Perhaps you can have too much art on view at one time. In the 20 years I have lived in New York, I cannot recall a season as deliciously overwhelming and insurmountable as this one. All around the city, exasperated art lovers, gallery directors, curators, artists, and, yes, critics, are thumbing anxiously through gallery guides and date books, worrying about the shows they missed that might haunt them through the years. Revisiting the gems “Fra Angelico” and “Memling” is essential – but, for most of us, unlikely.

To add to the elation and aggravation, besides the many important museum shows, more and more galleries (and there are roughly a thousand in the city) are mounting major exhibitions. Some galleries have spread themselves so wide that together their separate venues constitute single museums. Wildenstein Gallery currently has its monumental “The Art of France” exhibition on view. Midtown’s PaceWildenstein is offering the stunning grouping of paintings and sculpture “The Women of Giacometti.”

Pace Primitive recently closed its show “The Art of Ethiopia” (an exhibition said to be spectacular but that I, unfortunately, missed). In Chelsea, PaceWildenstein is presenting recent sculpture by John Chamberlain, whose inventive, abstract totems, walls, and bouquets of twisted, painted, and chromed steel I hope to see before it closes.

Uptown, the Salander-O’Reilly Gallery on 79th Street is showing works on paper by Louisa Matthiasdottir and Leland Bell, a show that includes drawings and watercolors that are among some of the best made in America in the last 50 years. A few of the works by Bell, including a pencil “Self Portrait”(undated), are as full and clear as the Fayum mummy portraits in the Egyptian wing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

One of these spectacular “Mummy Portrait[s]” (c. 160), of a boy with one eye slit, is included in the Met’s current show “The Art of Medicine in Ancient Egypt,” a delicately installed grouping of 65 choice works associated with protection and healing. The great thing about this show is its focus on a single subject. But the narrowness also contributes to its shortsightedness.

The exhibition catalog – which claims that one eye in the “Mummy Portrait” is bigger than the other because of a medical condition in the sitter – is a little myopic. There is an age-old practice of distortion in portrait painting (in which the far eye, ear, or cheek is enlarged to make that distant side of the face pull forward and, in turn, give torsion to the head) evident in the portraits by van Gogh, Memling, Bell, et al. Medical condition or not, distortions in paintings should not be reduced merely to the physical condition of the painting’s subject. Bring a painter with you to get a second opinion.

Still, aesthetically the show is a dream,as is the Met’s “Pearls of the Parrot of India: The Emperor Akbar’s Illustrated ‘Khamsa’ (1597-98),” an exhibition of the lavishly illustrated and illuminated manuscript “Khamsa (Quintet of Tales)” by Amir Khusrau Dihlavi (1253-1325), the poet and self-proclaimed “Parrot of India,” from whose lips flowed eloquent “pearls.”

The problem with two small, exquisite shows such as these, as well as the fabulous “Clouet to Seurat: French Drawings From the British Museum,” is that, with van Gogh drawings and an unprecedented number of Fra Angelicos on different floors of the Met, they may very well get swept under.

It is not only that mammoth blockbusters obscure an institution’s smaller shows; some viewers will stay away in order to avoid the chaos of a packed museum; others, still, to avoid the Sophie’s Choice of “Fra Angelico” or “van Gogh.” That is one advantage smaller, less crowded and intimidating venues have over behemoths like the Met. When you go to a gallery, you often take the time to see, if only briefly, everything on the walls. This is one of the joys of going to Salander-O’Reilly’s second, and new, space on East 71st Street.

Salander’s new gallery is a sumptuous five-story townhouse that, devoted to the work of Old Masters, rivals some museums. It is just large enough to feel substantial and just small enough to feel manageable. Yet it is filled with a kaleidoscope of great works of art. There you can see 13th-century gargoyles from the Cathedral of Notre-Dame in Strasbourg, a stained glass window by Durer, 15th-century French tapestries, as well as masterpieces by Michelangelo, Bernini, El Greco, Rubens, Tintoretto, and Courbet. The gallery is a new breed of venue – a setting both intimate and dramatic – where the traditional back room filled with precious objects of deep provenance has been brought to center stage.

Tibor de Nagy Gallery just closed its exhibition of new paintings by Shirley Jaffe. Though they are not her best canvases of recent years (the white grounds are not as integral with her colored shapes as they should be), the show was essential viewing for anyone who cares about contemporary abstraction. The same “essential” status could be claimed for Feigen Contemporary’s current exhibition of Jeremy Blake’s 14-minute video “Sodium Fox” (2005), a gorgeous, dreamy collage of psychedelic images, mostly from the 1970s, inspired by the poetry of David Berman.

It was an interest in abstraction that brought me to P.S. 1, where “The Painted World,” a current exhibition of abstract paintings by artists such as Myron Stout and Philip Taaffe, is on view. I love Stout, but “The Painted World,” filled mostly with weightless, decorative, Pop, or postmodern versions of abstraction, left me cold. Instead, I was more taken with Jon Kessler’s kinetic circus installation of dozens of live-action video monitors “The Palace at 4 AM,” a sprawling, noisy critique of American culture. Overall, “Palace” does not add up, but it is certainly an inventive and relentless kick in the head. Is it a must-see exhibition? Maybe not, but it certainly defies description.

Indeed, this season made me wonder what exactly does constitute a “must-see” show these days. No one can possibly see everything. In a season as bountiful as this one, do you choose to see exhibitions of a popular artist whose work has never moved you (to try and sort out your feelings and see how his or her work has progressed) or do you opt to focus on exhibitions of artists whose work you find essential? (And what about the shows of those you loathe: Skip them, and your dissenting opinion will be dismissed as unfounded at the next cocktail party.)

Great shows, because of pecking order or location, can tend to fall off the radar. I am thinking of the amazing shows: “Tree of Paradise: Jewish Mosaics From the Roman Empire” at the Brooklyn Museum; “The Imagery of Chess Revisited” at the Noguchi Museum; and “The Splendor of the Word: Medieval and Renaissance Illuminated Manuscripts.” All three of these shows are on my “must-see” list. But most people probably won’t see them.

“Tree of Paradise: Jewish Mosaics from the Roman Empire” at the Brooklyn Museum is a horribly, over-designed exhibition (the overactive wall colors, entrance sound effects, and loud monitor distract from the work), but the superb, ancient synagogue floor mosaics depicting animals, figures, menorahs, foliage, and fruit; and the accompanying textiles, sculpture, and jewelry are all out of this world. They drown out the museum’s theme park design.

“The Imagery of Chess Revisited” is an update of the famous, groundbreaking exhibition masterminded by Duchamp and Julien Levy and shown at Levy’s gallery in 1944-45. It comprises paintings, photographs, sculpture, musical works by John Cage and Vittorio Rieti, and chess sets designed by Calder, Breton, Duchamp, Man Ray, Giacometti, and Noguchi, among others. The chess sets – beautiful, pure explorations of the grid, hierarchy, architecture, male and female, battle and rest – are arresting works of sculpture.

And one of the best shows available to New Yorkers right now isn’t even in a museum but at the New York Public Library. “The Splendor of the Word: Medieval and Renaissance Illuminated Manuscripts” is a breathtaking exhibition of some 100 works from the late 10th through the early 16th centuries featuring Gospel books, Bibles, liturgical, prayer, scientific, romantic, and astronomical books.

Other shows, such as the current exhibition at Lohin Geduld Gallery of works on paper, from the 1950s to the present, by Nicolas Carone (b. 1917; he has not shown in New York for decades), can suddenly appear again on the radar, as if from out of nowhere, and demand to be assessed.

Mr. Carone’s mixture of de Kooning-, Old Master-, and Greco-Roman-inspired works made up of nearly abstract figures, are rich and absorbing – a rhythmic tumble of classicism, eroticism, and ambiguity. Looking at his works, most of which, though fresh and alive, feel as if, half-baked, they had fallen straight out of mid-century, I could not help but think that here is an artist who is not anxious about what “must-see” exhibition is currently showing. Here is an artist focused on his work who, moving picture to picture, line by line, is taking his own sweet time.

My list of shows is by no means comprehensive. It is merely a nudge to get you out there before it is too late. Along the way, you will come across must-see shows of your own. When you do, spread the word. New York, as this season makes clear, thrives on competition as much as it does greatness.

Can’t-Miss Shows You Might Not Catch

“Memling’s Portraits,” an astonishing exhibition of 20 small, jewel-like paintings by the German Renaissance master Hans Memling, is possibly the best temporary exhibit ever mounted by the Frick Collection. It certainly won’t be coming around again anytime soon. If you miss it, you must ask yourself: Why, exactly, do I live in New York, anyway? (Frick Collection until December 31.)

“Vincent van Gogh: The Drawings,” a monumental, groundbreaking exhibition of approximately 120 works at the Metropolitan Museum, does not need more hype. See it. Love it. Tell your great-grandchildren about it. (Metropolitan Museum until December 31.)

“Prague: The Crown of Bohemia 1347-1437,” another stupendous show at the Met this fall, is a treasure trove of objects, sculpture, and paintings. This embarrassment of riches could be taken in as the over-the-top palate cleanser between “Fra Angelico” and “van Gogh.” (Metropolitan Museum until January 22.)

“Beyond the Visible: The Art of Odilon Redon,” the Museum of Modern Art’s beautiful grouping of approximately 130 of the artist’s works, is an intoxicating, dreamy show by a masterful visionary. “Redon” is not quite the exhibition this underrated and misunderstood artist deserves, but it is a great start. (Museum of Modern Art until January 23.)

“Fra Angelico” at the Met is as close to heaven on earth as you will find this season. Once you get your bearings in the exhibition’s confusing, sprawling installation, you will be struck by one sublime experience after another. Unfortunately, even this show could not bring us the Renaissance master’s greatest works of religious art (many of which are in Europe). (Metropolitan Museum until January 29.)

“The Splendor of the Word: Medieval and Renaissance Illuminated Manuscripts,” drawn entirely from the library’s holdings, is as important for its educational muscle as it is for its aesthetic pleasures. (New York Public Library until February 12.)

“The Imagery of Chess Revisited” is fascinating in part for the comparisons it makes possible. Often, it is the knight who defines each set: one of Calder’s is a cannon, a battering ram, and a simple horse; Tanguy’s, among his pure, geometric, vertical forms, is a leaning tower; one of Noguchi’s is part animal, part catapult, part plant. (Noguchi Museum until March 5.)

“Tree of Paradise: Jewish Mosaics From the Roman Empire,” a scholarly show of 21 Roman-period synagogue mosaics, including 12 from the sanctuary floor, and approximately 40 related artifacts (textiles, marble statues, gold jewelry, and ritual objects), is gorgeous and rich – a great show to share with children. (Brooklyn Museum until June 4.)