THE MUSEUM ISSUE
This comprehensive guide explores museum exhibitions across the country throughout 2020
Our special Museum Issue begins with a comprehensive introduction highlighting major American art exhibitions across the country throughout 2020, followed by previews of major upcoming shows.
In Just Kids, her memoir of her life with photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, Patti Smith writes,“where does it all lead? What will become of us? These were our young questions, and young answers were revealed. It leads to each other.we become ourselves.” Mapplethorpe became a photographer whose work caused a sensation in the ’80s and ’90s, ranging from subtle but erotic still lifes of flowers, portraits of Smith and images of the gay S&M scene of Newyork. The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in Newyork City is presenting its second of two comprehensive exhibitions examining the “sustained legacy” of Mapplethorpe’s work, through January 5. Implicit Tensions:
Mapplethorpe Now showcases his work in the museum’s collection as well as that of other contemporary artists “who offer expansive approaches to exploring identity through photographic portraiture.” Smith—a singer, songwriter and author— continues to perform around the world.
Afamous couple from decades before “Kids,” famed for being themselves, was Frida Kahlo (1907-1954) and Diego Rivera (1886-1957).The exhibition, Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, and Mexican Modernism continues its American tour at the North Carolina Museum of Art through January 19; Portland Art Museum in Oregon, June 13 through September 27; and the Denver Art Museum in Colorado, October 25 through January 17, 2021. “Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera are often credited as having played a crucial role in establishing a Mexican avant-garde.their body of work often incorporated portrayals of mexicanidad, an identity born of Mexico’s ancient cultures and its colonial past that projected a visionary future.the exhibition will showcase 13 works by Diego…in addition, the exhibition will explore his famous murals that incorporated social and political messages aimed at reunifying Mexicans after the revolution.the exhibition will include more than 20 of Frida’s paintings and drawings inspired by personal experience, Mexican folk art and a world view that embraced contradictions, often called magical realism.”
Most of the works in the exhibition are from the Jacques and Natasha Gelman Collection and include works by Lola Álvarez Bravo, Gunther Gerzso, María Izquierdo and Carlos Mérida.
Rivera also figures in the exhibition Vida Americana: Mexican Muralists
Remake American Art, 1925-1945 at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, February 17 through May 17.The leading Mexican muralists—josé Clemente Orozco, Rivera and David Alfaro Siqueiros— were among those addressing social justice and national life in public art.american and Mexican artists exchanged visits and ideas.
The museum notes that the muralists “inspired American artists both to create epic narratives about American history and everyday life, and to use their art to protest economic, social and racial injustices.”
Frida Kahlo is the solo subject of the
exhibition Frida Kahlo 2020:Works on Loan from the Dolores Olmedo Museum
Collection. It will be held at the Cleve Carney Museum of Art – College of Du Page, Glen Ellyn, Illinois, June 1 through August 31. “This comprehensive presentation of the life and works of the artist Frida Kahlo will feature 26 original pieces as well as an immersive historical exhibit that provides a framework of the life, circumstances and events that led to Kahlo becoming one of the most important painters of the 20th century and of our time.”
An American contemporary of
Rivera is being recognized in the traveling exhibition Agnes Pelton: Desert
Transcendentalist, which continue sat the
New Mexico Museum of Art in Santa Fe,
New Mexico, through January 5; the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, March 13 through June 21; and the Palm Springs
Art Museum in California, august 1 through November 29. Pelton (1881-1961) “is most celebrated for her abstract compositions that reflect her interest in esoteric subjects, including numerology and Agni Yoga with its principal focus on fire as a guiding force.the exhibition of more than 40 works from various private and museum collections sheds light on Pelton’s artistic contributions to American modernism, a movement more commonly associated with artists such as Georgia
O’keeffe (1887-1986) in the Southwest and Marsden Hartley (1877-1943) in New England. Furthermore, Pelton’s interest in spirituality and abstraction links her to a larger international movement that is only now being properly studied and contextualized.”
At the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston,
Women Take the Floor is an exhibition that literally takes over a floor of its Art of the Americas Wing. Running through May 3, 2021, the exhibition “challenges the dominant history of 20th-century American art by focusing on the overlooked and underrepresented work and stories of women artists.this reinstallation advocates for diversity, inclusion and gender equity in museums, the art world and beyond. With more than 200 works drawn primarily from the MFA’S collection, the exhibition is organized into seven thematic galleries. Interactive programming creates a dynamic space that welcomes visitor participation, and new rotations of artwork introduced over the run of the exhibition ensure that new voices and perspectives are available on each return visit. “The thematic exhibition coincides with the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote, as well as the MFA’S 150th anniversary—a yearlong celebration focused on enhancing the power of art and artists, honoring the past and reimagining the future.”
The Gibbes Museum of Art in Charleston, South Carolina, focuses in on Central to Their Lives: Southern Women Artists in the
Johnson Collection, January 17 through May 3.“Spanning the decades between the late 1890s and early 1960s, Central to Their Lives brings together for the first time the paintings and sculptures of 42 diverse women artists who made significant contributions to the art of the South.this exhibition examines the challenges female artists faced during a period in which women’s social, cultural and political roles were being redefined and reinterpreted.” The exhibition is organized by the Johnson Collection in Spartanburg, South Carolina.
The Tucson Museum of Art in Arizona presents I’m Every Woman:
Representations of Women on Paper through September 6.“Juxtaposing a range of works that depict women from various periods and backgrounds, this exhibition reveals artists’ diverse intentions when representing women.artists may capture a moment of tranquility or intimacy, honor a family member, or propagandize the female form. In each work of art, they could be idolized or criticized, respected or ridiculed.this exhibition encourages exploration into various representations of women, about who they depict, why they were created and their significance in today’s world.”
The Wichita Art Museum in Kansas, takes a different view of women in What She Wore: Portraiture, Fashion, and Femininity, an exhibition running through February 16.
“What She Wore features 19th- and 20th-century portraits of women from the permanent collection, wearing everything from evening gowns to shirtdresses. Each portrait explores different ideals and conceptions of femininity, urging us to—in the words of Coco Chanel— ‘look for the woman in the dress. If there is no woman, there is no dress.’” Two women photographers are receiving major retrospectives this year—the first in 50 years at the Museum of Modern Art for Dorothea Lange (1895-1965), and the first ever retrospective for Anne Brigman (1869-1950) at Grey Art Gallery at Newyork University.
Anne Brigman:avisionary in Modern
Photography, runs April 21 through
July 11.The gallery notes,“although the term ‘feminist art’ was not coined until nearly 70 years after Brigman made her first photographs, she was able to redefine her place as a woman in society and establish her role as an important forerunner in the field.”there will be 115 works in the exhibition which is accompanied by a 400-page catalog.
Dorothea Lange:words & Pictures opens February 9 at the Museum of Modern Art and runs through May 2.“In her landmark 1939 photobook An American Exodus—a central focus of the show—lange experiments with combining words and pictures to convey the human impact of Dust Bowl migration. Conceived in collaboration with her husband, agricultural economist Paul Taylor, the book weaves together field notes, folk song lyrics, newspaper excerpts and observations from contemporary sociologists. These are accompanied by a chorus of first-person quotations from the sharecroppers, displaced families and migrant workers at the center of her pictures.”
Georgia O’keeffe: Living Modern
continues its national tour at the
Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach, Florida, through February 2.“This exhibition addresses how Georgia O’keeffe proclaimed her progressive, independent lifestyle through a self-crafted public persona, using her art, her clothing and the way she posed for the camera. Early on, she fashioned a signature style of dress that dispensed with ornamentation, which evolved in her years in New York— when a black-and-white palette dominated much of her art and dress—and then her time in New Mexico, where her art and clothing changed in response to the colors of the Southwestern landscape.”
The Westmoreland Museum of American Art in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, presents Simple Pleasures:the Art of Doris
Lee September 12 through November
29. New York gallerist Deedee Wigmore represents the estate of Doris Lee (19051983) one of the most prominent painters of the depression era. She was a leader in the Woodstock, New York, art community and her paintings were exhibited in the first Whitney Biennial exhibition in 1932.
Lee painted representational murals at the Washington, D.C., post office building. Her work became more stylized in the ’40s and ’50s and she produced abstract paintings in the ’60s.the National Museum of Women in the Arts notes,“throughout her career, Doris Lee sought to portray everyday, contemporary American life in a style that was easily understandable to viewers.”
Frances (“Fanny”) Flora Bond Palmer (1812-1876), whose images are not well known, emerges from public obscurity in the exhibition Fanny Palmer:the Artist Behind
Currier & Ives’ Greatest Prints at the Michele and Donald D’amour Museum of Fine Arts in Springfield, Massachusetts, through February 9.“While working behind the scenes for the American lithography firm Currier & Ives, Palmer designed more than 200 prints that described American life and captured the nation’s imagination.today, Palmer’s scenes of country living, outdoor recreation, national progress, and newsworthy events continue
to rank among the most popular lithographs produced by Currier & Ives.thanks to recent scholarship on the artist’s life and work, Palmer’s important contributions to the history of American art are finally being recognized.”
The Dixon Museum and Gardens in Memphis,tennessee, presents Augusta
Savage: Renaissance Woman January 19 through March 22.Augusta Savage (18921962) was a leader in the Harlem Renaissance and, according to the museum,“she worked tirelessly to challenge art galleries and museums to recognize black artists. Savage’s work as an educator and activist in the Harlem community galvanized a younger generation of African American artists…the exhibition re-examines Savage’s place in the history of American sculpture and positions her as a leading figure who broke down the barriers she and her students encountered while seeking to participate fully in the international art world.”
Jacob Lawrence:the American Struggle will be shown at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Newyork June 2 through September 7 after its showing at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts, January 18 through April 26. Lawrence (1917-2000) created his series Struggle: From the History of the American
People (1954-1956) during the height of
“the modern civil rights era. Lawrence’s 30 intimate panels interpret pivotal moments in the American Revolution and the early decades of the republic between 1770 and 1817 and, as he wrote,‘depict the struggles of a people to create a nation and their attempt to build a democracy.’”
Betye Saar, who is 93, is featured in two major exhibitions: Betye Saar:the Legends of Black Girl’s Window at MOMA through January 4 and Betye Saar: Call and
Response at Los Angeles County Museum of Art through April 5. MOMA notes,
“After nearly a decade of focused work in printmaking, artist Betye Saar created her autobiographical assemblage Black Girl’s
Window in 1969.This exhibition explores the relation between her experimental print practice and the new artistic language debuted in that famous work, tracing themes of family, history, and mysticism, which have been at the core of Saar’s work from its earliest days. Celebrating the recent acquisition of 42 rare, early works on paper, this is the first dedicated examination of Saar’s work as a printmaker.” LACMA explains, “Saar is not as well known as her talents deserve, however, no doubt largely because she is a black woman who came of age in the 1960s outside of New York City.”the exhibition explores the relationship of her many sketchbooks to her finished work, tracing the span of her career.
The Kalamazoo Institute of Arts in Michigan also explores Resilience: African American Artists As Agents of Change through February 2. Drawn from the institute’s collection, the exhibition “demonstrates to our community the KIA’S 95-year-long history and commitment of collecting influential and diverse art. Centered around social justice,
Resilience highlights the common threads that connect us all as human beings, in an effort to open the door to change.”
The Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of
Art in Hartford, Connecticut, presents
Afrocosmologies:american Reflections through January 20.“Alongside artists of the late19th century, contemporary artists define new ideas about spirituality, identity, and the environment in ways that move beyond traditional narratives of black Christianity. In dialogue, these works acknowledge a continuing body of beliefs—a cosmology— that incorporates the centrality of nature, ritual, and relationships between the human and the divine. Emerging from the rich religious and aesthetic traditions of West
Africa and the Americas, these works present a dynamic cosmos of influences that shape contemporary art.” ‘A
wakened inyou’:the Collection of Dr.
Constance E. Clayton features “a gift of 76 works by African American artists from the collection of American educator and arts advocate Constance E. Clayton.” It will be shown at the Pennsylvania Academy of the
Fine Arts in Philadelphia, February 21 through July 12.“Throughout her career,” the museum notes, “Dr. Constance E. Clayton implemented her platform not only to further educational opportunities for students but also to highlight African American artists and their contributions to the wider scope of American art history.”
TThe Portland Art Museum in Oregon is presenting the retrospective Art and Race Matters:the Career of Robert Colescott February 15 through May 17.The museum explains that Colescott (1925-2009) “made his mark in the 1970s with a series of deconstructed art-historical masterpieces that challenged taboos around racial stereotyping.” Colescott said,“i was one of the first to use appropriation in a way that might be called postmodern…but most artists who appropriate do it as some sort of homage to an artist they admire. Mine was no homage. I wanted to dominate that other artist.” Various movements from impressionism to abstraction are featured in several museums this year.
The Brandywine River Museum in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, is showing America’s
Impressionism: Echoes of a Revolution, October 17 through January 10, 2021.“The exhibition endeavors to explore more fully a redefinition of American impressionism as a practice less intent on mimicking the French style than on creating an equally independent movement in this country. Of key concern is the belated arrival of impressionism in America—largely introduced in a major Newyork exhibition spearheaded by the Parisian art dealer Paul Durand-ruel in 1886.Whereas French Impressionism burst onto the Paris scene with a shocking exhibition in 1874, in the United States, the style arrived after more than a decade of discussion and debate here and abroad.the exhibition endeavors to explore more fully a redefinition of American impressionism as a practice less intent on mimicking the French style than on creating an equally independent movement in this country.”
The Blanton Museum of Art in Austin, Texas, hosts Expanding Abstraction: Pushing the Boundaries of Painting in the
Americas, 1958-1980, June 21 through August 30.“In the early-20th century, artists began exploring abstract, nonrepresentational forms for the first time and significantly changed the language of painting. Several decades later, abstraction continued to evolve robustly, as its practitioners experimented with new materials and techniques. Dripping, pouring, staining and even slinging paint became common, as did the use of non-traditional media such as acrylic and industrial paints. Artists also challenged the flat, rectangular format—long the standard in painting—to create texture and dimensionality, blurring the lines between painting and sculpture and foregrounding the object’s materiality.the Blanton’s collection is particularly strong in painting of the 1960s and 70s from both the United States and Latin America. Expanding
Abstraction will explore how painting was transformed in these decades.”
The Dixon Gallery and Gardens in Memphis,tennessee, presents two exhibitions on abstraction: Abstract Expressionism:a Social Revolution, Selections from the Haskell Collection and Friedel Dzubas:the Ira A. Lipman Family Collection, both through January 5.The former examines the well-known names in the movement and “examines a group of artists whose works express the legacy of Abstract Expressionism and the effect it had on the art of the late
20th century.the work of artists like Sam Francis, Judy Pfaff, Robert Rauschenberg and Frank Stella signifies the indistinct boundaries between art movements and builds on the complexity of mark making established by the earlier generation.” Dzubas (1915-1994) “is frequently referenced alongside other artists in the Newyork School, like Helen Frankenthaler, Morris Louis and Kenneth Noland. Nevertheless, his works are distinct among his peers. His output is rich in expressive paintings with an intense emphasis on both the saturation of color and the actual texture of the surface, a quality that distinguishes his work from his contemporaries.”
The Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts, showcases Hans Hofmann:the Nature of Abstraction through January 5.The exhibition of works by the famed artist and teacher includes “paintings and works on paper from 1930 through the end of Hofmann’s life in 1966, that explore the artist’s journey into abstraction, and his deep contribution to the artistic landscape of New England.” Other historical trends and individual artists are featured in museums across the country.
Natural Forces:winslow Homer and
Frederic Remington,“featuring 60 artworks, will reveal connections between artistic themes and techniques used by the two acclaimed American artists” at the
Denver Art Museum, March 15 through
June 7. Homer (1836-1910) was famed for his paintings of the East Coast, and Remington (1861-1909) was famed for his paintings of the West.“born a generation apart, both artists succeeded in capturing the quintessential American spirit through works of art at the turn of the late-19th and early-20th centuries, an era of growing industrialization and notions of the closing of the American Western frontier.”
The Minneapolis Institute of Art in Minnesota highlights works on paper from the arts and crafts movement to Picasso. Color Woodcuts in the Arts and Crafts
Era continues through March 22. “Color woodcuts enjoyed a revival during the Arts and Crafts movement, whose leaders believed that one antidote to rampant mechanization was a return to handcraft. Artists in the early20th century thus began carving, inking and printing each impression by hand.though demanding, this highly personal process revealed the direct interaction between artists and their materials.”
Picasso Cuts the Bull continues through
January 30.The museum has recently acquired a collection of his reduction linocuts on the subject of bullfighting—one of his favorite subjects.
The Cleveland Museum of Art in Ohio is showing Picasso and Paper May 24 through August 23. “Featuring nearly 300 works spanning the artist’s entire career, Picasso and Paper offers new insights into Picasso’s creative spirit and working methods. Nowhere is Picasso’s protean spirit more evident than in his relentless exploration of working on and with paper. He drew incessantly, using many different media… on a broad range of papers. He assembled collages of cut-and-pasted papers; created
sculptures from pieces of torn and burnt paper; produced both documentary photographs and manipulated photographs on paper; and spent decades investigating an array of printmaking techniques on paper supports.
The Denver Art Museum and the Museum of Fine Arts Houston,texas, present
Norman Rock well: american Freedom in Houston from December 15, 2019, through March 22, 2020, and in Denver May 3 through August 23.The exhibition features a variety of works relating to the Four Freedoms espoused by Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1940s:“freedom of Speech, Freedom of Worship, Freedom from Want, and Freedom from Fear to persuade Americans to support the war effort. Not immediately embraced by the American public, the administration turned to the arts to help Americans understand and rally behind these enduring ideals.”
During World War II, Japanese Americans were forced into incarceration camps throughout the West. Chiura Obata (1885-1975), born in Okayama, Japan, immigrated to the United States in 1903 and became a U.S. citizen after the war.while incarcerated, he created art schools in the camps to help his fellow cope with their situation. Chiura Obata:american Modern will be on view at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C., through May 25. “After the war, Obata returned to his callings as a painter, teacher, and cultural ambassador with scars that brought new emotional force to his work.the works in this retrospective take us on an epic journey in which peaks, valleys, storms, and sunlight may reflect universal challenges to becoming a successful artist as well as the particular struggles and dreams of America’s minority and immigrant communities… today Obata is best known for majestic views of the American West, sketches based on hiking trips to capture what he called ‘Great Nature.’ Every work is grounded in close observation, rendered with calligraphic brushstrokes and washes of color.”
The Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk, Virginia, features the work of other prisoners in Beyond the Block, through February 9.The exhibition includes “more than 20 pieces that were created using only materials that are permissible in high-security environments such as jail-safe pens, food and deodorant. Beyond the Block is named for inmate housing units called blocks and the notion that the exhibition focuses on life outside of jail. It is a rare opportunity for people who are incarcerated to creatively express themselves beyond the confinement of their detention and for the general public to connect with people who are incarcerated.
Alexander von Humboldt (1869-1959) was an important naturalist who had a great influence on artists, politicians and thinkers in the United States.“through a series of lively exchanges of ideas about the arts, science, politics, and exploration with influential figures such as President Thomas Jefferson and artist Charles Willson Peale— [he] shaped American perceptions of nature and the way American cultural identity became grounded in our relationship with the environment.”the exhibition Alexander von Humboldt and the United States: Art,
Nature and Culture “includes more than
100 paintings, sculptures, maps and artifacts. Artworks by Albert Bierstadt, Karl Bodmer, George Catlin, Frederic Church,asher Durand, Eastman Johnson, Samuel F.B. Morse, Charles Willson Peale, John Rogers,william James Stillman, and John Quincy Adams Ward, among others.” It opens at the Smithsonian American Art Museum March 20 and continues through August 16.
The involvement of American painters with the landscape is explored in the
exhibition Transitional Nature: Hudson River School Paintings from the David and Laura
Grey Collection on view at the Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum in Miami, January 25 through May 17.“The artists who painted these American landscapes worked during a time of increasing industrialization and growth of technology—not a coincidence of history but a lens on ecocritical thinking of the time. Modern industry changed the culture and economic future of this country, but also gave rise to concerns about the preservation of a natural environment often described as a Garden of Eden.”
Amore specific location in the American landscape is explored in the exhibition The Art and Artists of Monhegan Island: Selections from the Charles J. and Irene Hamm
Collection of Coastal Art at the New Britain Museum of American Art in Connecticut through August 30. Monhegan, a small island just off the coast of Maine, has drawn artists for more than 150 years.the Hamm Collection is part of the museum’s permanent collection.they have commented,“we chose works in which we believe there is a fine art regardless of whether the artist is generally considered first class.all artists make better and less good art.we have found that lesserknown artists can turn out great art and we love to include the work in our collection.”
On the opposite coast, the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento, California, is featuring Granville Redmond:the Eloquent
Palette from January 26 through May 17. “Granville Redmond (1871-1935) produced a body of work that captures California’s diverse topography, vegetation, and color. Representing both northern and southern parts of the state, his paintings range in style from contemplative, to na list works that evoke a quiet calm, to dramatic and colorful impressionist scenes.”
The Crocker also celebrates Wayne Thiebaud 100: Paintings, Prints, and
Drawings, October 11 through January 03, 2021, honoring the Sacramento artist who turns 100 in November .“t hi ebaudh as long been affiliated with Pop Art, though his body of work is far more expansive.this exhibition represents the artist’s achievements in all media, with pieces drawn from both the Crocker’s holdings and from the collection of the Thiebaud family—many of which, until now, have never been shown publicly.”
The Hilbert Museum of California Art in Orange continues its Los Angeles
Area Scene Paintings through April 18.The paintings “capture the regional spirit of the Golden State by illustrating epic landscapes and expressive genre scenes that depict
narratives of people’s everyday lives.the genre, which arose in the early 1900s, went through a golden age in the 1930s, when it documented the catalysts of cultural change of the time: the aftermath of the Great Depression, the industrial development of the state in the years leading up to World War II, and the growth of Hollywood, which lured many outstanding artists to California to work in the fields of motion pictures and animation.”
The Laguna Art Museum in California features Thomas Hunt: California
Modernist through January 12.Thomas Lorraine Hunt (1882-1938) was born in Canada and grew up in Cleveland. He moved to California and was active in the Laguna Beach Art Association, moving permanently to Laguna Beach in 1927. “He is best known for the coastal and harbor scenes that he painted in Southern California and during regular visits to Gloucester, Massachusetts. A masterful, innovative colorist, he developed a distinctive style characterized by broad brushwork and bold effects of light and reflection.”
The Kalamazoo Institute of Arts offers the exhibition David Park:a Retrospective through December 15, 2019, through March 15, 2020. Featuring 100 works, it is the “first Park exhibition in a major museum in more than 30 years, and is organized by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.” Park (1911-1960) was born in Boston but attended the Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles in 1928 and moved to San Francisco in 1929. He began teaching at the California School of Fine Arts (now the San Francisco Art Institute) in 1944. He was initially considered an abstract expressionist but in 1949, destroyed all of his abstract work and turned to figuration. He and other artists such as Richard Diebenkorn and Elmer Bischoff became known as the Bay Area Figurative Painters in opposition to the abstract expressionists in Newyork.
Buffalo, Newyork, celebrates its own rich heritage in the exhibition, In the Fullness
of Time, Painting in Buffalo, 1832-1972, at the Burchfield Penney Art Center through March 1.“The exhibition draws from public and private collections and focuses on important works and painters whose work had a lasting impact on the art and artists of the region.the exhibition covers the history of the practice of painting in Buffalo and the surrounding region from the time of the founding of the city of Buffalo in 1832 until 1972.”
The New Britain Museum is also showing For America: Paintings from the National
Academy of Design through January 26.This unusual selection from the academy features the portraits and diploma works required of artists selected to be members.“featuring over 90 paintings, the exhibition presents not only a visual document of the Academy’s membership but a unique history of American art from 1809 to present.” Many individual artists are featured in exhibitions across the country. In addition to those mentioned above are artists from a broad cross section and the long history of American art.
William J. Glackens: From Pencil to
Paint will be shown at the NSU Art Museum in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, through fall 2020. Glackens (1870-1938) was both an illustrator and a painter. Drawn from the museum’s extensive collection, the exhibition features more than 30 of his paintings “with examples of his preparatory efforts for them provides insight into his artistic process. It also allows viewers to explore the significant differences and similarities between his drawings and oils, his skills using different mediums, and the extent to which he relied on drawing for his work in gouache and oil.”
President and Mrs. Ronald Reagan commissioned artists to create their Christmas cards. In connection with its
Christmas Around the World exhibition, the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, presents An American Winter: Impressions in Watercolor by Thomas William Jones. Jones produced the couple’s 1985 to 1988 White House Christmas Cards. The exhibition continues through January 5. The art of craft is recognized in several exhibitions during the 2020 season.
Beyond Midnight: Paul Revere will be shown at the Worcester Art Museum in Massachusetts, February 15 through June 7.“Drawing on the American Antiquarian Society’s unparalleled collection of prints and books, the exhibition, Beyond Midnight:
Paul Revere, will transform viewers’ understanding of this iconic colonial patriot. This in-depth examination of Revere’s many skills as a craftsman will help illustrate the entrepreneurial spirit of an early American artisan, who stood at the intersection of social, economic, and political life during the formation of the new nation.”the exhibition originated at the New-york Historical Society where it will be on display through January 12.
Free Form: 20th-century Studio Craft
continues through June 7 at the Baltimore Museum of Art in Maryland.“this exhibition presents a selection of embroidery, ceramics, and jewelry by innovative mid-century American artists who shifted away from the functional aspect of craft towards an avant-garde engagement with abstraction and expression.”
Louis Comfort Tiffany (1848-1953) is featured in exhibitions at the Cleveland Museum of Art the Crocker Art Museum and Reynolda House Museum of American Art.
Tiffany in Bloom: Stained Glass Lamps of
Louis Comfort Tiffany continues in Cleveland through June 14.“Focusing on Louis Comfort Tiffany’s passion for stained glass as a way to bring nature’s splendid color into the home, this exhibition explores Tiffany’s vivid designs in relation to emerging artistic and craft movements at the turn of the 20th century.” Tiffany Glass: Painting with Color and Light opens March 27 and continues through June 21 at Reynolda House Museum in Winston-salem, North Carolina.“organized by the Neustadt Collection of Tiffany Glass in Queens, New York, it includes five windows, 22 lamps and several displays showing how Tiffany glass was manufactured, how his lamps were assembled, and how collectors today can distinguish between authentic lamps and forgeries.”the exhibition is complemented by Katharine Smith Reynolds’ collection of Tiffany blown-glass vases.
The Crocker Art Museum’s exhibition, Louis Comforttiffany:treasures from the Driehaus
Collection will be on display June 7 through September 20.The 60 pieces are drawn from 30 years of Tiffany’s work “in glass, ceramic, metalwork, jewelry, and painting. His technical brilliance in a wide variety of media enabled him to convey his awe of the natural world through a range of objects, from common household items to one-of-a-kind masterpieces.”
The Flint Institute of Arts in Michigan hosts Useful and Beautiful: Decorative
Arts Highlights through July 26.The works are drawn from the institute’s collection. “Decorative arts as a category was created in Europe after the Renaissance in distinction from the ‘fine arts’ of painting and sculpture, designating objects that are utilitarian but also artfully crafted. During the 19th-century Arts and Crafts movement in England and the United States, there was a greater appreciation for the decorative arts, with many championing the idea that there was no meaningful difference between fine and decorative.”
APassion for American Art: Selections from the Carolyn and Peter Lynch
Collection features fine examples of American decorative art as well as paintings, sculpture and furniture spanning 3 centuries. It will be on display at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts, through February 2.“By embracing an organic approach to collecting and by freely integrating multiple subjects, time frames and media, the Lynches created lively conversations about artistic creativity, regional styles and evolving traditions in America.”
This selection of exhibitions touches on some highlights of the 2020 exhibition season which also includes the 150th birthday of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Making
the Met, 1870-2020 opens March 30 and continues through August 2.The exhibition “will feature more than 250 superlative works of art of nearly every type, from visitor favorites to fragile treasures that can only be placed on view from time to time. Organized around transformational moments in the evolution of the museum’s collection, buildings, and ambitions, the exhibition will reveal the visionary figures and cultural forces that propelled the Met in new directions from its founding in 1870 to the present day.”
Amajor gift of 88 pieces of decorative art and related paintings from the American aesthetic movement and Gilded Age from the 1870s and ’80s will enhance the celebration. Barrie A. and Deedee Wigmore have donated the works as part of the museum’s 2020 Collections Initiative.the Met’s Anthony W. and Lulu C.wang Curator of American Decorative Arts,alice Cooney Frelinghuysen, says,“these works represent a truly transformative gift that will considerably enhance our strong collection by adding to areas of preexisting strength and building upon new areas of interest.the Wigmores have been collecting for the past four decades with extraordinary discernment and intelligence, and the items that will be coming to the Met are true masterworks in all media.” Nearly 50 pieces from the gift are now on display in the American Wing in the exhibition