Best Of Tucson®

Best Art Museum

Tucson Museum of Art

TMA has been serving up some rather familiar art, but it wins kudos for making that art fresh again. It's not easy to say anything new about Ansel Adams, especially in this Ansel-maniac town. But the museum's Ansel Adams: A Legacy was a triumph, a wonderful show that demonstrated just how much Adams tinkered with nature—and his technique—to get the images he wanted. The exhibit showed off late Adams prints—high-key black-and-whites—that departed from his earlier, more subtly toned prints. Ansel was followed by Andy, another icon, in Andy Warhol Portfolios: Life and Legends. Its silkscreen prints spanned 40 years—and most of the museum's walls—and proved conclusively that Warhol was more than just an astute interpreter of the zeitgeist, 1960s and otherwise. In fact, he was a gifted artist, an excellent draftsman and a brilliant colorist.

Runners up:

2. Museum of Contemporary Art

265 S. Church Ave.

624-5019; www.moca-tucson.org

3. Center for Creative Photography

1030 N. Olive Road

621-7968; creativephotography.org