This week’s picks include programs and exhibitions that bring new and wide-ranging perspectives to the fore. Come and see for yourself:

From left: Playing Polvo with Michel Groisman at MoMA Studio: Breathe with Me; Playing Sirva-Se in MoMA’s Sculpture Garden with Michel Groisman. Photos by Sarah Kennedy

We are entering the fourth week of MoMA Studio: Breathe with Me and want to share some of the highlights of the artist-led workshops that have activated the space so far. Each one revealed the ways in which Lygia Clark’s work continues to resonate with contemporary artists and their hopes to engage the public in experiences of art that are physical and social in nature.

Installation view of Alibis: Sigmar Polke 1963–2010, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, April 19–August 3, 2014. © 2014 The Estate of Sigmar Polke/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn, Germany

Within the arsenal of unusual and experimental techniques on clamorous display in Alibis: Sigmar Polke 1963–2010, the artist’s prints are notable for their sly celebration of the halftone dot pattern, the tonal register that has enabled images to be reproduced in newspaper photographs, magazine ads, consumer packaging, etc. since the late 19th century.

Cover of Alibis: Sigmar Polke 1963-2010, published by the Museum of Modern Art, New York

Alibis: Sigmar Polke 1963–2010 is the first comprehensive Sigmar Polke retrospective to cover the broad range of mediums he worked in from 1963 until his death in 2010. The accompanying catalogue is as comprehensive and diverse as the show,

From cowboy icons to pioneering musicians to art world superstars, this week at MoMA is all about the people who inspire us in whatever medium they pursue.

After a long and cold winter in New York, I found myself waiting outside the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco on a warm and sunny day. As I was waiting for my appointment with the museum’s Education and Access Manager, I was already comparing San Francisco with New York, and my hometown of Istanbul, in terms of accessibility and whether museums in these cities are relevant to people with disabilities.

New York–born actor/director John Cassavetes (1929–1989) began working in early episodic television while directing his first feature film, Shadows, which officially opened in March 1961 in New York City. Concurrent with the production of Shadows, Cassavetes starred in and directed 27 episodes of the early television crime drama Johnny Staccato (which was filmed in Los Angeles but set in a Greenwich Village jazz club), in which he played the title role, a jazz pianist/private detective.

Hans Hirschmueller in The Merchant of Four Seasons. 1971. West Germany. Directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder

These notes accompany screenings of Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s </em>The Merchant of Four Seasons</a> on May 28, 29, and 30.</p>

Rainer Werner Fassbinder would have been 69 this coming Saturday. Tragically, however, he died in 1982, just days after his 37th birthday. Somehow, he managed to cram 44 directorial credits and 43 acting credits into this all-too-brief lifespan. In the process, Fassbinder managed to become Germany’s most noteworthy filmmaker since the golden age of Expressionism

Since today (Memorial Day) is the unofficial start of summer, we’re going to keep things brief. While a visit to MoMA probably won’t improve your tan, it can certainly be transformative,