Van Gogh, Morandi and, yes, Babar, at New York museums

NEW YORK CITY — If you have the good fortune and a fat enough wallet to travel to New York this season, the museum lineup is as heady as ever. I won't twist the knife by talking too much about what you've missed (a juicy Louise Bourgeois retrospective at the Guggenheim and a J.M.W. Turner extravaganza at the Metropolitan came down in September). But be assured, the newly opened "Van Gogh and the Colors of the Night" at the Museum of Modern Art and "Giorgio Morandi 1890-1964" at the Met were more than enough to make me trade in my frequent-flier miles and impose on Manhattan friends' hospitality. An adorable look at the history of everyone's favorite elephant — "Drawing Babar: Early Drafts and Watercolors" at the Morgan Library — was simply frosting on the cake.

"Van Gogh and the Colors of the Night"

At many museums, Van Gogh's name, tossed in with a few other artists' and stirred, is a surefire recipe for a blockbuster. But the Museum of Modern Art's "Colors of the Night" wasn't meant to be that sort of exhausting, over-promoted blitz. For serious art lovers, as well as those just dipping a toe in the water, it's a dream show.

MOMA adjunct curator Joachim Pissarro (great-grandson of the painter Camille Pissarro) selected 23 paintings bound by a powerful theme — darkness — and assembled an exhibition with perfect pitch. Most of the paintings are thrilling, from Van Gogh's early icon "The Potato Eaters" through a number of his vibrant late masterpieces: "The Night Café," "The Sower," "The Dance Hall at Arles," "Starry Night over the Rhone" and MOMA's "Starry Night," the muse of the show. For Van Gogh, painting was part of a life-or-death struggle, and that urgency emanates from these canvases.

The electricity of Van Gogh's finest paintings has much to do with his keen perception of color, and in this work the artist was hooked by the challenge of recreating the shifting palette of night, in natural or artificial light. The paintings are supplemented with his related drawings and letters, as well as cases of poetry and literature that influenced his thinking and imagery. Just enough material to add depth, but not wear you down. The exhibit catalog is handsome and well-considered. If you can't get to the show, it's the next best thing.

"Colors of the Night" runs through Jan. 5 at MOMA, then travels to the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. 11 West 53 Street, 212-708-9400, www.moma.org.

"Giorgio Morandi, 1890-1964"

He's not a household name like Van Gogh, but among artists, this 20th-century Italian painter is revered. Morandi was sort of the European Zen master of still lifes. He painted simple arrangements of bottles and ordinary objects with a single-minded attention that seldom wavered. His desire was, he said, "to touch the depth, the essence of things."

"Giorgio Morandi, 1890-1964" at the Metropolitan Museum of Art is the first comprehensive survey of the artist's work in this country — and a revelation. Here we get an introduction to the full range of his production, including rare self-portraits and early landscapes as Morandi learned his craft. Early traces of Cezanne and di Chirico soon slip away, and the remarkable evolution of Morandi's muted still lifes proceeds. The objects flatten, cluster, elongate, sprawl and finally, near the end of the artist's life, seem to dissolve like ghosts.

This extraordinary show continues at the Met through Dec. 14, then travels to Italy to the Museo d'Arte Moderna di Bologna. 1000 Fifth Avenue, 212-535-7710, www.metmuseum.org.