NORTHEAST
BOSTON "Alex Katz Prints." With a new gift as its centerpiece called "Rush" — 37 life-size painted aluminum cutout portraits of art-world figures in the 1960s and '70s — this display of Katz's prints, aluminum cutouts and illustrated books is the first such retrospective in the United States. April 28 to July 29. Museum of Fine Arts, 465 Huntington Avenue; (617) 267-9300; mfa.org.
BOSTON "Josiah McElheny: Some Pictures of Infinity." A midcareer survey of an artist who makes exquisite glassworks encoded with information about time, space and, in particular, the concept of infinity. June 22 to Sept. 23. Institute of Contemporary Art, 100 Northern Avenue; (617) 478-3100; Icaboston.org
SALEM, MASS. "The Mind's Eye: 50 Years of Photography by Jerry Uelsmann." Expect the unexpected from this master of the fabricated photo who blended unrelated negatives to create imaginary scenes. Through May 13. Peabody Essex Museum, 161 Essex Street; (978) 745-9500; pem.org.
WILLIAMSTOWN, MASS. "Unearthed: Recent Archaeological Discoveries from Northern China." Promising to redefine the understanding of ancient Chinese culture, this show imports newly excavated objects from Shanxi and Gansu Provinces, including a fifth-century stone sarcophagus, that reflect the lucrative "Silk Road" trade. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 225 South Street; (413) 458-2303; clarkart.edu.
MID-ATLANTIC
BROOKLYN "Keith Haring: 1978-1982." Tracing the development of his graffiti-based visual vocabulary, this exhibition of 155 works and 150 objects, including sketchbooks, is the first large exploration of Haring's early career. Through July 8. Brooklyn Museum, 200 Eastern Parkway; (718) 638-5000; brooklynmuseum.org.
BUFFALO "Wish You Were Here: The Buffalo Avant-Garde in the 1970s." For one remarkable moment, Buffalo spawned artists, including Cindy Sherman and Robert Longo, who radically influenced postmodern and contemporary art. More than 300 works, some never shown, tell the tale. March 30 to July 8. Albright-Knox Art Gallery, 1285 Elmwood Avenue; (716) 882-8700; albrightknox.org.
NEW YORK "Antico: The Golden Age of Renaissance Bronzes." The first exhibition in the United States devoted to this Italian, born Pier Jacopo Alari Bonacolsi (c. 1455—1528), who transformed the art of bronze sculpture, includes some 40 rare pieces, more than three-quarters of his known works. May 1 to July 29. Frick Collection, 1 East 70th Stret; (212) 288-0700; frick.org.
NEW YORK "Churchill: The Power of Words." Drawn from the Churchill Archives Center in Britain, this exhibition uses drafts, speaking notes, correspondence, public statements, and recordings to examine the main events in Churchill's life. Morgan Library & Museum, 225 Madison Avenue.; (212) 685-0008; themorgan.org.
PHILADELPHIA "Gauguin, Cézanne, Matisse: Visions of Arcadia." Uniting three enormous masterpieces by these artistic giants, this exhibition shows them alongside about 40 other efforts by Poussin, Rousseau and other modern painters to portray perfect bliss. June 20 to Sept. 3. Philadelphia Museum of Art, Benjamin Franklin Parkway at 26th Street; (215) 763-8100; philamuseum.org.
WASHINGTON "Joan Miró: The Ladder of Escape." Through some 120 paintings, drawings, sculptures and prints from a career spanning almost a century, this exhibition reveals Miró's politically charged side, including his sense of Catalonian identity. May 6 to Aug. 12. National Gallery of Art, East Building, Fourth Street and Constitution Avenue NW; (202) 737-4215; nga.gov
WASHINGTON "Snapshot: Painters and Photography, Bonnard to Vuillard." The impact of the Kodak hand-held camera, introduced in 1888, on artists like Bonnard and Vuillard is revealed in this exhibit of about 200 artists' snapshots and 70 of the artworks inspired by these mostly unpublished photos. Through May 6. The Phillips Collection, 1600 21st Street NW; (202) 387-215; phillipscollection.org.
MIDWEST
CHICAGO "Roy Lichtenstein: A Retrospective." Fifteen years after this Pop artist's death, a scholarly assessment presents more than 160 paintings, sculptures, drawings and collages, with the goal of showcasing their diversity and relationship to art historical sources. May 16 to Sept. 3. Art Institute of Chicago, 111 South Michigan Ave.; (312) 443-3625; artic.edu/aic.
CHICAGO "Rashid Johnson: Message to Our Folks." In his first major museum show, Johnson debunks the idea of a monolithic African-American identify by exploring the legacies of black intellectuals and pop figures in a variety of media. April 14 to Aug. 5. Museum of Contemporary Art, 220 East Chicago Avenue; (312) 280-2660; mcachicago.org.
KANSAS CITY "Inventing the Modern World: Decorative Arts at the World's Fairs, 1851-1939." This groundbreaking exhibition gathers more than 175 pieces of furniture, jewelry, glass, textiles, ceramics and metalworks, many borrowed from abroad, to show how fairs brought modern design, innovation and ingenuity to the public as never before. April 14 to Aug. 19. Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 4525 Oak Street; (816) 751-1278; nelson-atkins.org
MINNEAPOLIS "Rembrandt in America." The final chance to see about 50 works, some by Rembrandt and others once, but no longer, thought to be by him, through the lens of American collectors. This show also illustrates how scholarship on the artist has evolved. June 24 to Sept. 16. Minneapolis Institute of Arts, 2400 Third Avenue South; (888) 642-2787; artsmia.org.
ST. LOUIS "Restoring an American Treasure: The Panorama of the Monumental Grandeur of the Mississippi Valley." The last surviving work of its kind, this 348-foot by 8-foot work, from about 1850, depicts 25 scenes of the Ohio and Mississippi River valleys. Its restoration, begun last year, will be completed as the work is on display. June 8 to Sept. 3; Saint Louis Art Museum, 1 Fine Arts Dr., Forest Park; (314) 721-0072; slam.org.
TOLEDO "Color Ignited: Glass 1962—2012." Fifty years ago, two glass-blowing workshops here, led by Harvey Littleton, catalyzed the use of color in glass, creating the contemporary glass-blowing movement. This exhibition, featuring work by more than 40 artists, showcases the results. June 13 to Sept. 9. Toledo Museum of Art, 2445 Monroe Street; (419) 255-8000; toledomuseum.org
SOUTH
HOUSTON "Elegance and Refinement: The Still-Life Paintings of Willem van Aelst." Little-known but technically brilliant, van Aelst (1627-83) produced fine, carefully balanced compositions of flowers, game and precious objects, as this traveling exhibition of 25 paintings demonstrates. Through May 28. Museum of Fine Arts, 1001 Bissonnet; (713) 639-7300; mfah.org.
MIAMI "The Record: Contemporary Art and Vinyl." Combining fine art with pop culture, this show examines the power of the record, beginning in the 1960s, as the subject or medium in all kinds of art by artists from around the world. March 18, 2012 to June 10. Miami Art Museum, 101 West Flagler Street; (305) 375-3000; miamiartmuseum.org.
RICHMOND "Maharaja: The Splendors of India's Great Kings." Via more than 200 objects, this exhibition provides a look at the riches of India's royalty from the early 18th century to the mid-20th century. May 21 to Aug. 19. Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 200 North Boulevard; (804) 340-1400; vmfa.museum.
SARASOTA, FLA. "Peter Paul Rubens: Impressions of a Master." With nearly 100 rarely seen prints borrowed from the Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Antwerp, Belgium, where Rubens spent his youth, or taken from museum storage, this exhibition — including six paintings from the permanent collection — presents the artist's work in many genres. Through June 3. John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, 5401 Bay Shore Road; (941) 359-5700; ringling.org
WEST PALM BEACH "Tacita Dean." A full showing of this Hugo Boss Prize winner's works that augment conventional photographs with paint, drawings, or hand-written texts, a mix of fact and fiction. Through May 6. Norton Museum of Art, 1451 South Olive Avenue.; (561) 832-5196. norton.org.
WEST
DENVER "Yves Saint Laurent." The only opportunity in the United States to see a sweeping exhibition of 200 of the designer's haute couture garments, plus photographs, drawings and films that illustrate the blossoming of his style, from his early days at Dior in 1958 to his retirement in 2002, and the historical foundations of his work. March 25 to July 8. Denver Art Museum, 100 West 14th Avenue Parkway; (720) 865-5000. Denverartmuseum.org
LOS ANGELES "Gustav Klimt: The Magic of Line." This international loan show, the first fully dedicated to the drawings of Klimt (1862-1918), explores the stylistic evolution of his drawings and their centrality to his artistry as the painter of such celebrated works as "The Kiss" and "Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I." July 3 to Sept. 23. Getty Museum, 1200 Getty Center Drive; (310) 440-7300; getty.edu.
LOS ANGELES "Drama and Devotion: Heemskerck's Ecce Homo Altarpiece From Warsaw." This piece by a Netherlandish 16th-century master, just restored here, remains for a showing that provides insight into the artist's materials and technique. June 5 to Jan. 13, 2013. Getty Museum, 1200 Getty Center Drive; (310) 440-7300; getty.edu.
LOS ANGELES "Children of the Plumed Serpent: The Legacy of Quetzalcoatl in Ancient Mexico." Recent scholarship has discovered that a federation of city-states in southern Mexico from A.D. 1000 to 1521 resisted Aztec and Spanish subjugation, led by a ruling class that traced its lineage to Quetzalcoatl. This exhibition illuminates the art these societies made in fresco, polychrome ceramics, gold, textiles, feathers and other materials. April 1 to July 1. Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 5905 Wilshire Boulevard; (323) 857-6000; lacma.org.
PHOENIX "Beyond Geronimo: The Apache Experience." First bringing to life this mythic figure via his possessions — moccasins, bow and quiver, portraits, many never before shown — and tracing Geronimo's passage into legend via dime novels, movie posters and ephemera, this exhibition then delves into the story of his tribe, including art by 20th- and 21st-century Apache artists. Through Jan. 20, 2013. Heard Museum, 2301 North Central Avenue; (602) 252-8840; heard.org
SAN FRANCISCO "Phantoms of Asia: Contemporary Awakens the Past." Taking Asian cosmology and spirituality as its theme, this show juxtaposes 90 traditional works with about 50 works by contemporary artists from all over Asia in an effort to uncover invisible historical, cultural and religious connections. May 18 to Sept. 2. Asian Art Museum, 200 Larkin Street; (415) 581-3500. Asianart.org.
SAN FRANCISCO "Cindy Sherman." This retrospective follows Sherman's career: some 170 photographs, in which she was her own model, illustrate many her guises and personas. July 14 to Oct. 7. Museum of Modern Art, 151 Third Street; (415) 357-4000. sfmoma.org.
SEATTLE "Ancestral Modern: Australian Aboriginal Art from the Kaplan & Levi Collection." With more than 100 paintings, sculptures and weavings from the late 20th to early 21st century, this show illustrates the most recent subjects explored and techniques used by artists of "the world's oldest living culture." May 31 to Sept. 2, Seattle Art Museum, 1300 First Avenue, (206) 654-3100; seattleartmuseum.org.