A fine flourish of art awaits us

Art seasons sometimes slump after New Year's, but not this time around. If anything, the exhibition lineup gets stronger as winter begins to yield to spring.

For instance, on Friday a sprawling international festival of prints and printmaking will blanket the Philadelphia region with nearly 100 shows. A month after that, a major Picasso exhibition will expose the roots of modernism at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Ceramics will take over the city for a few days at the end of March through a national conference of artists and educators. And just before the solstice, the late paintings of Pierre-Auguste Renoir will provide a glorious introduction to summer.

- Edward J. Sozanski,

Inquirer art critic
Picasso and the Avant-Garde in Paris. This large show will examine in particular the development of cubism through the work of Picasso, his collaborator Georges Braque, and other important painters in the School of Paris. The story will be told through about 200 paintings, drawings and sculptures, the majority from the museum's remarkable collection of early modernism. You'll pay a few dollars more than the regular admission to see this show, but it's bound to be worth every penny. Feb. 24-April 25.

The Art Museum's other potential blockbuster, Late Renoir, opens June 17. In the last three decades of his career, the French master moved away from the impressionist style that secured his reputation toward subjects inspired by classical mythology. Through Sept. 6. (Information on both shows at 215-763-8100 or www.philamuseum.org.)

Philagrafika 2010 The vast international festival, which begins Friday and continues for more than two months, is built around a five-part core exhibition, and includes historical investigations and nearly 90 related shows in museums and galleries around the region. Through April 11. All the information you need is at www.philagrafika.org.

As "Philagrafika" winds down, ceramics takes over during the four days when the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA) comes to town beginning March 31. Exhibition offerings will focus on shows at Moore College of Art and Design (opens March 10), University of the Arts (March 25), Arcadia University (opens Feb. 17), and the Philadelphia Art Alliance (opens Feb. 11).

Seductive Subversion: Women Pop Artists 1958-1968 One of the more intriguing exhibitions of this half season opened two days ago at University of the Arts, to run through March 15. "Seductive Subversion" presents the work of female artists associated with pop art who have been generally overlooked in standard surveys of that movement. (215-717-6480 or www.uarts.edu/see-do/rwg.html.)

The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts will offer its own pop show with a look at Andy Warhol's Polaroid and black-and-white photographs, from June 26 to Sept. 12. (215-972-7600 or www.pafa.org.)

Vogel art In another June 26 opening, the academy launches a show of the 50 works the museum received from New York collectors Dorothy and Herbert Vogel, part of a general distribution of Vogel art to all 50 states. The Delaware Art Museum also received Vogel art, which it will exhibit from June 19 to Aug. 29. (302-571-9590 or www.delart.org.)

Queer Voice This spring-summer show at Philadelphia's Institute of Contemporary Art will investigate the human voice as material for contemporary art through a combination of video, installation, and audio works. Runs April 22 to Aug. 1. (215-898-7108 or www.icaphila.org.)

John Haberle: Master of Illusion The painted illusions of Haberle, one of the slickest of the "fool-the-eye" realists, will go on view at the Brandywine River Museum in Chadds Ford on April 17 and run through July 11. (610-388-2700 or www.brandywinemuseum.org.)

Dinotopia: The Fantastical Art of James Gurney At the nearby Delaware Art Museum in Wilmington, science fantasist Gurney will exhibit more than 60 paintings that create his mythical island of Dinotopia, where archaeology, illustration, and lost civilizations come together. Feb. 6-May 16. (302-571-9590 or www.delart.org.)

Icons of Costume Yet another movie costume show will be on display at the James A. Michener Art Museum in Doylestown, featuring fashions and accessories worn by stars of Hollywood's Golden Age. (The exhibition for painter W. Elmer Schofield, originally scheduled at the Michener for midsummer, has been postponed indefinitely.) Opens April 17. (215-340-9800 or www.michenerartmuseum.org.)

Myths, Religion and Ritual This exhibition, opening June 20, features works from a recent addition to the Allentown Art Museum's extensive collection of Indian and Tibetan art. (610-432-4333 or www.allentownartmuseum.org.)

The Platinum Process Drawn from the permanent collection at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, "The Platinum Process" will illuminate the subtle and lustrous tonalities produced by platinum printing from the late 19th century to the present. Opens Feb. 27. (215-763-8100 or www.philamuseum.org.)

Philadelphia prints Chestnut Hill's Woodmere Art Museum will survey 20th-century printmaking in Philadelphia through the work of artists represented in its collection, selected by guest curator Tony Rosati. Opens March 6. (215-247-0476 or www.woodmereartmuseum.org.)