Until June 22nd 2008

Photographs, paintings and drawings by Patti Smith, a veteran rock performer, have gone on display at the Fondation Cartier, one of Paris’s most prestigious contemporary art galleries. Small black-and-white Polaroid pictures dominate the display, which hangs in a basement gallery furnished with armchairs and carpets to resemble a living room. Gravestones are a favourite subject, as is Ms Smith's connection with other artists and poets (Arthur Rimbaud and Robert Mapplethorpe are important influences). Reading and performances by Ms Smith complement the exhibition.

Fondation Cartier, 261 boulevard Raspail, Paris 75014. See the gallery's website.

Until June 30th 2008

Visitors to Paris this spring should not miss a splendid new exhibition on Marie Antoinette at the Grand Palais. The first large show in more than 50 years about the ill-fated queen, it traces her extraordinary life in displays that are both theatrical and evocative. The highlight is the section about the Petit Trianon, Marie Antoinette’s private court at Versaille, where she entertained friends away from the formal palace. Its atmosphere is conjured through musical scores and original furniture. The queen's final journey to the guillotine in 1793 is evoked in a dimly lit corridor, lined with brutal cartoons, poignant quotes from her letters and the chemise she wore in prison. “We wanted to give as complete a picture of her as possible,” the artistic director told Economist.com. Judging from the crowds at this show, it is a picture the French are keen to see.

Grand Palais, 1 Avenue Gén Eisenhower, 75008 Paris. Tel: +33 (0)1 44 13 17 30. Open: daily (except Tues), 10am-8pm (Wed until 10pm). See also the museum’s website.

Jean Crawford Adams, View from Auditorium, c. 1945

Until August 3rd 2008

Chicago has a thriving arts scene, but painting has often played second fiddle to music, dance and theatre. This thoughtful exhibition sets out to redress the balance, offering a century's worth of Chicago-based painters and work that ranges from figurative to abstract. Look out for Ed Paschke's eerie portrait of Leopold and Loeb, the famous Chicagoan murderers, and the artful 19th-century cartoons of Theodore L. Wust. Images of the city play a huge role in Richard Chance's forays into realism in the late 20th century, as well as in Jean Crawford Adams's abstract view of the skyline.