SEASON HIGHLIGHTS
In 1988, prima ballerina Sylvie Guillem walked out on Rudolf Nureyev and the Paris Opera Ballet. She went on to become a principal guest artist at the Royal Ballet in London, where her uncompromising ways earned her the nickname “Mademoiselle Non.” Today, a veteran of her profession at 42, she is as willing as ever to defy convention, as evidenced by her recent collaboration with the celebrated Anglo-Bangladeshi dancer and choreographer Akram Khan. Contrasting ballet with northern Indian kathak, a classical dance form known for its intricate footwork and rapid spins, SACRED MONSTERS makes its U.S. premiere this spring in Los Angeles. The piece explores the ways in which the two stars have struggled to live up to the expectations that accompany celebrity and to reach beyond the confines of tradition. May 2 and 3 at Royce Hall, UCLA, and May 5 and 6 at Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley. uclalive.org or calperfs.berkeley.edu

New York
CARTIER-BRESSON
When Henri Cartier-Bresson was interned in a German prisoner-of-war camp during World War II, rumors of his death were so greatly exaggerated that New York’s Museum of Modern Art began organizing a memorial exhibition of his photographs. After escaping to freedom, the artist contributed to the retrospective, printing some 300 of his favorite pictures. Henri Cartier-Bresson’s Scrapbook: Photographs, 1932-46 reassembles these images, allowing the public to discover the artist’s lesser known early work and thus gain insight into his creative development. Through April 29 at the International Center of Photography. icp.org

Dallas
MATISSE
The double-venue exhibition Matisse: Painter as Sculptor explores the artist’s achievements in the three-dimensional form, both within the context of his own varied oeuvre and in comparison to the work of other modern masters such as Brancusi, Degas and Giacometti. More than 150 sculptures, paintings, works on paper and photographs of the artist at work are grouped thematically to illustrate the interplay among the various media. Through April 29 at the Dallas Museum of Art and the Nasher Sculpture Center. dallasmuseumofart.org or nashersculpturecenter.org

Houston
MET TREASURES
The Masterpieces of French Painting from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1800-1920 brings together 135 works by such giants as Corot, Delacroix, Monet, Cézanne and Matisse in the largest loan of its kind in the Met’s history. The show offers an overview of painting in France during the period, from the neoclassicism of Ingres to the realism of Courbet to the protocubism of Picasso. At its heart is a selection of some 50 masterworks of Impressionism. Through May 6 at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. mfah.org

Washington, D.C.
PARIS PHOTOS
Paris in Transition: Photographs from the National Gallery of Art presents 19th- and early 20th-century works by such pioneers in the medium as Le Gray, Kertész, Brassaï and Atget. In addition to illustrating the important role Paris played in the evolution of French photography, the images reflect a variety of responses to modernization, from excitement to nostalgia. Through May 6 at the National Gallery of Art. nga.gov

Baltimore
BARYE
Untamed: The Art of Antoine-Louis Barye honors the leading animal sculptor of the 19th century, dubbed “Michelangelo of the Menagerie” by art critic Théophile Gautier. Portraying creatures both wild and domesticated, Barye demonstrated a masterful ability to capture naturalistic detail. Like his fellow Romantics, he had a taste for both the dramatic and the exotic, which found expression in his many scenes of animals in combat. The vast selection of works on view includes not only sculptures but also oils, watercolors and sketches. Through May 6 at the Walters Art Museum. thewalters.org

New York
MOUNTED PORCELAIN
In the mid-18th century, Parisian dealers in luxury goods known as marchands-merciers commissioned elaborate gilt-bronze mounts for porcelain ware that was imported from the Far East, creating highly prized East-meets-West objets d’art. Fine examples of this trend, the pair of vases at the center of Rococo Exotic: French Mounted Porcelains and the Allure of the East feature metal adornments in such shapes as shells and coral reflecting the contemporary vogue for natural exotica. Books, prints and other items round out this focused exhibition, shedding further light on the rococo aesthetic. Through June 6 at The Frick Collection. frick.org

San Francisco
FRENCH JEWELRY
For Elizabeth Taylor’s 40th birthday, Richard Burton gave her a Cartier necklace set with a heart-shaped diamond once bestowed upon the woman who inspired the Taj Mahal. That piece is one of 150 on display in Masterpieces of French Jewelry From American Collections, which traces the evolution of French jewelry design from the late 19th century to the present, showcasing examples of Art Nouveau, Edwardian, Art Deco and other styles. Through June 10 at the Legion of Honor. thinker.org

Chicago
CÉZANNE TO PICASSO
Cézanne to Picasso: Ambroise Vollard, Patron of the Avant-Garde honors the influential art dealer who championed many of the foremost talents of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Among his achievements were organizing Picasso’s first exhibition in France, Matisse’s first solo show and a landmark retrospective credited with cementing Cézanne’s place in the modern pantheon. These artists and many others—Bonnard, Degas, Gauguin and Van Gogh, to name but a few—are represented by more than 100 paintings along with ceramics, sculpture, prints and livres d’artistes. Through May 12 at The Art Institute of Chicago. artic.edu

San Francisco
SYLVIE BLOCHER
Since 1992, multimedia artist Sylvie Blocher has been working on a series of video installations collectively titled Living Pictures. Each work is a collage of interviews with individuals who share some sort of connection—Toronto taxi drivers in one instance; members of the Princeton football team in another. This spring, the San Francisco Museum of Art presents Living Pictures/Je et Nous (2003), which features residents of a working-class suburb of Paris wearing t-shirts printed with their own statements, as well as a new, San Francisco-based installment of the series. Through May 13. sfmoma.org

Baltimore
PISSARRO
Camille Pissarro played a key role in the Impressionist movement, both as an artist and as a beloved mentor to his younger colleagues, notably Cézanne and Gauguin. Pissarro: Creating the Impressionist Landscape explores the artist’s evolution through 45 works, including three of the five paintings he presented in the first Impressionist exhibition in 1874. The “humble and colossal Pissarro,” as Cézanne once referred to him, was the only artist to participate in all eight Impressionist shows, which were often characterized by infighting. Through May 13 at the Baltimore Museum of Art. artbma.org

Cleveland
MONET IN NORMANDY
Claude Monet spent much of his artistic life in Normandy, capturing on canvas the area’s towns, countryside and seasonal rhythms. Through some 60 paintings, Monet in Normandy explores the artist’s relationship with this region. The show pays particular attention to Monet’s depictions of bodies of water—the commercial harbor at Le Havre, scenery along the Seine, the crashing waves of Etretat—and his paintings of monuments such as the Rouen Cathedral. Through May 20 at the Cleveland Museum of Art. clevelandart.org

New Orleans
FEMME, FEMME, FEMME
Femme, femme, femme: Paintings of Women in French Society from Daumier to Picasso from the Museums of France assembles more than 80 works in a panorama of women’s changing roles in society over the course of the 19th century. The exhibition is organized thematically, with scenes of domestic life giving way to images of women at work and at play. Through June 3 at the New Orleans Museum of Art. noma.org

New York
STAIRCASE MODELS
Some two dozen staircase models, most from 19th-century France, are on view in Made to Scale: Staircase Masterpieces. Including works by apprentice carpenters and master craftsmen alike, the exhibit offers a window onto the French guild system, or compagnonnage; through these models, the artisans demonstrated their knowledge of structural design, architectural details and cabinetmaking. Through June 3 at the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum. cooperhewitt.org

New York
DIVISIONISM/NEO-IMPRESSIONISM
In the late 19th century, practitioners of Neo-Impressionism (or Pointillism) in France and Divisionism in Italy embraced the application of optical theory to painting, painstakingly covering their canvases with tiny dots or strokes of color that blended into a coherent image when viewed from afar. Divisionism/Neo-Impressionism: Arcadia and Anarchy examines the relationship between the two movements through some 40 paintings by Seurat, Signat, Morbelli, Segantini and others. April 27 through August 6 at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. guggenheim.org

New York
CLARK COLLECTION
Brothers Sterling and Stephen Clark, heirs to the Singer sewing machine fortune, were among the most influential patrons of the arts of the 20th century. Estranged for much of their lives, they built rival collections that reflected their differing tastes and interests. Masterpieces from their respective collections are exhibited together for the first time in Impressionist and Early Modern Paintings: The Clark Brothers Collect, which presents some 65 works by such artistic titans as Degas, Sargent, Monet, Renoir and Hopper. May 22 through Aug. 5 at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. metmuseum.org

New York
PAUL POIRET
Paul Poiret, the preeminent fashion designer of pre–World War I Paris, is credited with liberating women from the corset with his unstructured garments. Branching out into perfumery, cosmetics and the decorative arts, he pioneered the practice now common among designers of promoting a lifestyle rather than just a mode of dress. Exploring the designer’s many influences, from Classicism to Orientalism, Poiret: King of Fashion presents his garments in a series of tableaux inspired by the illustrations that graced the pages of the leading fashion magazines of the day. May 9 through Aug. 5 at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. metmuseum.org

Washington, D.C.
EUGÈNE BOUDIN
An important forerunner of the Impressionist movement, Eugene Boudin is reputed to have introduced Monet to plein air painting. Eugène Boudin at the National Gallery of Art brings together 40 paintings and works on paper, most depicting scenes from the artist’s beloved native Normandy. March 25 through Aug. 5 at the National Gallery of Art. nga.gov

Columbus
CHRIS MARKER
The French filmmaker, writer and artist Chris Marker has produced a vast and varied oeuvre characterized by innovation and political engagement. Revered by cinephiles, Marker remains little known to many American viewers, his sole link with the mainstream being his 1962 short La Jetée—and then only because that film inspired Terry Gilliam’s Twelve Monkeys (1995). For Chris Marker: Staring Back, the famously reclusive master has put together a selection of nearly 200 black-and-white photographic portraits captured during six decades of world travels. May 12 through Aug. 12 at the Wexner Center for the Arts. wexarts.org

Los Angeles
JEAN-BAPTISTE OUDRY
The rise of natural history and taxonomy in the 18th century spawned a European vogue for exotic creatures, which found one of its finest expressions in the work of Jean-Baptiste Oudry, the foremost animal painter of his time. Oudry’s talents earned him a commission to paint a series of life-size portraits of prize specimens in Louis XV’s menagerie at Versailles. A number of these works appear in Oudry’s Painted Menagerie, opening this spring in Los Angeles. Yet the centerpiece of the show is a recently restored 10-by-15-foot painting of Clara, a touring rhinoceros who set off a wave of “rhinomania.” May 1 through Sept. 2 at the J. Paul Getty Museum. getty.edu

Atlanta
LOUVRE STATESIDE
Louvre Atlanta, which runs through fall 2009, has transformed a wing of the High Museum of Art into an outpost of the venerable French institution. The overarching theme of the project is the history of the Louvre, with year one focusing on the royal collections. “Kings as Collectors” presents paintings, sculptures and antiquities acquired during the reigns of Louis XIV and XVI; highlights include Poussin’s “Et in Arcadia Ego.” A companion exhibit titled “The Decorative Art of the Kings” rounds out the offerings. Both shows through Sept. 2. louvreatlanta.org