Deborah Kass, “Subject Matters” (1989–90), From reinventing abstraction to recreating Barbie for new generations, we’re looking at a wide range of art this week. Make sure to catch Norman Bluhm’s unorthodox abstracts and the Museum of Arts and Design’s dizzying display of Barbie’s history before they end this weekend. After that, revisit art history’s past with a survey of Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s legendary project “The Gates” and Deborah Kass’s feminist pastiches. Manuel Herreros de Lemos and Mateo Manaure Arilla’s poignant 1982 documentary “Trans” and its accompany exhibition at the Institute for Studies on Latin American Art rounds out our list. Natalie Haddad, Reviews Editor
Norman Bluhm
Miles McEnery Gallery, 511 West 22nd Street, Chelsea, Manhattan
Through March 15
“What makes Bluhm’s painting engaging and necessary is that he harnessed his restless, rebellious spirit into a complex, continually changing body of work.” —John Yau
Barbie: A Cultural Icon
Museum of Arts and Design, 2 Columbus Circle, Columbus Circle, Manhattan
Through March 16
“Its history of inclusions and exclusions continues to stir up everything from veneration to violence in ongoing Barbie play and in the work of generations of artists.” —Carol Ockman
Christo and Jeanne Claude: The Gates and Unrealized Projects for New York City
The Shed, 545 West 30th Street, Chelsea, Manhattan
Through March 23
“I felt that I shared with these many strangers something so fragile and immaterial as a memory, that these neon orange gates staked not just paths in the park but in my past, our past.” —Lisa Yin Zhang
Deborah Kass: The Art History Paintings 1989–1992
Salon 94, 3 East 89th Street, Upper East Side, Manhattan
Through March 29
“Kass collides the stylistic calling cards of prominent male artists with a new, more sexualized reading that turns splashes of paint into cum shots.” —Hrag Vartanian
Dueñas de la Noche: Trans Lives and Dreams in 1980s Caracas
Institute for Studies on Latin American Art, 142 Franklin Street, Lower East Side, Manhattan
Through April 5
“The film [“Trans”] is the exhibition’s clear centerpiece, and may be the only chance most people will get to see it even upon its release, the filmmakers struggled to secure screenings” —NH
