VAN GOGH AND EXPRESSIONISM
Neue Galerie

Walking into this glorious, highkey-colored exhibit is like entering a party in full swing: The atmosphere is heady; the conversations, a combination of shouts, murmurs, and belted-out song, are amicable and a joy to listen to. Such is the inexplicable magic of a show centered on the influence of a painter so gifted, his work so groundbreaking, that his art demanded an immediate and emotional response in the studios of other artists.

Lance Esplund (March 22)

Until July 2 (1048 Fifth Ave. at 86th Street, 212-628-6200).

RICHARD TUTTLE: Memory Comes From Dark Extension
Sperone Westwater Gallery

For more than 40 years, Richard Tuttle has preserved and developed a unique voice in the art world, a sensibility that balances opposites. He can seem at once incredibly precious and completely nonchalant; deeply invested in his project and lightheaded about it. Works are simultaneously exquisitely crafted and belligerently flimsy. Materials are throwaway stuff, scrapings and waste, but treated lovingly. His current show performs a similar feat of sustained ambivalence, with works that are adorable and prickly in equal measure.

David Cohen (June 21)

Until June 30 (415 W. 13th St., between Washington and Greenwich streets, 212-999-7337).

MAGICAL MEANS: Milton Avery and Watercolor
Knoedler & Company

These watercolors’ subjects are the still lifes, interiors, and landscapes familiar from Avery’s oil paintings, and they reflect the same trend toward increasing abstraction. Some of the later watercolors, animated by scratchy textures rather than a counterpoint of tones, seem tentative in design, but even these resonate with the artist’s appealing blend of obtuseness and grace.

John Goodrich (May 17)

Until August 10 (19 E. 70th St., between Fifth and Madison avenues, 212-794-0550).