The New Season: Art

The new season brings all kinds of events in the realm of entertainment and the arts. Tracy Smith launches our Fall preview with a look at some coming attractions at museums:

If to everything there is a season, this fall may be the season for art -- starting with the brand-new Broad Museum in Los Angeles, housed in a building that is in itself a remarkable work.

Designed by architecture firm Diller Scofidio + Renfro, its exterior has been likened to a cheese grater. Smith saw it differently: "It almost feels like you're in a waffle," she laughed.

"Well, it is a specially-designed skylight that's 23 feet up in the air," said Joanne Heyler, the director and chief curator. "But when you're in the gallery, you notice just the beautiful light on the art."

Heyler said the mission of the Broad "is to connect the widest possible audience with contemporary art; it's really that simple."

The museum, which opened to the public this past week, houses art collected by philanthropists Eli and Edie Broad -- more than 2,000 works of post-war and contemporary art by such artists as Andy Warhol, Jeff Koons, Jasper Johns, Cindy Sherman and Keith Haring.

And what they spent a fortune amassing, you can enjoy for nothing.

"It's free, yeah!" Heyler said. "We simply didn't want there to be any economic barriers for people to come and enjoy the collection. You can visit one gallery at a time. You can really dive deep into one artist's work that you're very, very interested in. You can have a little more organic relationship with the collection over time. That's what I hope for."

But don't shed a tear if you can't make it to Los Angeles. There are dozens of exhibits opening up in the next few weeks, all over the country.

In New York, the Whitney unveils a new Frank Stella exhibit, and at the Museum of Modern Art, Picasso sculptures. Picasso will pop up again in the Washington, D.C., Phillips Collection exhibit: "Gauguin to Picasso," a nod to the modern and avant garde masters.

Boston's Museum of Fine Arts features Dutch painting in the age of Rembrandt and Vermeer -- while the Cleveland Museum of Art says bon jour to the works of Claude Monet and Henri Matisse

In Texas, Houston's Museum of Fine Arts hosts Mark Rothko works; and the Dallas Museum of Art surveys Jackson Pollock's black paintings, made at the height of his popularity.

Of course, this is just a sampling, but safe to say there's something for almost every "palate" this art season.

Source: http://www.cbsnews.com