Rather than working in a vacuum, many artists seek feedback and criticism from their peers. Eight pairings of works on view shed light on how artists support each other outside the purview of patrons, curators and dealers. Paul Cadmus’ Night in Bologna (pictured) is part of the show.
This Baltimore exhibition focuses on the joy of the here-and-now with more than 200 daring works created by self-taught artists using found or discarded materi- als. The show promotes the idea that instead of yearning for more things, people can find fulfillment by applying ingenuity and imagination to what’s already in their grasp.
Addressing themes surrounding climate change, this hour-long video features new and archival footage of disappearing landscapes from Greenland and Alaska to the Tahitian peninsula. Created by London-based artist and filmmaker John Akomfrah, the work plays across six screens, accompanied by an original score and spoken word.
This immersive, 10-screen film installation by Sir Isaac Julien focuses on 19th- century abolitionist Frederick Douglass and the influences of technology and images on human relations. Spanning space and time, the display interweaves Douglass’ speeches and writings with reenactments of his travels around the globe.
For centuries, some of the most ambitious and compelling art in Europe was painted on ceilings in styles ranging from Baroque to Neoclassical. The National Gallery spotlights 30 examples of remarkable ceiling decoration, from preliminary studies to large-scale models.
This immersive installation combines thousands of fine chromatic yellow and blue threads to create a color scheme that the eyes and mind cannot perceive. In what she calls an “imaginary, mysterious, unnamed space,” the multi-media artist pushes viewers to contemplate the divine—which, like these colors, she says, “is unnamable, untouchable, intangible.”
Like the first installation of this exhibit, which remains on view through January 29, the second part also presents portraits by Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Brian Lanker of Black women who changed America. Subjects include seminal figures such as Cicely Tyson, tennis champion Althea Gibson (pictured) and Oprah Winfrey.
An accomplished businesswoman and legendary arts patron, Hillwood founder Marjorie Merriweather Post applauded female artists and designers. Hillwood displays art and objects from its collection that depict women whom Post admired, along with work created by women—from an 18th-century Fabergé pencil holder to a 1790 French painting of Princess Elizabeth (pictured).
The museum presents a stunning array of antique Islamic prayer rugs collected around the globe from Ottoman Turkey to Mughal India. Exploring the spiritual meaning behind the rugs’ iconic motifs, the show also offers comparisons to Jewish traditions.
A major retrospective surveys the 50-year career of modern artist Philip Guston (1930 to 1980). Some 110 paintings and 115 drawings on view run the spectrum from figurative and abstract work to political satire in the Nixon era.
Approximately 80 recently acquired watercolors and drawings in the museum’s permanent collection provide a vast overview of British art created over two centuries. The display features portraits, landscapes, historic scenes and nude studies.
Commemorating hip hop’s 50th anniversary, this exhibit surveys the cultural, conceptual and aesthetic attributes that have made the art form a global phenomenon. Ninety works by famed contemporary artists such as Devin Allen, Monica Ikegwu and Amani Lewis are presented alongside apparel and other objects that embody hip hop culture.
