This season’s most compelling cultural moments share a common thread: artists who taught us how to look. A long-overdue reunion of two abstract giants in New York, a Paris tribute to fashion photography’s great minimalist, and a new portrait of the man who reinvented the portrait itself. Here’s what’s on our fall calendar.
Krasner and Pollock: Past Continuous, The Met, New York
Krasner at work, 1981. Ernst Haas/Getty Images
More than 120 works from over 80 lenders trace the full arc of Lee Krasner’s and Jackson Pollock’s careers, side by side. It’s the first major New York presentation of either artist in more than two decades and, remarkably, the Met’s first for either of them. Krasner, so long eclipsed by Pollock’s fame, finally gets her moment, from her Little Images to her bold collages and vividly hued canvases. On view through January 31, 2027, at The Met Fifth Avenue.
Lee Krasner, Bald Eagle, 1955, Oil, paper, and canvas collage on linen, ASOM Collection 2026 Pollock-Krasner Foundation/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Penn & Fashion, La MEP, Paris
Irving Penn’s more than sixty years with Vogue get a chronological tribute at the Maison Européenne de la Photographie, spanning 1947 to 2008. Think Dior and Balenciaga couture worn by Lisa Fonssagrives and Jean Patchett, sculptural Issey Miyake, and Galliano and Lacroix in sumptuous color. On view through January 17, 2027, at 5/7 rue de Fourcy in the Marais.
Irving Penn, Yves Saint Laurent Embroidered Cubist Cape with Braque-Inspired Design, Paris, 1988 Nicola Erni Collection, Zug © Condé Nast
Avedon, streaming on Netflix
Ron Howard’s documentary, fresh from its Cannes premiere in May, draws on unprecedented access to the Richard Avedon Foundation archive: never-before-seen photographs, behind-the-scenes recordings, and interviews with the people who knew him best. It begins streaming November 11.
Photograph by Richard Avedon © The Richard Avedon Foundation Dovima with elephants, evening dress by Dior, Cirque d’Hiver, Paris, August 1955
Consider it a fall reading list, for the eyes.
Avedon working on the In the American West series, 1985. Susan Middleton.