Coronation Theme: Organon, 2008, Nadine Robinson (American, born England, 1968), speakers, sound system, mixed media. High Museum of Art, Atlanta, given by John F. Wieland Jr. in memory of Marion Hill, 2008.175. Image: © Nadine Robinson

Dirty South: Its Meaning and Influence

“Dirty South” is an expression that endearingly refers to the southern part of the United States—from Virginia to Florida, Texas, and the states in between—whose Black traditions and artistic expressions have shaped the culture of the region and the nation. The term describes an identity born out of the southern landscape and its agriculture as…

Art for the Aspiring Traveler

As a pandemic halts even the most mundane activities outside the home, you may be reflecting on past travel opportunities with a bit of nostalgia. Whether you’ve traveled extensively, rarely, or always postponed your dreams to “some day,” you may be looking forward to the time when we can once again journey near and far…

The Quilting Tradition of Gee’s Bend

This article is an excerpt from the museum magazine, VMFA, an exclusive benefit for museum members. See works from the Gee’s Bend quilters on display in the Cosmologies from the Tree of Life: Art from the African American South exhibition. Valerie Cassel Oliver, VMFA’s Sydney and Frances Lewis Family Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art,…

Outside the Horses Tent by Gifford Beal: Surface Topography Illustration using Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI)

By Sydney Collins, Conservation Photographer; Carol Sawyer, Margaret H. & William E. Massey Sr. Conservator of Paintings; Aleyah Grimes, Meghan Mezera, and Morgan Shedd, IMLS Summer Interns As part of the “Connect to Conservation” program, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts was able to host three summer interns with the generous support of the Institute…

Happy Birthday, John Singer Sargent!

American painter John Singer Sargent was born 159 years ago today. The year he turned 28, the young artist exhibited a portrait of the notorious Parisian socialite Virginie Avegno Gautreau under the evocative title, Madame X (currently in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art), at the 1884 Paris Salon. Critics decried both the…

House At Dusk - Edward Hopper

Happy Birthday Edward Hopper!

If you are not familiar with Edward Hopper, you ought to take a few minutes to look at his work, even if that means not reading the rest of this post. The beauty in his work is eerie and solitary, but nonetheless striking. What pushes the elegance of his paintings is the strong presence of…

Thomas Jefferson

Liberty Cast in Bronze: Moses Ezekiel’s Statue of Thomas Jefferson

Cast in bronze more than one hundred years ago, VMFA’s statue of Thomas Jefferson by Moses Ezekiel depicts the young statesman reading aloud his draft of the Declaration of Independence for the first time in the summer of 1776. The statue is a smaller version of the grander monument you’ll find on the plaza in…

Bedroom Painting #39

Wesselmann’s pop art inspires poets

The Poetry Society of Virginia recently took an Ekphrastic Day visit to VMFA to write some art-inspired poems. “Ekphrastic” is the poets’ term for poetry inspired by artwork. Below are a couple of poems inspired by our current special exhibition Pop Art and Beyond: Tom Wesselmann. The exhibition ends this Sunday, July 28th, so if…