5 Must-See Art Exhibitions to See in July

Recover from Independence Day festivities with a big dose of culture. Here are the key art events for your diary this month.

A First Look at Icons of Style: A Century of Fashion Photography, 1911-2011
Getty Center, Los Angeles
until 21 October 2018

Untitled, for Charles Jourdan, Spring 1977. Image copyright The Guy Bourdin Estate 2018, courtesy Louise Alexander Gallery.This new exhibition charts the most iconic fashion photography of the last decade.

Beginning with 1911, the year Edward Steichen created the first artistic fashion photographs, and ending with 2011 with digital technology as a dominant paradigm, this exhibition surveys the rich and varied history of modern fashion photography. The show traces its trajectory from niche industry to powerful cultural force, and its gradual embrace as an art form.

Plato in L.A.: Contemporary Artists’ Visions
Getty Villa, Malibu
April 18–September 3, 2018

Play-Doh (detail), 1994–2014, Jeff Koons; polychromed aluminum. Collection of the artist. © Jeff Koons. Photo: Tom Powel Imaging

The Greek philosopher Plato is one of the founding figures of Western civilisation. His legacy encompasses ethics, politics, theology, and poetics. In this exhibition, some of today's most celebrated artists including, Jeff Koons, Paul Chan and Mike Kelley, consider Plato's impact on the contemporary world. Through sculptures, paintings, drawings, and large-scale installations, they respond to his contribution to philosophy—from defining the ideal to understanding the human condition—while fostering the ultimate Platonic experience: contemplation.

Stephen Frykholm: Summer Picnic Posters
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
June 23–September 3, 2018

Stephen Frykholm, Herman Miller Summer Picnic poster, 1970

Furniture company Herman Miller’s bold, Pop art–influenced posters have become iconic in their own right, instantly transporting us to the picnic table with their vibrant close-ups of a favorite American pastime.

Marking The Infinite - Contemporary Women Artists from Aboriginal Australia
Philips Collection, Washington DC
June 2 - September 9, 2018

Fishnet, Regina Pilawuk Wilson Syaw, (2014)

The nine Aborginal artists in this exhibition offer a glimpse into the diverse contemporary art practice of Aboriginal Australia. Hailing from remote areas across the continent, they are revered matriarchs, commanding leadership roles and using art to empower their respective communities. The works are steeped in ancient cultural traditions, specific to each artist, and yet speak to universal contemporary themes, revealing the continued relevance of indigenous knowledge in the 21st century.

Where We Are: Selections from the Whitney’s Collection, 1900–1960
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City
Apr 28, 2017–

Charles Demuth (1883 1935), Buildings, Lancaster, 1930. Oil and graphite pencil on composition board, 24 1/8 × 20 1/8in. (61.3 × 51.1 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

Where We Are traces how artists have approached the relationships, institutions, and activities that shape our lives. Drawn entirely from the Whitney’s holdings, the exhibition is organised around five themes: family and community, work, home, the spiritual, and the nation. During the six decades covered here, the United States experienced war and peace, economic collapse and recovery, and social discord and progress. American artists responded in complex and diverse ways, and a central aim of the exhibition is to honor each artist’s efforts to create her or his own vision of American life. The artists and their works suggest that our sense of self is composed of our responsibilities, places, and beliefs.