WILLIAM MERRITT CHASE Paintings and works on paper by one of the most celebrated American painters of the turn of the last century. Through Jan. 16. Museum of Fine Arts, 465 Huntington Ave. 617-267-9300. www.mfa.org

BEYOND WORDS: ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPTS IN BOSTON COLLECTIONS This three-venue exhibition displays medieval and Renaissance illustrations that appear in rare books held in local libraries and museums. The exhibition, which inaugurates the new home of Boston College’s McMullen Museum of Art, is also at Harvard’s Houghton Library and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. The most extensive selection is at the McMullen, with more than 180 exquisite works on display, many for the first time. Through Dec. 11. (At the Gardner, through Jan. 16). McMullen Museum of Art, 2101 Commonwealth Ave. 617-552-8587, artmuseum@bc.edu

FIRST LIGHT: A DECADE OF COLLECTING AT THE ICA An intelligent, visually stimulating show that presents highlights from the ICA’s 10-year-old permanent collection. Includes work by Kara Walker, Marisol, Eve Hesse, and Kai Althoff (pictured) among others. Through Jan. 4. Institute of Contemporary Art, 25 Harbor Shore Drive. 617-478-3100, www.icaboston.org

ROBERT FRANK: SIDEWAYS Photographs by the great Swiss-born photographer taken between 1947, when he moved to the United States, and 1961, when he held his first major museum show. Through Jan. 29. Bowdoin College Museum of Art, 9400 College St., Brunswick, Maine. 207-725-3275. www.bowdoin.edu/art-museum. SEBASTIAN SMEE