A Master of Abstraction Conquers MoMA

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New York, “Jack Whitten: The Messenger” (Until Aug. 2)
The late painter Jack Whitten was born in segregated Bessemer, Alabama, in 1939. In his early 20s, frustrated by the violent reactions to the Civil Rights Movement, Whitten came to New York, where he decided to become an artist. In the beginning, Whitten was influenced by Abstract Expressionists like Willem de Kooning, but he soon began to experiment with new forms of abstraction, seeking to express himself and Black personhood. But his breakthrough came in the 1990s, when he began making mosaic paintings: effervescent abstractions and portraits out of thousands of small tiles. This major retrospective, the first to span the entirety of Whitten’s remarkable six-decade career, brings together 175 paintings, sculptures, and works on paper. moma.org

Chicago, “Frida Kahlo’s Month in Paris: A Friendship with Mary Reynolds” (Opens March 29)
It was 1921 and Paris was teeming with creativity when Mary Reynolds, an American widowed by World War I, arrived in the city. There, with her unusual charisma and bottomless generosity, she quickly made friends among the café scene—and not just any friends. Her home at 14 rue Hallé, where she lived with her partner Marcel Duchamp, was a gathering place for the likes of Constantin Brancusi, Man Ray, and André Breton. Among the house’s guests was Frida Kahlo, who stayed with Reynolds during her first and only visit to Paris, while she was recovering from a sickness. The two women quickly became friends. After Kahlo returned home, Reynolds wrote to her, “The house is still and doesn’t know itself. Every single thing misses you tremendously.” The time in Paris Kahlo spent among fellow Surrealists proved inspirational for her own practice, a cultural exchange examined in 100 carefully selected objects, self-portraits, and letters in this exhibition. Reynolds’s unique book bindings are also presented here, as she was an artist herself, albeit lesser known. artic.edu

Paris, “Paris Noir: Artistic Circulations and Anti-Colonial Resistance 1950–2000” (Until June 30)
In the years after World War II, Paris attracted thousands of Black artists, intellectuals, and musicians who found solace away from the constricting racial prejudice in the United States. Paris, as described by the writer Richard Wright, is “a place where one could claim one’s soul.” The artists Beauford Delaney, Wifredo Lam, and Harold Cousins were among the Black expatriates who made important but underappreciated contributions to Modernism and postmodernism in the French capital. This show, coming before the Centre Pompidou closes for a five-year renovation, celebrates 350 works by 150 Black artists from Africa, the Caribbean, and the United States living in Paris between the 1950s and 2000s. Some of these works have never before been presented in the city. centrepompidou.fr

New York, “Byung Hoon Choi: Voice of Silence” (Opens March 27)
Byung Hoon Choi’s “art furniture,” as he’s dubbed his stone tables, seats, and benches, look like they could have been carved out of a mountainside or plucked from a riverbed. The Korean artist fuses Korean craftsmanship, a minimalist sensibility, and Taoist principles of balance to make these pieces, often preserving the raw beauty of the stone and wood materials. “My process is about finding harmony in their contrasts and celebrating the quiet beauty that emerges from these natural forms,” he says. Choi, now in his 70s, has become a leading figure in Korean design. His newest body of work is shown here, featuring wooden cabinets and polished basalt works. friedmanbenda.com

Seattle, “Ai, Rebel: The Art and Activism of Ai Weiwei” (Until Sept. 7)
In 1958, a year after Ai Weiwei was born, his father, a Chinese poet, was exiled by the Chinese Communist government. The family was sent to a labor camp for nearly 20 years. “I remember experiencing what felt like endless injustice,” Weiwei later wrote in 2018. This would become the seed for his provocative art practice and his commitment to speaking out for a better humanity. His work is confrontational: He’s photographed himself giving the middle finger to historical landmarks like the White House and the Eiffel Tower in Study of Perspective (1995–2011), dropped a 2,000-year-old Han dynasty urn, and branded another with the Coca-Cola logo. The 130 works in this exhibition, his largest retrospective in the States, span four decades of the artist’s audacious career. seattleartmuseum.org