Jackson Pollock, Mural, 1943, © 2019 The Pollock-Krasner Foundation/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

A masterpiece of abstraction as well as expressive works depicting the human body are both on display in current exhibits at the Museum of Fine Arts. In Mural: Jackson Pollock/Katharina Grosse, large-scale pieces by each artist—one a legendary mid-20th century American painter, the other a contemporary master from Germany—are offered for comparison. In contrast, a late Boston-based artist gets his due in Hyman Bloom: Matters of Life and Death, which highlights dozens of paintings and drawings that dramatically and colorfully deal with the decaying or decayed human form.