11 don’t-miss art exhibitions for fall: Quaytman, McLaughlin and a ‘Shimmer of Gold’

The exhibition calendar is packed in the months to come. Some picks:

Lari Pittman’s “10 Divinations by Emily Dickinson in Greens and Blues,” 2015, acrylic and lacquer spray over gessoed, heavyweight paper board, 27 inches by 25 inches by 4 1/2 inches. (Lari Pittman, courtesy of Beth Rudin DeWoody / Huntington Art Collections)

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Sept. 3-Feb. 20

‘Lari Pittman: Mood Books’ at the Huntington

The Los Angeles artist’s 65 new paintings in six monumental illustrated books, each one 4 feet wide when opened, will be shown in the Scott Galleries in an installation designed by architect Michael Maltzan. The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens, 1151 Oxford Road, San Marino. (626) 405-2100. www.huntington.org.

Doug Aitken’s “More (shattered pour),” 2013, high-density foam, wood, mirror, 63 inches by 48 1/2 inches by 7 1/2 inches. (Doug Aitken / MOCA)

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FULL COVERAGE: Your fall arts and culture guide to L.A.

Sept. 10-Jan. 15

‘Doug Aitken: Electric Earth’ at MOCA

The Museum of Contemporary Art has been relatively sleepy since its change in leadership two and a half years ago, but new director Philippe Vergne is acting as curator for a large retrospective exhibition by local multimedia artist Doug Aitken. MOCA, 250 S. Grand Ave., L.A. (213) 621-1710. www.moca.org.

Carrie Mae Weems’ “Welcome Home,” from the “Family Pictures and Stories” series, 1978-84, gelatin silver prints, text and two audio tracks, 24 inches by 36 inches. (Carrie Mae Weems / Jack Shainman Gallery, New York)

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Sept. 24-Jan. 2

‘The Uses of Photography’ at MCASD/La Jolla

About 100 works primarily from the 1970s will examine a group of artists around UC San Diego who used cameras as tools of Conceptual art, including Eleanor Antin, Allan Kaprow, Martha Rosler, Allan Sekula and  Carrie Mae Weems. Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego/La Jolla, 700 Prospect St., La Jolla. (858) 454-3541. www.mcasd.org.

Belkis Ayn’s “La Cena” (“The Supper”), 1991, collagraph. (Collection of the Belkis Ayon Estate)

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Oct. 2-Feb. 12

‘Nkame: A Retrospective of Cuban Printmaker Belkis Ayón’ at UCLA’s Fowler Museum

Prints by Belkis Ayón, who committed suicide in 1999 at just 32, explore the myths and realities of men’s secret societies in Cuba. Fowler Museum, UCLA, 308 Charles E. Young Drive, Westwood. (310) 825-4361. www.fowler.ucla.edu.

“Initial A: Christ Appearing to David” by Giovanni di Paolo, about 1440, tempera colors, gold leaf and ink on parchment. (J. Paul Getty Museum)

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Oct. 11-Jan. 8

‘The Shimmer of Gold: Giovanni di Paolo in Renaissance Siena’ at the Getty Center

Manuscripts and panels by painter Giovanni di Paolo (about 1399-1482), sometimes called Siena’s El Greco thanks to his dreamlike religious imagery, will include a partial reconstruction of the widely disbursed panels in his celebrated Branchini Altarpiece. The Getty Center, 1200 Getty Center Drive, L.A. (310) 440-7300. www.getty.edu.

R.H. Quaytman’s “Morning, Chapter 30,” 2016, silkscreen ink and gesso on wood, 37 1/16 inches by 60 inches. (Thomas Mualler / R.H. Quaytman)

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Oct. 16-Feb. 6

‘R.H. Quaytman, Morning: Chapter 30’ at MOCA

New York painter R.H. Quaytman, whose work is not often seen in L.A., presents 65 silkscreen paintings on wood panel from the past decade, a third of them musing on Michael Heizer’s desert sculpture “Double Negative.” Museum of Contemporary Art, 250 S. Grand Ave., L.A. (213) 621-1710. www.moca.org.

Anna Hills’ “Spring in Laguna,” 1915, oil on canvas, 20 inches by 30 inches. (Collection of Ranney and Priscilla Draper)

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Oct. 16-Jan. 15

‘Miss Hills of Laguna Beach’ at Laguna Art Museum

A survey of 40 paintings by Anna Althea Hills (1882-1930), once the doyenne of Laguna Beach but mostly forgotten today, who was instrumental in forging the seaside town’s early 20th century reputation as an artists’ colony.  Laguna Art Museum, 307 Cliff Drive, Laguna Beach. (949) 494-8971. www.lagunaartmuseum.org.

Photograph of Steven Chu, Nobel laureate in physics, is part of “Brain.” (Peter Badge)

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Oct. 16-Jan. 21

‘Brain’ at El Segundo Museum of Art

Photographs by Berlin artist Peter Badge record the faces of all living Nobel Prize winners of the last two decades. El Segundo Museum of Art, 208 Main St., El Segundo. (424) 277-1020. www.esmoa.org.

Louis Khan’s Salk Institute in La Jolla, Calif. (John Nichols.)

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Nov. 5-Jan. 31

‘Louis Kahn: The Power of Architecture’ at San Diego Museum of Art

In the city that is home to one of his greatest buildings, La Jolla’s celebrated Salk Institute, Louis Khan (1901-74) and the evolution of his monumental architecture will be surveyed in drawings, documents, films and memorabilia. San Diego Museum of Art, 1450 El Prado, Balboa Park, San Diego. (619) 232-7931. www.sdmart.org.

John McLaughlin’s “#29-1960,” 1960, oil on canvas, 36 inches by 48 inches, (Philipp Scholz Rittermann / Estate of John McLaughlin)

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Nov. 13-April 16

‘John McLaughlin Paintings: Total Abstraction’ at LACMA

The first artist of international stature to emerge in Los Angeles after World War II, John McLaughlin developed an extraordinary art of hard-edge abstraction indebted to Japanese aesthetics. Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 5905 Wilshire Blvd., L.A. (323) 857-6000. www.lacma.org.

Lucas Cranach the Elder’ “The Passage of the Israelites through the Red Sea,” 1530. (Bayerische Staatsgemldesammlungen, Munich / Sibylle Forster / Art Resource)

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Nov. 20-March 26

‘Renaissance and Reformation: German Art in the Age of Dürer and Cranach’ at LACMA

More than 100 paintings, drawings, sculptures and decorative objects by Albrecht Dürer, Lucas Cranach, Hans Holbein, Matthias Grünewald, Tilman Riemenschneider and others will examine the tumultuous era around 1500 in Central Europe. Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 5905 Wilshire Blvd., L.A. (323) 857-6000. www.lacma.org.

christopher.knight@latimes.com

Twitter: @KnightLAT

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