To say that a Cadillac Madame X is a special car is an understatement. The line started in 1930, which means that there are only a few models — let alone running ones — in the world today.

Also: the skateboarding play “Bowl EP,” the off-kilter divas Grace Jones and Janelle Monae; Jamie Lee Curtis’s early “Love Letters,” and more.

Before ‘Madame X,’ John Singer Sargent was even more dazzling© Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Sargent's “Madame X (Madame Pierre Gautreau)” (1883-1884).© Metropolitan Museum of Art ...