's collections. It is an especially impressive exhibition even for those who would not call themselves "fashion people," because it deals not only with clothes but with identity, body, representation, and visual culture. On view through January 10, 2027.

Gagosian presents one of the leading artists of 20th century American abstraction, Helen Frankenthaler, with 20 of her largest and boldest paintings. On view through July 2.

At Hauser & Wirth, among my favorite galleries in the city, are works by the Dominican artist Firelei Báez, known for layering fantastical figures over colonial maps and historical documents, and for the first time she will also show bronze sculptures. Through July 31.

At David Zwirner you will want to see the Gerhard Richter exhibition, one of the most expensive living artists in the world, with his blurred photorealist paintings alongside his abstract works. Today, Christie's holds an auction of the collection of the gallerist Marian Goodman, who passed away this past January at 97 and left behind an especially impressive art collection. Seven Richter paintings will be offered, and we may see a new record for the world's most expensive living artist.

Nino Mier Gallery presents Suspending Time by Jess Allen. Allen creates quiet, intimate figurative paintings, with figures, shadows, and psychologically charged spaces that feel almost cinematic. The feeling is of a moment between memory, introspection, and a sense of suspended time. On view through June 13.