The artist investigates the blurring between the local and the global, Africa and the Western world—a tension that is equally evident in his biography.

One of the first works a visitor to the Gallery of Lost Art encounters is a drawing by Willem de Kooning. Most would not immediately think of this drawing as “lost,” or even worthy of art historical consideration in its own right.

A postcard-sized photograph of the cave paintings at Lascaux is the first image in Trevor Paglen’s exhibition at Metro Pictures. In what is today southwestern France, early humans applied mineral pigments to walls of stone, bringing forth images of animals, human figures, and symbols that remain enigmatic over 17,000 years later.

The exhibition Mickalene Thomas: Origin of the Universe derives its title from Gustave Courbet’s “Origine du monde”(1866), a cheeky, erotic painting of a naked woman lying on a bed, legs spread to reveal a full-frontal view.