Endless Enigma: Eight Centuries of Fantastic Art @ David Zwirner In New York

Endless Enigma: Eight Centuries of Fantastic Art provides a unique opportunity to examine affinities in intention and imagery between works executed across a broad span of time. Endless Enigma explores the ways artists have sought to explain their world in terms of an alternate reality, drawn from imagination, the subconscious, poetry, nature, myth, and religion. Works on view range from gothic gargoyles; masterworks from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries by Herri met de Bles, Hieronymus Bosch, Piero di Cosimo, and Titian; seventeenth- and eighteenth-century works by Damiano Cappelli, Pietro Novelli, and Salvator Rosa; nineteenth-century works by William Blake, James Ensor, Francisco de Goya, Gustave Moreau, Odilon Redon, and James Ward; and works from the twentieth century to the present day by Eileen Agar, Francis Alÿs, Louise Bourgeois, Salvador Dalí, Giorgio de Chirico, Max Ernst, Leonor Fini, Robert Gober, José Gutiérrez Solana, Sherrie Levine, René Magritte, Roberto Matta, Pablo Picasso, Wallace Putnam, Man Ray, Kay Sage, Yves Tanguy, and Lisa Yuskavage, among others. The exhibition is on view through October 27 at David Zwirner 537 West 20th Street, New York. photographs by Adam Lehrer

PICASSO & THE CAMERA @ Gagosian

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Gagosian Gallery, in partnership with Bernard Ruiz-Picasso, presents “Picasso and the Camera,” the fifth in a series of major Picasso surveys. Curated by Picasso biographer John Richardson, assisted by Gagosian directors Valentina Castellani and Michael Cary, the exhibition explores how Picasso used photography not only as a source of inspiration, but as an integral part of his studio practice. Picasso and the Camera will be on view from October 28 to January 3, 2015 at Gagosian Gallery, 522 West 21st Street, New York

[BOOKS] BALLET RUSSES

The Ballets Russes introduced an unprecedented freedom into the arts, influencing not only ballet and theater, but also fashion, visual arts, and interior design. An unprecedented, oversized special edition, out this November by luxury publisher Assouline, celebrates the explosion of creativity in Western Europe created by Serge Diaghilev and his collaborators—including Igor Stravinsky, Leon Bakst, and Pablo Picasso. Over 200 pages feature photography and drawings tipped on watercolor cotton paper. You can purchase the book here. 

Angry Young Men: the Birth of Modernity

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A new exhibition at the Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi in Florence, dedicated to the early work of Picasso, Miró and Dalí, which played a decisive role in the beginning of modern art in Spain, is opening next week. The exhibition concentrates on Picasso’s pre-cubist period 1900 – 1905, whilst Juan Miró’s works of 1915–1920 are presented along with Salvador Dali’s from 1920–1925, both artists painting in the period before the discovery of surrealism. Each artist will be represented by 25 – 30 masterpieces selected to show aspects of the three artists in their earliest periods, works that are rarely shown in mainstream catalogues and exhibitions. For instance, Picasso’s early work was often colored by his strong political convictions. Picasso, Miró, Dalí. Angry Young Men: the Birth of Modernity is showing from March 12 to July 17, 2011. www.palazzostrozzi.com