"Shintaro Miyake: Beaver No Seikatsu"

1) To Delight the Eye: French Drawings and Paintings from the Collection of Charles E. Dunlap at Harvard University's Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, Mass., through March 12, 2006. Nearly two centuries before artists like Cecily Brown painted jet-setting parties, there was 18th and 19th century French painting. With its pretty maids, creamy pastels and light-hearted gaiety, these works were the ultimate in escapist fantasies. They were also often considered a bit too frivolous to take seriously, but times change. And what with virtual realities eclipsing other forms of entertainment, this exhibition becomes surprisingly instructive. Drawn from the late Charles Dunlap's collection, there is no denying the works' charms or their connections with the realities of corporate America, for which Dunlap was a key player.

2) Shintaro Miyake: Beaver No Seikatsu at Massachusetts College of Arts' Sandra and David Bakalar Gallery, Boston, Mass., through March 18, 2006. What's not to like about a show with an off-the-chart fun factor? Step into the gallery and find yourself in an enormous beaver's playhouse with its own dam, tons of stuffed animals and clubhouse hide-away. Equal parts nature lesson, fantasy land and gallery show, the installation flaunts (or satirizes, take your pick) the transformation of mainstream exhibition spaces into theme-park venues whose attraction for large crowds include lively (and also humorous) explanatory videos, diagrams and, last but not least, a gift store.

3) La Culture des idees: Book Cover Design and the Spirit of Magritte at Boston College's Bapst Art Library, Chestnut Hill, Mass., through March 19, 2006. Last fall, Karl Baden exhibited his book collection in Covering Photography at Harvard University's Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts. In that show, Baden used 55 books and 25 images to examine the transformation well-known photographs undergo when they become part of a book cover's design. For this show, Baden concentrates on the Surrealist Magritte's images in the cover of books in the post-World War II era. "My sense," Baden says, "is that the spirit of Magritte; the faceless, identical bourgeoisie, perceptual enigmas and portals into another world, resonated perfectly with a generation obsessed with the Self, disdainful of middle class values and eager to explore alternative states of consciousness and inner reaches of the mind."

4) Paul Rudolph: The Florida Houses at the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth in New Bedford, Mass., through March 29, 2006. Paul Rudolph is an amazingly underrated architect. Although considered one of America's greatest late Modernists, his name is relatively unknown outside of architecture specialists. However, when someone asked Walter Gropius to name his best students, Gropius replied, "Paul Rudolph and I.M. Pei," in that order. Rudolph was also the chief architect for the U. Mass. Dartmouth campus, including a terrific little gallery, which has now been abandoned for the art department's new digs in New Bedford. This show is dedicated to Rudolph's early homes in Florida, but it would be a shame to miss seeing the Dartmouth campus as well.

5) Scott Hadfield at The Art Complex Museum, Duxbury, Mass., through April 9, 2006. Local artist Scott Hadfield, known for his abstract, geometric paintings, dissected by linear counterpoints and painterly virtuosity, takes on the architecture of the Art Complex Museum. Accompanied by his studies and notes, viewers can both experience the site of Hadfied's inspiration and follow Hadfield's artistic interpretation of the building, viewed under various atmospheric conditions.

6) America Starts Here - Kate Ericson and Mel Ziegler 1985-1995, at M.I.T.'s List Visual Arts Center, Cambridge, Mass., through April 9, 2006. Some of the elements in this showcase of Mel Ziegler and the late Kate Ericson's art include surprisingly elegant arrangements of broken windows from a factory, china emblazoned with the names of a manufacturer's products, and doormats shaped like oak leaves. Behind all of it lies the artists' fascination for maps, charts and esoteric facts, revealed in the pieces' wall texts and the show's accompanying video. By elevating overlooked material to the level of museum artifact, the pair helped turn conceptual art from a hermetic endeavor into a poetic encapsulation of political, cultural and social engagement.

""Divine" (1979). By David Hockney View more images from this month's exhibits.

7) Rodin: A Magnificent Obsession, Sculpture from the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation at the Wadsworth Athenaeum, Hartford, Conn., through April 16, 2006. During Rodin's lifetime it was common to make multiple casts of sculptures. Like prints, these had the advantage of being affordable. Thus, with someone as popular as Rodin multiple casts abound. The experience of viewing these sculptures varies dramatically, depending on how recent the cast is and how much it varies from the original's scale. Still it's hard to begrudge this show of 62 bronzes and the Cantors' generous loan of the works, including Rodin's famous "The Kiss"; but don't be surprised if a little known piece cast during Rodin's life has much more power than a more recent version of one of his better known pieces.

8) Living in Motion: Design and Architecture for Flexible Dwelling at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, Mass., through May 7, 2006. Some shows present a definitive collection of an artist's work. Others illuminate a specific period. Still others open our eyes to new ways of thinking. The rare but brilliant show does all three things at once and this is one of those. As handsomely installed as it is insightful, this exhibition is a must see. With marvelous juxtapositions, excellently chosen examples and a compelling thesis, this show explores our age-old fascination with "furniture, houses, and objects that incorporate flexibility and multi-functionalism."

9) David Hockney Portraits at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Mass., through May 14, 2006. Tastefully appointed rooms, enchanting characters sheltered by privilege, the gloss of good manners with just a hint of raciness -- such is the stuff of Pop fiction, TV hits, period movies, and Hockney's portraits. Hockney's finely nuanced portraits freeze late 20th century English mores into tableaux-like settings. Filled with the artist's elegant draftsmanship and surprising visual inventiveness, this show can't help but be a crowd-pleaser. (Click here to listen to Andrea Shea's story on the exhibit)

10) Frank Stella, 1958 at Harvard University's Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, Mass., through May 7, 2006. Frank Stella's early black canvases are landmarks of Modernist painting; they are the brilliant 2-D counterpoint to Minimalist sculpture. But where did they come from? And what preceded them? These are the questions that this show tackles and in doing so reveals the artist's engagement in quirky color, painterly brushwork and other recognizable aspects of late '50s American art. Unfortunately, the works look so cramped and are so unevenly lit in the low ceiling space that it's hard to properly judge their merit. Combined with a meager amount of historical and biographic context (presumably elaborated on in the show's catalog), the installation limits the show's appeal to a dedicated few (Click here to read Peter Walsh's review)

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		Arts Features Films at the Gate Photos See photos of kung-fu movies and former Boston Chinatown movie theater locations. Guerrilla Art See photos of local artist Matthew Hincman's bench-like sculpture. "O" is for Original Local artist "Danny O" portrays whimsical scenes of summer in Boston. Multimedia Singer at 100 An exclusive online special explores the controversial work and life of Yiddish writer Isaac Bashevis Singer. Gauguin's Tahiti Paintings Take a multimedia tour of Paul Gauguin's Tahiti paintings, including the famous painting, "Where Are We From." Hawthorne at 200 View a multimedia celebration of Nathaniel Hawthorne's 200th birthday.