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MILTON AVERY—Associated American Artists, 605 Fifth Ave. at 49th St. First showing of the innocent etchings and woodcuts of an artist usually identified as a painter. Through Nov. 9. More Avery is on view at Grace Borgenicht Gallery, 1018 Madison Ave. at 79th St.—16 paintings, deceptively simple, cautiously colored, mostly agreeable. Through Nov. 23.
MUSEUMS
GUGGENHEIM—Fifth Ave. at 89th St. More than 60 oils by Francis Bacon, the myopic English master of howling, human agony. Yammering popes, chittering baboons, keening sides of beef hang alongside the terrifying visceral Three Studies for a Crucifixion. Through Jan. 12.
METROPOLITAN—Fifth Ave. at 82nd St. Most of its galleries are closed for air-conditioning installation, so the Met is playing it cool with a long-term exhibition of Fabergé bric-a-brac. The jeweled Easter eggs, precious parasol handles and assorted semiprecious whatnots would look more at home in Tiffany's down the street. Also on view: the Met's permanent collection of European and U.S. paintings.
FINCH COLLEGE MUSEUM OF ART—62 East 78th St. Forty Venetian paintings of the 16th century, including works by Titian, Tintoretto, Bassano and Veronese. Among the Titians: a frieze painted between 1560 and 1569 to decorate his own home. Through Dec. 15.
MUSEUM OF MODERN ART—11 West 53rd St. Forty canvases, dating from 1940 to 1963, by Hans Hofmann, the panjandrum of abstract expressionists. Through Dec. 1. Also at the Modern Museum: Soft-focus sculpture of the rebel Italian, Medardo Rosso, who worked in wax and accused Rodin of snitching his ideas. In rejecting the notion that sculpture is petrified people, Rosso often gave his glowing waxworks a life that has outlived the subjects. Through Nov. 23.
MUSEUM OF PRIMITIVE ART—15 West 54th St. More than 50 examples of sculpture of primitive peoples, including the figure of a 6th century Mayan priest, one of the few examples of Mayan wood carving to have survived termites and jungle rot. Through Nov. 10.
WHITNEY—22 West 54th St. The first retrospective show since Futurist Joseph Stella's death in 1946 fills two floors with his paintings, collages and drawings. Among 100 works is his most ambitious, New York Interpreted, a five-canvas panorama that glows with dark lapidary lights. Through Dec. 4. Complementing the retrospective, a show at Schoelkopf Gallery, 825 Madison Ave. at 69th St., offers paintings, gouaches, drawings and collages from all periods of Stella's career. Through Nov. 16.
BROOKLYN MUSEUM—Eastern Parkway. Asian art on loan from Collector Ernest Erickson, including Islamic ceramics, Indian miniatures, Nepalese, Thai and Cambodian sculpture, two pages from an 11th century Buddhist palm-leaf manuscript. Through Jan. 12.