There is also plenty of evidence to suggest that the lovely Antea was not a real person at all, and that the painting is Parmigianino’s attempt to portray ideal beauty. Given the profound psychological presence the young woman exudes, though, few spectators seem content with this suggestion. Indeed, portraiture itself reached new heights in this picture, and it is this power—of Antea’s gaze and the palpability of her personality—that makes this “solo” show so rewarding.

How the Other Half Lived
It seems almost unbelievable that “WACK!: Art and the Feminist Revolution,” which premiered at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles this past summer, is billed as “the first comprehensive historical exhibition to examine the international foundations and legacy of feminist art.” But that’s precisely what it is.

Some visitors to the show, on view at P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center from February 17 through May 10, may be too young to realize the epoch-shifting significance of the work it features, or to remember when female artists were uniformly taken less seriously than their male counterparts. The discrimination that spawned feminist art between the mid-1960s and the beginning of the 1980s has dimmed somewhat, but the anger and energy that inspired the artists are undeniable in this show.

“WACK!” takes a broad approach, featuring 120 artists from around the globe and works from all the artistic disciplines (and hybrids thereof) that fin-de-modernism artists worked in. Included here are pieces by Marina Abramovic, Eleanor Antin, Louise Bourgeois, Judy Chicago, Niki de Saint Phalle, Eva Hesse, Mary Kelly, Ana Mendieta, Yoko Ono, Adrian Piper, Carolee Schneemann, and Hannah Wilke: a veritable Who’s Who of feminist artists whom it’s embarrassing to remember once had to “know their place.” “WACK!” (its title is a slightly awkward joke meant to recall the acronyms of various women’s activism groups that flourished in the ’60s and ’70s) is not only a historical survey but rather a joyous celebration of the shift that occurred when women demanded acknowledgment. How could it be anything else? Imagine the present-day art world without women artists, writers, curators, museum directors, and gallerists. What a ghastly thought!

Masters of Puppets
It’s always delightful to discover an art form you never knew existed, and that is precisely what awaits most visitors at “Enchanted Stories: Chinese Shadow Theater in Shaanxi,” at the China Institute Gallery from January 31 to May 10. Shadow theater is still a hugely popular folk medium in China, but this show focuses on what many agree was its golden age, during the late Qing Dynasty (1644–1912) in Shaanxi Province. Brilliantly colored two-dimensional puppets, exquisitely cut from translucent animal hide, depict the heroes and deities of China’s past in miniature. Traditionally puppeteers operate them from behind a screen—that experience is simulated in the light-box presentations here—but an exhibition like this gives viewers a chance to admire the remarkable craftsmanship of the puppet makers. In fact, these wonderfully preserved puppets from the Shaanxi Art Gallery in Xi’an, regarded as exemplars of Qing Dynasty art, are similar in their technical sophistication, finesse, and ornamentation to contemporary fine porcelain and embroidery.

Curated by Chen Shanqiao, Li Hongjun, and Zhao Nong, world-renowned scholars in Chinese folk art, this show arranges thematically some one hundred examples of art by shadow-puppet makers to present dramatic scenes from classic plays, celestial deities and underworld demons, stock characters from courtiers to clowns, and stage settings, many of which have mechanically moving parts. The highlight is perhaps the section featuring comic-horror representations of justice and retribution in the Buddhist underworld of popular imagination.

It may seem odd that this traditional art form still holds such fascination in the digital 21st century, but a visit to this exhibition swiftly demonstrates how the famous folktales and legends that the puppets present still inform the customs and practices integral to daily Chinese life.