The history of art spans more than 4,500 years and all continents, but my five top picks from the cornucopia of exhibits this fall in D-FW all deal only with the past century in Europe and America.

Nasher Sculpture Center: 'The Nature of Arp'

The Nasher finally returns to its roots in modern sculpture and taps its scholarly curator Catherine Craft to mount a major international exhibition devoted to the Dada artist Jean (Hans) Arp. You'll want to buy the superb catalog from this, the most important exhibition of the fall. Sept. 15-Jan. 6 at the Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas. nashersculpturecenter.org.

The Accommodations of Desire is included in the Salvador Dalí exhibition at the Meadows Museum. The show features a variety of tiny paintings by the surrealist artist.

Meadows Museum: 'Dalí: Poetics of the Small, 1929-1936'

Three years ago, the Meadows purchased a diminutive masterpiece by the surrealist Salvador Dalí. Now, the museum has scoured the world to find all the tiny Dalí paintings it could from the artist's best years and brought them together. You might want to bring a magnifying glass. Sept. 9-Dec. 9 at the Meadows Museum, Dallas. meadowsmuseumdallas.org.

Dallas Museum of Art: 'Cult of the Machine: Precisionism and American Art'

For this national touring exhibition devoted to America's mania for the machine, DMA associate curator of American art Sue Canterbury pulled pieces from the museum's own collection to pair with it. She brings painting, photography, decorative art and even cars together in what promises to be a superb survey of America's pre-digital obsession with technology. Sept. 16-Jan. 9 at the Dallas Museum of Art. dma.org.

Charles Sheeler's Rolling Power is part of the Dallas Museum of Art exhibit "Cult of the Machine: Precisionism and American Art."

Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth: 'Laurie Simmons: Big Camera/Little Camera'

The Modern's superb curator Andrea Karnes will focus on the American photographs of Laurie Simmons for a full-scale retrospective. What's not to like? A woman curator brings light to a woman photographer in the gender-equality era. Oct. 14-Jan. 27 at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth. themodern.org.

SMU's Pollock Gallery: 'Emerita: A Retrospective of Debora Hunter and Mary Vernon'

Two of the dominating art professors at Southern Methodist University's Meadows School of the Arts have recently retired, and the museum is celebrating their works: paintings by Mary Vernon and the photographs of Debora Hunter. Don't miss it. Sept. 7-Oct. 20 at SMU's Meadows School of the Arts' Pollock Gallery, Dallas. smu.edu/Meadows.

Rick Brettell is the founding director of the Edith O'Donnell Institute of Art History at the University of Texas at Dallas and is a former director of the Dallas Museum of Art.