The beginning of a new year is traditionally a time for looking ahead, and despite the current economy — or perhaps because of it —there’s no better place to do that than in the art world. As ever, the lineup for New York museum shows in 2009 is really mouth-watering: We can look forward to Jenny Holzer at the Whitney in March; Roxy Paine on the Mets roof in April; Aernout Mik at MoMA in May; Yinka Shonibare at the Brooklyn Museum and James Ensor at MoMA, both in June; and a major show of contemporary art from Pakistan at Asia Society as well as William Blake at the Morgan Library, both in September — all in addition to our top 5 choices listed here. And the most exciting prospect is that by the end of the year we’ll be reflecting on a whole bunch of other shows that turned out to be at least as good as these.

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