Must-see shows in new year

Given the breadth of the Bay Area’s visual arts scene, much of value is sure to be left off a short list of 2019 highlights.

So I’m listing here five selections from among art museum exhibitions that are the product of long gestation and that I am putting on my calendar with a star. You should, too.

Show Me as I Want to Be Seen: With the recent retirement of veteran chief curator Renny Pritikin, the newly named program staff members at the Contemporary Jewish Museum will be closely watched. Assistant curator Natasha Matteson’s first outing looks at the work of the gender-bending Surrealist artists Claude Cahun (1894-1954) and Marcel Moore (1892-1972) in the context of art by 10 contemporary artists. Feb. 7-July 7, Contemporary Jewish Museum, 736 Mission St., S.F. 415-655-7800. www.the cjm.org

Monet: The Late Years: By the time this exhibition opens, it will have been two years since the Legion of Honor presented “Monet: The Early Years,” which looked at the work of the most famous Impressionist painter from a time before Impressionism. Now the spotlight pivots to the period (1913-26) after the artist’s participation in the key art movement of the 19th century. Included are some 50 paintings, including more than 20 of his popular images of water lilies. Feb. 16-May 27. Legion of Honor, 100 34th Ave., S.F. 415-750-3600. https://legionofhonor.famsf.org

Hans Hofmann: The Nature of Abstraction: The list of famous painters influenced by Hofmann is so long that New York’s Museum of Modern Art once mounted a show called “Hans Hofmann and His Students.” It included 51 artists of high reputation. Curator Emerita Lucinda Barnes returns to BAMPFA with the goal of assembling the definitive exhibition since the artist’s death in 1966. Feb. 27-July 21. UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, 2155 Center St., Berkeley. 510-642-0808. https://bampfa. org

Andy Warhol — From A to B and Back Again: Believe it or not, this is the first retrospective of the ubiquitous artist’s work in more than 30 years. Organized and presented first at the Whitney Museum of American Art, the show was well received in New York as a re-evaluation of an artist we thought we had pegged. May 19-Sept. 2. San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 151 Third St., S.F. 415-357-4000. www.sfmoma.org Early Rubens: In the 16th century, if you really wanted to impress, the art on your wall would be a grand tapestry on some heroic or mythological theme. The painter Peter Paul Rubens took that idea and ran with it once he had finished his training and a long stint in Italy. Between 1609 and 1621, the period covered by this exhibition of 30 paintings and 20 drawings, he set up a studio in Antwerp, Belgium, for the production of flamboyant, mural-size history paintings that could compete with tapestries, thus establishing his fame. April 6-Sept. 8. Legion of Honor, 100 34th Ave., S.F. 415-750-3600. https://legionofhonor.fam sf.org

Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco Claude Monet’s “Wisteria” will be among dozens of the artist’s paintings that will be part of the “Monet: The Late Years” exhibition at the Legion of Honor.

Robert Gerhardt and Denis Y. Suspitsyn / Artists Rights Society “Ethel Scull 36 Times” will be among Andy Warhol’s pieces at SFMOMA.

Don Ross / © Estate of Claude Cahun “Untitled” and other works by Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore will be at the Contemporary Jewish Museum.