Review Roundup

• The Nassau County Museum of Art, "Pop Art: A Critical History": "In serious art museums, curators are supposed to have something new to say about a subject before doing a show, some reason for gathering together prized artworks. This is not the case, unfortunately, at the Nassau County Museum of Art, where exhibitions too often are cobbled together more with an eye toward getting people through the door than with any real educational purpose. Curatorial issues aside, the museum staff should still be held accountable to the highest levels of professionalism; the Nassau County museum falls short. I won’t elaborate on the many misstatements and errors in the exhibition catalog, but suffice it to say that this document is not worth the glossy paper it is printed on." Harsh! [Benjamin Genocchio/NYTimes]

• Andover's Addison Gallery of American Art has a show on mid-century California "cool" art and design. The show was organized by the Orange County Museum of Art. "Angst-free, not monumental, anti-grandiose: California cool is laid back yet cleanly articulated, impersonal yet intimate, strict yet hedonistic, and seriously playful." [Ken Johnson/NYTimes]

• A Japanese print show is up at the Brooklyn Museum. "It is not a masterpiece show, though there are some terrific works in it." [Ken Johnson/NYTimes]

• The Japan Society is showing 19th Century lacquerware by Shibata Zeshin, the biggest-every show of the artist's work in this country. "The word 'genius' in the exhibition's title is for once fully appropriate."[James Gardner/NY Sun]

• Coming to the Morgan is the first retrospective of Philip Guston drawings in 20 years. "This scheduling decision underlines the Morgan’s intention to entice a wider and younger audience, one interested in contemporary art." [Carol Vogel/NYTimes]

• Hartford's Wadsworth Antheneum Museum of Art has some Impressionism on offer. The show comes from the Royal Academy of Arts in London via the Phillips Collection in D.C. "More than just a collection of pretty pictures, the exhibition has an interesting social story to tell. It chronicles the transformation of the French coastline into a fashionable tourist destination." [Benjamin Genocchio/NYTimes]

• The Bard Graduate Center is showing a surprisingly colorful exhibit of Shaker design. [NYTimes]

• The Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art in New Paltz, "Intimacies of Distant War" looks at art inspired by the Iraq War. [NYTimes]

• Whitney Biennial: "We may be getting only Beuys-Lite, Acconci-Lite, and Haacke-Lite, but art is back on track." Really? [John Perreault/Artopia]

• Chicago's Field Museum is showing "Mythic Creatures: Dragons, Unicorns & Mermaids," another kid-magnet exhibit that began at NYC's Natural History museum. One highlight is the skull of an extinct pigmy elephant that was discovered by the ancient Greeks, who believed it to be a cyclops. [Chicago Tribune]