NEW YEAR, NEW VIEW

As the calendar turns, what better way to slow down than by taking in a great work of art?

- GRACE EDQUIST

Perhaps no 20th-century band of artists has had as impactful a legacy as the Surrealists, a rangy, global group whose goal was nothing less than “a revolution in consciousness,” says Matthew Affron, the curator of “Dreamworld: Surrealism at 100” at the Philadelphia Art Museum (open now through February). This knockout exhibition, the first of many must-see shows this season, is composed of roughly 200 paintings, films, and sculptures from stars like Joan Miró, Leonora Carrington, and Roberto Matta. The traveling exhibition began at the Centre Pompidou—fitting, as Surrealism was born in Paris—and Philadelphia is the fifth and final stop. Special to this iteration is a focus on the artists who arrived in North America after fleeing Nazism in Europe. With our world in turmoil once again, Surrealism’s radical imagination is a fitting antidote.

Considered by many to be the greatest living painter, Gerhard Richter, 93, is the subject of a sweeping retrospective at the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris (open now through March). The exhibition brings together six decades’ worth of work, the breadth emphasizing the unending experimentation Richter brought to his art, whether dragging a squeegee across his canvases or deconstructing Renaissance-era masterworks, such as his 1973 series Annunciation after Titian. Presented in chronological order, the exhibition has something for everyone.