Art: Vivid variety

Variety isn't just the spice of life, it's the leitmotif of the new art season. Top exhibitions in the region from now into next summer range from the most dazzling quilts one can imagine to the most radical comic-book artist of the last half-century to the snazziest in motorcycle design.

More traditional forms of expression aren't being neglected. If you prefer painting, you can begin with a landmark show about Paul Cezanne and the artists who fed off his innovations, and proceed through the intriguing surrealist George Tooker, the proto-pop effusions of Peter Saul, and, for local talent, the industrial landscapes of John Moore.

Naive art gets a look-in with a retrospective for James Castle, while photography offers the pioneering black photojournalist Gordon Parks and a show of photographic masterworks in Reading.

- Edward J. Sozanski, Inquirer art critic

Gee's Bend

The quilters of

Gee's Bend

, Ala., are true folk artists, yet they have created some of the most energetic and brilliantly innovative abstractions in contemporary American art. You must see for y[/FLUSH_LEFT][FLUSH_LEFT]ourself when

The Architecture of the Quilt

opens at the

Philadelphia Museum of Art

Sept. 16. 215-763-8100 or

» READ MORE: www.philamuseum.org

.

Cezanne and Beyond

The

Art Museum

's other prime attraction, opening Feb. 26, is

Cezanne and Beyond

. For the first generation of modernists, Paul Cezanne became what Henri Matisse called "a benevolent god of painting." Matisse and Pablo Picasso were only two of many artists whose work was shaped by Cezanne's innovations.

George Tooker

Born in 1920, Tooker is one of American art's more underappreciated talents. A survey of his long career, opening at the

Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts

on Jan. 31, reveals how his eerie visions added a new dimension to surrealism. 215-972-7600 or

» READ MORE: www.pafa.org

.

R. Crumb

Philadelphia-born R. (Robert) Crumb is a legend of the underground "comix" genre, which he is largely responsible for inventing. Irreverent, raunchy, culturally subversive and always funny, Crumb's drawings opened at the Institute of Contemporary Art Friday and will remain up through Dec. 7. 215-898-7108 or www.icaphila.org.

Gordon Parks

Life magazine's first African American photographer established an international reputation for his picture essays about the civil rights movement and the lives of the poor. Parks' social conscience is vividly revealed in an exhibition of 73 works opening Oct. 11 at the Delaware Art Museum. 302-571-9590 or www.delart.org.

Born to Be Wild

Motorcycles may be the ultimate populist attraction for an art museum. Cycle fans will be able to admire classic and contemporary designs, including the Billy Bike featured in the film Easy Rider, when Born to Be Wild opens at the Reading Public Museum Oct. 3. 610-371-5850 or www.readingpublicmuseum.org

Monet to Matisse

This exhibition brings a group of 19th- and 20th-century French masterworks to the Allentown Art Museum beginning Feb. 1, courtesy of the Dixon Gallery and Gardens in Memphis. The show of 30 paintings will include works by Degas, Pissarro, Renoir, Gauguin and Seurat. 610-432-4333 or allentownartmuseum.org.

Peter Saul

The art of Peter Saul, considered a progenitor of pop art, comes to the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts on Oct. 17 in a traveling retrospective that reviews paintings and drawings made since 1960. Saul's twisted comic-book forms, hot colors, and irreverent subject matter give his work enduring freshness.

Thirteen Miles From Paradise

Opening at the Arthur Ross Gallery of the University of Pennsylvania on April 11, this exhibition presents paintings of industrial landscapes by John Moore, who teaches at the university. The paintings depict sites that Moore painted two decades ago, particularly in Coatesville. 215-898-2083 or www.upenn.edu/ARG.

In Search of Missing Masters

Selections from the collection of

Lewis Tanner Moore

,

In Search of Missing Masters

opens at the

Woodmere Art Museum

Sept. 28. Moore has compiled an extensive collection of paintings, sculptures and works on paper by noted African American artists, including Henry Ossawa Tanner, from whom he is descended; Allan Freelon; Dox Thrash; Romare Bearden; and Raymond Steth. 215-247-0476 or

» READ MORE: www.woodmereartmuseum.org

Images of American Life

Opening at Doylestown's James A. Michener Art Museum July 11, "Images" presents artists who recorded activities of ordinary Americans during the 1920s, '30s and '40s. They include Ben Shahn, Grandma Moses, Reginald Marsh, William Glackens, Thomas Hart Benton, Jacob Lawrence, and Romare Bearden. 215-340-9800 or www.michenerartmuseum.org.

Feeding Desire

It's not about lust, but about how food gets into one's mouth. It's a survey of how knives, forks and other "table tools" evolved over 500 years. Winterthur Museum and Country Estate is the venue, beginning Nov. 1. 302-888-4600 or www.winterthur.org.

James Castle

Castle was a classic "isolate" artist who created drawings of his surroundings from soot mixed with saliva. The Philadelphia Museum of Art will examine his remarkable career with an exhibition opening Oct. 14.

Paintings From the Reign of Victoria

Fans of Victorian-era art should enjoy these 60 scenes of contemporary life, historical events, landscapes, and animal and marine studies from Britain's Royal Holloway Collection. Opens at the Delaware Art Museum Jan. 31.

Masters Of American Photography

The Reading Public Museum opened its new gallery for works on paper yesterday with this exhibition, including iconic works by such photographers as Alfred Stieglitz, Ansel Adams, Edward Weston and Dorothea Lange. Through May 3.

Dirt On Delight

It might sound a bit naughty, but it's actually a ceramics exhibition opening at the Institute of Contemporary Art Jan. 16. The show brings together a number of noted artists to examine issues of fine art, craft and outsider aesthetics.

Double Lives

The Brandywine River Museum's look at the uneasy relationship between fine-art easel painting and illustration opened yesterday. Career case studies include Winslow Homer, Frederic Remington, John Sloan and Rockwell Kent. Through Nov. 23.

Shifting Ground

Opening Dec. 14 at the James A. Michener Art Museum, this exhibition considers three current Bucks County artists - Paula Chamlee, Alan Goldstein and Paul Matthews - and how they are extending the tradition of Pennsylvania impressionism.

The Making Of A Room: Louis Kahn Furniture And Interiors

Many people know Philadelphia architect Louis Kahn's buildings, but relatively few probably realize how much attention he gave to interior design and furnishings. "The Making of a Room," opening Feb. 7 in the Arthur Ross Gallery at the University of Pennsylvania, uses drawings, photos and printed materials to tell that story.

Stephen Antonakos

The Allentown museum is opening the new season Sept. 28 with a retrospective exhibition of sculpture and two-dimensional art by this Greek-born artist known for works that incorporate neon tubing. The show also will include models of chapels he has designed.

Body Memory

Beginning Oct. 11, the Princeton University Art Museum will focus on the human body as subject, medium and expressive device. The show will include works from the collection by artists such as Vito Acconci, John Baldessari, Ana Mendieta and Cindy Sherman.

Contemporary American Marine Art

Opening at Oceanville, N.J.'s Noyes Museum of Art on Nov. 13, this exhibition brings together more than 100 of the most talented artists working in this genre. Besides quiet seascapes and harbor views, the paintings also re-create important narratives from maritime history.

Working Women

This quilt exhibition presents 19th-century icons of "women's work." Opening Sept. 14 in the Berman Museum at Ursinus College, the show, drawn from the collection of Judy Roche, interprets quilts as metaphors for the history of women's lives.

Daniel Eatock

Eatock is a British artist whose first U.S. solo exhibition, opening at Arcadia University Sept. 18, will include one of his typically eccentric challenges - an attempt to carry a glass of seawater from Atlantic City to Glenside while riding public transport.