Top five shows: Dec 13–26, 2012

"Inventing Abstraction, 1910–1925” at the Museum of Modern Art
This show surveys the development of abstract art a century ago, arguably the single greatest stylistic shift in art history since the Renaissance. Sun 23–Apr 15

“American Legends: From Calder to O’Keeffe”  at the Whitney Museum of American Art
Works by 18 early-20th-century American artists are presented as a series of miniretrospectives. Jospeh Cornell and Edward Hopper are a couple of the big names on view. Sat 22–Nov 30

Ann Hamilton, The Event of a Thread at the Park Avenue Armory
The main element of this installation is a field of swings, prompting memories of playgrounds past. Through Jan 6

Christian Marclay, The Clock at the Museum of Modern Art
Marclay’s celebrated 24-hour video, in which movie-land snippets of clocks and watches chronologically depict the minutes of an entire day, makes its return, this time to MoMA. Fri 21–Jan 21

“Raw/Cooked: Duron Jackson” at the Brooklyn Museum
Meditating on the nature of institutional settings, Jackson’s multimedia installation evokes a private library or reading room, while his blackboard paintings depict the floor plans of correctional facilities like Rikers Island. Through Feb 10