Art and music have a lot in common! Find your own rhythm as you improvise, sketch, compose, and collage to create music and visual works of art! Engage with a tactile version of Three Folk Musicians, collaborate on a magnetic mural and delve into the sound bar to connect music and art.
An avatar of the Hindu deity Vishnu, Krishna descended to Earth to kill Kansa, the king of Mathura who had gained excessive power and threatened to upset the world order. Indian literature and art is filled with depictions of Krishna’s mischievous youth, heroic encounters with demons, and romantic ventures that are metaphors for his devotees’ emotional relationships with God. Blue skinned, usually in a saffron-colored loincloth and a peacock-feather crown, the young lord often carries a flute that, when played, enchants all who hear it.
Krishna and His Friends Celebrate Holi in the Forests of Vrindavan, ca. 1710–20, Indian, Rajasthan, Mewar, opaque watercolor and ink on paper backed with fabric netting. Gift of Robert A. and Ruth W. Fisher, by exchange, 96.33
Page from a Bhagavata Purana Series: Krishna Slays the Horse-Demon Keshi, 1680–90, Indian, Central India, opaque watercolor on paper. Nasli and Alice Heeramaneck Collection, Gift of Paul Mellon, 68.8.69
Page from a Bhagavata Purana Series: Krishna Distributes Butter to the Monkeys, ca. 1525–50, Indian, North India, probably Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, or Agra, opaque watercolor and ink on paper. Arthur and Margaret Glasgow Fund, 64.36.1
Page from a Bhagavata Purana Series: Krishna Slays Bakasura, ca. 1720, Indian, Gujarat, opaque watercolor and ink on paper. Nasli and Alice Heeramaneck Collection, Gift of Paul Mellon, 68.8.73
Krishna Adoring Radha’s Hair, ca. 1815-20, Indian, Punjab Hills, Kangra, opaque watercolor on paper. Nasli and Alice Heeramaneck Collection, Gift of Paul Mellon, 68.8.82
Page from a Bhagavata Purana Series: Krishna and Balarama Enter the Arena to Wrestle Chanura and Mushtika, ca. 1800, Indian, Punjab Hills, Kangra, opaque watercolor on paper. Nasli and Alice Heeramaneck Collection, Gift of Paul Mellon, 68.8.85
Krishna and Radha, ca. 1760–80, Indian, Rajasthan, Kishangarh, opaque watercolor on paper. Nasli and Alice Heeramaneck Collection, Gift of Paul Mellon, 68.8.106
Krishna and the Gopis, ca. 1790, Indian, Punjab Hills, Kangra, opaque watercolor on paper. Friends of Indian Art and the Arthur and Margaret Glasgow Endowment, 2006.10
This exhibition brings together paintings—twenty from VMFA’s permanent collection and a single loan— from north and central India featuring this beloved boyish Indian god.
Studio School Faculty Exhibition 2020
Sep 14–Oct 23, 2020
The Art of Collage
Oct 30, 2020–Jan 15, 2021
Artists Collect Series:
The Collection of Matt Lively
Sep 14, 2020–Jan 15, 2021
Gallery Hours: 9:30 am–4:30 pm weekdays
As embodiments of the African American experience and cultural legacies, the works of art featured in Cosmologies from the Tree of Life: Art from the African American South are rooted in African aesthetic legacies, familial tradition, and communal ethos. Previously marginalized as “folk or self-taught” art, they now take their rightful place as significant contributors to the canon of American Modernism. As artists, they imbued their works with a sense of individualistic style, yet they often embraced shared narratives that spoke to cultural, familial, and communal preoccupations. Employing an impressive breadth of media, the works in Cosmologies from the Tree of Life celebrate their imprint in sculpture, quilting, painting, and works on paper. This exhibition’s works of art were acquired by VMFA from the Atlanta-based Souls Grown Deep Foundation, an organization whose mission it is to showcase works by African American artists from the South. Artists featured in VMFA’s exhibition include Jessie Aaron, Louisiana Bendolph, Thornton Dial, Lonnie B. Holley, Ronald Lockett, Rita Mae Pettway, Jimmy Lee Sudduth, James “Son Ford” Thomas, Mose Tolliver, Purvis Young, and others. An impressive selection of quilts display the unique artistry of the famed multigenerational group of quilt-making women in Gee’s Bend, Alabama.
The Souls Grown Deep Foundation celebrates the invaluable contributions that African American artists have made to art and culture in the United States and beyond. Its mission states that the Foundation is
“dedicated to documenting, preserving, and promoting the contributions of artists from the African American South, and the cultural traditions in which they are rooted. We advance our mission by advocating the contributions of these artists in the canon of American art history, accomplished through collection transfers, scholarship, exhibitions, education, public programs, and publications.”
Since 2014, the Foundation has transferred more than 200 works of art to leading art museums such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the High Museum. VMFA’s 34 acquisitions add to the museum’s deep holdings of African American art, which are among the largest and finest of any encyclopedic art museum in the country.
Cosmologies from the Tree of Life, which showcases VMFA’s acquisitions from the Souls Grown Deep Foundation, gives visitors the opportunity to view these works of art individually and collectively, and to consider their historical roots and their contributions not only to African American art history but also to the larger canon of art in the wake of cultural and social marginalization that their makers endured. The persistence of the artists and the undeniable imprint of their work enable scholars to retrace and, in doing so, reframe American Modernism to embrace such aesthetics rooted in the South and the contributions of these artists. Adding to its significance, the exhibition coincides with American Evolution, commemorating the 400th anniversary of historic events in 1619, including the arrival of the first enslaved African people to Virginia.
Marketing support for Evans Court exhibitions is provided by the Charles G. Thalhimer Fund.
Council Exhibition Fund
Fabergé Ball Endowment
Patron and former member of VMFA’s Board of Trustees Jane Joel Knox has a long history of service and philanthropy to the museum, which includes her many gifts of art. The present focus exhibition marks an opportunity to celebrate selections from Ms. Knox’s impressive collection of American art. The Knox collection charts artists’ engagements with Impressionism, landscape painting, still life, and academically informed styles from the nineteenth through the early twentieth century. Equally important, almost every work in her collection attests to the keen importance of European study and travel for American artists in these years.
IMPEACH, 2006, Donald Moffett (American, 1955), Media Player, speakers (Edition 1 of 3); 2:20 seconds. Collection of the Brooklyn Museum and the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts; Arthur and Margaret Glasgow Endowment and Aldine S. Hartman Endowment Fund, 2018.223
“Today is a very sad day. . . . This morning when I got up I wanted to cry, but the tears would not come. Before we cast this one little vote, we all should ask the question: is this good for America—if it’s good for the American people—if it’s good for this institution? When I was growing up in rural Alabama during the forties and the fifties as a young child, near a shotgun house where my aunt live, one afternoon an unbelievable storm occurred. The wind start blowing, the rain fell on the tin-top roof of this house. Lightning start flashing. (RAP, RAP) The thunder start rolling. And my aunt ask us all to come into this house and to hold hands. (RAP, RAP) And we held hands. And as the wind continued to blow, we would walk (RAP) to that corner of the house (RAP) that was trying to lift (RAP) and another corner (RAP) that was trying to lift (RAP), and we would walk there. (RAP) We never left the house. (RAP) The wind may blow. (RAP) The thunder may roll. (RAP) The lightning may flash. RAP But we must never leave the American house. (RAP) We must stay together as a family. (RAP) One house. (RAP) One family. (RAP) The American house. (RAP) The American family.”
—Representative John Lewis, D-GA,
December 1998, US Congress,
Impeachment Of President Bill Clinton
Donald Moffett’s sound installation, IMPEACH (2006), is a recording of Rep. John Lewis’s impassioned speech from the floor of the US House of Representatives during President William Clinton’s impeachment hearings in 1998. Speaking metaphorically, the legendary civil rights icon argued against the impeachment of President Clinton and issued a plea for the American family to “stay together” as “one house and as one family.” Rep. Lewis’s speech slowed the congressional proceedings for approximately one minute before the vote was called and the matter was lost.
Congressman John Lewis visits the Confederate Memorial Chapel with VMFA’s Sydney and Frances Lewis Family Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art Valerie Cassel Oliver to hear Donald Moffett’s IMPEACH
The installation consists of speakers and an audio player and required no physical alteration to the Confederate Memorial Chapel, which was built in the aftermath of the Civil War—with funding from the North and South—and served as a nondenominational place of worship for the R. E. Lee Camp Confederate Soldiers’ Home. In the context of this space, Moffett’s immersive sound work speaks to the long history of divisive politics in America and the power of reconciliation.
Exterior view of Confederate Memorial Chapel on the grounds of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
View this extraordinary collection of exquisite, intricately crafted works of art—precious souvenirs designed for Grand Tour travelers of the mid-18th to late-19th centuries. The wide range of subjects depicted in these 92 works include Renaissance paintings, architecture, birds, animals, historical sites, landscapes, and portraits. Micromosaics created for Grand Tour travelers reflect the sophisticated pursuits of elite Europeans for whom travel was a rite of passage.
Diminutive forms of ancient Roman, Grecian, and Byzantine mosaics, “micromosaics”—a term coined in the 1970s by collector Sir Arthur Gilbert—are made using a painstaking technique that involves tesserae, small pieces of opaque enamel glass. The tiny mosaics were first developed with regularity in the second half of the 18th century by the Vatican Mosaic Workshop. By the 19th century, numerous independent studios devoted to the production of these small keepsakes were established to meet travelers’ demands and to capitalize on the increasing popularity of micromosaics as symbols of status, sophistication, and social polish. For an English traveler to Rome, Venice, or Milan, for example, a micromosaic of an Italian Renaissance painting or ancient architectural monument captured the journey and today reflects that era’s fascination with the classics and societal requisite travel to the “cradle of western civilization.”
The works of art on view in this exhibition, which are predominantly stunning pieces of jewelry, are dazzling in their exquisite detail and craftsmanship. In addition to the tiny enameled glass that forms the mosaic, eye-catching designs include gold, precious stones, and diamonds. VMFA is pleased to present this decorative arts exhibition and to share these fine works of art from the Elizabeth Locke Collection of Micromosaics.
A Return to the Grand Tour: Micromosaic Jewels from the Collection of Elizabeth Locke is organized by the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.
The exhibition is curated by Dr. Susan J. Rawles, Associate Curator of American Painting and Decorative Arts, VMFA.
Pam and Bill Royall
Peachtree House Foundation
Power down, unplug, and join a voyage into the visionary art of Tibetan Buddhism. The journey from clamor to clarity unfolds as you progress through a series of immersive spaces, engaging with spectacular art along the way. Nearly 100 objects, both historical and contemporary, are drawn largely from two of the country’s most extraordinary collections of Himalayan art: the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco.
Visitors are given the opportunity not only to view spectacular Buddhist art from the 9th century to as recent as 2016, but also to take part in the narrative it presents of a quest for enlightenment. For participants and viewers alike, the exhibition offers a pause from the ordinary noise of daily living and a chance to contemplate and reflect.
Luxation 1, 2016, Tsherin Sherpa (Nepalese, born 1968), acrylic on 16 stretched canvases, each 18 x 18 in. Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Adolph D. and Wilkins C. Williams Fund
Beginning with a multimedia display that emphasizes the relentless distractions of daily life, the exhibition asks a basic question: are we really awake and fully aware? Or do the clamor and fragmentation of ordinary experience lull us into a kind of waking sleep and doom us to running in endless, unfulfilling circles? The exhibition then progresses through a series of stages along a journey toward waking from that slumber. Visitors learn some of Buddhism’s essential teachings and encounter artworks that serve as guides, allies wise and fierce, and equipment for the journey. They will also receive a map—a painting called a mandala—of the visionary expedition ahead. They must overcome trials, face fears, and eventually confront the ultimate ordeal, death itself. The payoff is a glimpse into reality’s true nature and a culminating vision of clarity as powerful as the confusion with which the journey began.
Each of the exhibition’s galleries, immersive spaces filled with world-class Tibetan Buddhist art, corresponds to one of these stages along a journey toward awakening:
Vajrabhairava, 15th century or later, Sino-Tibetan, polychromed wood, 53 1/4 x 50 3/4 x 30 3/4 in. Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation and Arthur and Margaret Glasgow Fund
The journey presents an opportunity for the visitor to reflect on obstacles and attachments that are universal—like ego, greed, and fear—and to take time out for self-reflection, mindfulness, and an exploration of rich, dramatic Tibetan Buddhist art. Awaken offers an invitation to travel beyond the confines of geography and possibly to discover more about oneself.
The Three Protectors of Tibet, 2008, Tsherin Sherpa (Nepalese, born 1968), ink and colors on cotton, 17 3/4 x 38 5/8 in. Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, Acquisition made possible by the Tibetan Study Group, 2016.305. © Tsherin Sherpa. Photograph © Asian Art Museum of San Francisco The Three Protectors of Tibet, 2008, Tsherin Sherpa (Nepalese, born 1968), ink and colors on cotton, 17 3/4 x 38 5/8 in. Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, Acquisition made possible by the Tibetan Study Group, 2016.305. © Tsherin Sherpa. Photograph © Asian Art Museum of San Francisco
Gorampa Sonam Sengge, Sixth Abbot of Ngor, ca. 1600, Central Tibetan, opaque watercolor on cloth, 31 × 26 in. Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Berthe and John Ford Collection, Arthur and Margaret Glasgow Fund Gorampa Sonam Sengge, Sixth Abbot of Ngor, ca. 1600, Central Tibetan, opaque watercolor on cloth, 31 × 26 in. Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Berthe and John Ford Collection, Arthur and Margaret Glasgow Fund
Mandala of Vajrabhairava, 1650-1750, Tibet, Ngor Monastery, colors on cotton, 16 1/2 x 15 3/4 in. Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, The Avery Brundage Collection, B63D5 Mandala of Vajrabhairava, 1650-1750, Tibet, Ngor Monastery, colors on cotton, 16 1/2 x 15 3/4 in. Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, The Avery Brundage Collection, B63D5
Vajracharya Crown, 13th-14th century, Nepal, gilded copper alloy, gemstones, 11 1/2 x 7 3/4 x 8 3/4 in. Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Arthur and Margaret Glasgow Fund Vajracharya Crown, 13th-14th century, Nepal, gilded copper alloy, gemstones, 11 1/2 x 7 3/4 x 8 3/4 in. Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Arthur and Margaret Glasgow Fund
Curators Dr. John Henry Rice, E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Curator of South Asian and Islamic Art, VMFA, and Jeffrey Durham, Associate Curator of Himalayan Art, Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, co-authored the catalogue, which presents the exhibition’s spectacular Himalayan art, explores the philosophical tenets encoded in the works, and details an immersive process of self-discovery. Additional essays by a range of contributors examine Tibetan Buddhism’s ritual tools, paintings, symbolic imagery, and artistic traditions.
Awaken: A Tibetan Buddhist Journey Toward Enlightenment
is organized by the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.
Presented by
The Julia Louise Reynolds Fund
The Lettie Pate Whitehead Evans Exhibition Endowment
Ellen Bayard Weedon Foundation
Mrs. Frances Massey Dulaney
Margaret N. and John D. Gottwald
McGue Millhiser Family Trust
Norfolk Southern Corporation
Jay and Marsha Olander
Robert E. and Jacquelyn H. Pogue
Mr. and Mrs. Charles L. Reed, Jr.
Dr. and Mrs. Martin Buxton
Deanna M. Maneker
Teri Craig Miles
We are also grateful to the following donors
for their generous support of programming related to Awaken.
Sue and Charlie Agee | Shelley and Richard Birnbaum | Dr. and Mrs. O. Christian Bredrup, Jr. | E. Trigg and Carrington P. Brown | John and Julia Curtis | Philip and Kay Davidson | Mimi Wilson Dozier | Mr. and Mrs. George C. Freeman III | Janet and Jonathan Geldzahler | Mrs. C. D. L. Perkins | Mr. and Mrs. Geoffrey P. Sisk | An Anonymous Donor
This list represents sponsors as of February 2019.
Between 1973 and 1980, a group of African American photographers based in New York City published four volumes of The Black Photographers Annual. Emerging from the Black Arts Movement, which grew out of the civil rights movement, as well as the collective of African American photographers known as the Kamoinge Workshop, each Annual featured the work of as many as 49 artists. Since 2016, VMFA has featured a series of exhibitions that explore each of the four volumes.
The fourth installment focuses on the final volume of The Black Photographers Annual. When the Annual editors asked James VanDerZee if he had any advice for younger photographers, the elder artist replied, “patience and perseverance.” This rotation pairs photographs by VanDerZee with a selection of works by a younger generation, including Dawoud Bey, Jules Allen, and Marilyn Nance, among others.
This exhibition is curated by Dr. Sarah Eckhardt, Associate Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, and sponsored by Dr. Ronald A. Crutcher and Dr. Betty Neal Crutcher.
Founded by Beuford Smith and published by Joe Crawford, this digital representation of The Black Photographers Annual was made possible by the generosity of Mr. Smith, who granted the VMFA a copyright license to present these volumes online for two years.
Explore the Black Photographers Annual
One of the most prolific printmakers of the Baroque period, Wenceslaus Hollar (Bohemian, 1607–1677) rose up out of obscurity in one of Europe’s most turbulent eras to amass an astounding body of work. Underrated during his lifetime, Hollar produced up to 2,500 etchings in a prodigious 50-year career. The breadth and virtuosity of his works have inspired artists for centuries, and yet his name and profile are only now on the rise. Drawn exclusively from the Frank Raysor Collection, a promised gift to VMFA, this exhibition presents over 200 Hollar prints—remarkable for their range of subjects, stunning details, and rare visual records of 17th-century Europe.
Hollar lived through the Thirty Years’ War, the English Civil War, the Commonwealth, and the Restoration, and these events affected him personally and found their way into his art. He was at times Catholic and at times Protestant. He lived throughout Europe and even traveled to Tangier toward the end of his life. While he knew great fortune and received patronage from leading figures of the day, he died in poverty.
Born to a noble family, Hollar likely learned the rudiments of printmaking from court artist Aegidius Sadeler II. He soon began a lifelong practice of making copies after works by great artists such as Albrecht Dürer, Leonardo da Vinci, and others. Retained by Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel and one of the finest connoisseurs of all time, Hollar gathered material for some of the epoch’s most accomplished topographical prints, most notably The Long View of Prague. In 1636, Hollar began producing fascinating scenes of modern life in allegorical guise as well as differing costumes of women, including a rare native Woman of Virginia. In Antwerp, Hollar created three series (Insects, Muffs, and Shells) that revealed his virtuosity as a master of etched illusion. Back in London, he etched scenes of the city before and after the Great Fire of 1666.
As one of the least known but one of the most prolific and “modern” artists of the Baroque period, Hollar is well represented in the Frank Raysor Collection, which rivals those held by the British Museum and the Queen’s Collection. The Raysor Collection, as a promised gift, makes VMFA one of the world’s five major Hollar repositories.
Mrs. Frances Massey Dulaney
Anna Kay Chandler
Larry J. Kohmescher
Family of Frank Raysor
Patricia R. St. Clair
An Anonymous Donor
Marketing support for Evans Court exhibitions is provided by the Charles G. Thalhimer Fund.
In the vast and culturally diverse Congolese region of Central Africa, masks function as performance objects in rituals, ceremonies, worship, and entertainment. The masterpieces in this exhibition—more than 130 striking Congolese masks—form an innovative and visually compelling display of artistry and cultures. They represent the artisans and performers who brought them to life, as well as varied communities, belief systems, and natural resources.
Dating from the 17th to the 20th centuries, these works are drawn from the finest and most comprehensive collections in private hands, with more than a dozen showcased in their complete ceremonial ensembles. The exhibition also includes original field photographs, field footage, audio recordings, and a selection of related musical instruments. Its immersive multimedia design, presenting eleven distinct regional styles of masks, evokes the diversity of ecosystems and cultures of the immense Congo. The exhibition is curated by Marc Leo Felix, director of the Congo Basin Art History Research Center in Brussels, Belgium.
Face Mask with Feathered Collar, second quarter of the 20th century, Nyindu culture (Democratic Republic of the Congo), wood, pigment, rooster feathers, 15.3 in. high. Private Collection. Photo: Paul Louis Face Mask with Feathered Collar, second quarter of the 20th century, Nyindu culture (Democratic Republic of the Congo), wood, pigment, rooster feathers, 15.3 in. high. Private Collection. Photo: Paul Louis
Congo Masks: Masterpieces from Central Africa is organized by the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in partnership with the Congo Basin Art History Research Center and Tribal Arts, S.P.R.L., Brussels, Belgium, and Ethnic Art and Culture Limited, Hong Kong The exhibition program at VMFA is supported by the Julia Louise Reynolds Fund.
The Lettie Pate Whitehead Evans Exhibition Endowment
The Julia Louise Reynolds Fund
Virginia H. Spratley Charitable Fund II
Mr. Michael Bakwin
Mrs. Frances Massey Dulaney
Mr. and Mrs. Thomas F. Garner, Jr.
Dr. and Mrs. William V. Garner
James Hixon
Ed and Beverly Jennings
Margaret and Thomas Mackell
Don and Mary Shockey
Ongoing support for VMFA’s exhibition program is provided by the Dr. Donald S. and Beejay Brown Endowment, the Council Exhibition Fund, and the Fabergé Ball Endowment.
Multifaceted artist Théophile-Alexandre Steinlen—at once illustrator, painter, printmaker, and sculptor—spent most of his life in Montmartre, the picturesque epicenter of many avant-garde movements. During his career, which spanned the transition from Art Nouveau to Modernism, Steinlen both produced highly accomplished fine art prints, and also illustrated politically liberal journals, song sheets, restaurant menus, books, and advertisements. His best-known work—the cabaret advertisement La Tournée du Chat Noir, the 1896 poster featuring a black cat silhouetted against a burnt orange background—is now an icon of the “poster craze” circa 1900.
The Steinlen exhibition will be at the William King Museum from October 4, 2018 – Jan 20, 2019
Théophile-Alexandre Steinlen French, born Switzerland (1859-1923), At the Bodinière (À la Bodinière), 1894 book, lithograph printed in black and orange inks on wove paper, Promised Gift of Frank Raysor, FR.6002.14 Théophile-Alexandre Steinlen French, born Switzerland (1859-1923), At the Bodinière (À la Bodinière), 1894 book, lithograph printed in black and orange inks on wove paper, Promised Gift of Frank Raysor, FR.6002.14
Théophile-Alexandre Steinlen French, born Switzerland (1859-1923) Black Cat with Panorama of Montmartre (Chat noir avec Panorama de Montmartre), 1895-1910 Engraving and aquatint in black ink on wove paper, Promised Gift of Frank Raysor, FR.6002.17 Théophile-Alexandre Steinlen French, born Switzerland (1859-1923) Black Cat with Panorama of Montmartre (Chat noir avec Panorama de Montmartre), 1895-1910 Engraving and aquatint in black ink on wove paper, Promised Gift of Frank Raysor, FR.6002.17
Théophile-Alexandre Steinlen French, born Switzerland (1859-1923), Reclining Cat, Head Resting on His Paws (Chat couché allongeé de gauche à droite, tête appuyée contre les pattes), 1902 Soft ground etching, aquatint and drypoint on wove paper, Promised Gift of Frank Raysor, FR.6002.5 Théophile-Alexandre Steinlen French, born Switzerland (1859-1923), Reclining Cat, Head Resting on His Paws (Chat couché allongeé de gauche à droite, tête appuyée contre les pattes), 1902 Soft ground etching, aquatint and drypoint on wove paper, Promised Gift of Frank Raysor, FR.6002.5
Théophile-Alexandre Steinlen French, born Switzerland (1859-1923), Bad Horsey (Le méchant dada) for some cats: Images without words (Des chats: images sans paroles), ca. 1898 black ink on wove paper. Gift of Frank Raysor, 2012.425 Théophile-Alexandre Steinlen French, born Switzerland (1859-1923), Bad Horsey (Le méchant dada) for some cats: Images without words (Des chats: images sans paroles), ca. 1898 black ink on wove paper. Gift of Frank Raysor, 2012.425
Théophile-Alexandre Steinlen French, born Switzerland (1859-1923) Winter: Cat on a Pillow (L’hiver, Chat sur un coussin), 1909 color lithograph on wove paper, Promised Gift of Frank Raysor, FR.6002.3 Théophile-Alexandre Steinlen French, born Switzerland (1859-1923) Winter: Cat on a Pillow (L’hiver, Chat sur un coussin), 1909 color lithograph on wove paper, Promised Gift of Frank Raysor, FR.6002.3
Théophile-Alexandre Steinlen French, born Switzerland (1859-1923), Pure Pasteurized Milk from the Vingeanne Region (Lait pur stérilisé de la Vingeanne), 1894 four-color Lithograph on wove paper. Promised Gift of Frank Raysor, FR.6002.16 Théophile-Alexandre Steinlen French, born Switzerland (1859-1923), Pure Pasteurized Milk from the Vingeanne Region (Lait pur stérilisé de la Vingeanne), 1894 four-color Lithograph on wove paper. Promised Gift of Frank Raysor, FR.6002.16
This feline-themed exhibition of thirty-two works, comprising both highly stylized as well as tender, realistic images, aims to revive the understanding of and appreciation for Steinlen’s uncanny eye and sinuous line. Though this exhibition focuses exclusively on Steinlen’s images of cats, it also explores his artistic growth as he experimented with a range of styles, such as Realism, Japonisme, Art Nouveau, and Post-Impressionism, over the course of his career.
Steinlen: Cats coincides with the University of Richmond’s exhibition Steinlen: Humanity (Nov 30, 2017–Mar 30, 2018), which examines the artist’s humanitarian, social, and political themes. Both exhibitions, which were conceived as complementary, produced in collaboration, and meant to be seen in tandem, involved the efforts of members of the museum and academic communities of VMFA and the University of Richmond, as well as Virginia Commonwealth University.
All works in this exhibition are from the Frank Raysor Collection, a generous ongoing gift to VMFA.
This exhibition is dedicated to the memory of Maxine Hornung.
Curated for VMFA by Dr. Mitchell Merling, Paul Mellon Curator and Head of the Department of European Art, with Taylor M. Dean, Art History/Museum Studies, Virginia Commonwealth University.
Image Credit:
Winter: Cat on a pillow (L’hiver, Chat sur un coussin), Théophile-Alexandre Steinlen, French, born Switzerland (1859-1923) 1909, Color lithograph on wove paper, Promised Gift of Frank Raysor, FR.6002.3
On view in the newly refurbished Robinson House on the VMFA campus, this 600-square-foot history exhibition shares the remarkable multilayered story of the site’s land, buildings, and former inhabitants from the seventeenth century to the present. It includes the region’s native peoples and English colonists, the growth of Richmond in the early republic, the Robinson family and the enslaved individuals who worked on and sometimes escaped from their antebellum estate, the mansion’s changing architectural form, and the impact of the Civil War and Emancipation.
Robinson House, newly refurbished in 2019, was originally constructed ca. 1828 and expanded ca. 1858 and 1886. It is located on the VMFA campus, facing the museum’s main entrance.
The exhibit also explores the half-century history of the R. E. Lee Camp Confederate Soldiers’ Home—the nation’s longest operating residential complex for southern veterans, born out of a spirit of reconciliation between North and South. The twentieth-century narrative describes Cold War experimentation undertaken in the house by the Virginia Institute of Scientific Research and, afterwards, the establishment of VMFA’s art annex offering innovative studio classes, exhibitions, and programs.
Across Time also features other nearby institutions that share the former Robinson property: the Virginia Museum of History & Culture, Home for Confederate Women (now VMFA’s Pauley Center), the Memorial Building (national headquarters of the United Daughters of the Confederacy), and VMFA, the Commonwealth’s flagship fine arts museum.
The exhibition offers richly illustrated panels, an interactive touch screen, vintage film footage, and audio clips. Historic Robinson House also offers a Visitor Center, open daily and operated by Richmond Region Tourism.
Across Time: Robinson House, Its Land and People is curated by Dr. Elizabeth L. O’Leary, former Associate Curator of American Art, VMFA.
Sponsored By
The Council of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
Robert Edmond Hill
The Roller-Bottimore Foundation
The Thomas F. Jeffress Memorial Trust
The work of groundbreaking, multidisciplinary artist Howardena Pindell opens this August in VMFA’s Evans Court and 21st-Century Galleries. For nearly five decades, Howardena Pindell has explored the intersection of art and activism. This exhibition looks at the arc of this artist’s career through the presentation of early and recent paintings, video art, as well as works on paper that celebrate her singular vision and its imprint on contemporary art since the 1960s.
Video Drawings: Swimming, 1975, chromogenic print. MCA Chicago, Anixter Art Acquisition Fund. Photo courtesy of the artist and Garth Greenan Gallery, New York
Untitled #20 (Dutch Wives Circled and Squared) (detail), 1978, mixed media on canvas. MCA Chicago, Gift of Albert A. Robin by exchange. Photo courtesy of the artist and Garth Greenan Gallery, New York
Untitled, 1972–1973, acrylic and cut and punched papers on canvas. Arthur and Margaret Glasgow Endowment © Howardena Pindell
Untitled #5B (Krakatoa), 2007, mixed media on paper collage. Courtesy of the artist and Garth Greenan Gallery, New York
Untitled, c. 1968, acrylic and cray-pas on canvas. Courtesy of the artist and Garth Greenan Gallery, New York
Autobiography: India (Lakshmi), 1984, mixed media on board. Courtesy of the artist and Garth Greenan Gallery, New York
Untitled #58, 1974, mixed media on board. JK Brown and Eric Diefenbach, New York
Night Flight, 2015–16, mixed media on canvas. Garth Greenan Gallery. Photo courtesy of the artist and Garth Greenan Gallery, New York
This exhibition is the first major survey of the New York-based artist. It features early figurative paintings, her explorations into abstraction and conceptual practices, as well as personal and political art that emerged in the aftermath of a life-threatening car accident in 1979. Sub-themes in the exhibition—such as pre-1979, memoirist, traveler, activist, and scientist— help trace themes and visual experiments that run throughout Pindell’s work up to the present.
Trained as a painter, Pindell has challenged the staid traditions of the art world and asserted her place in its history as a woman and one of African descent. Since the 1960s, she has used materials such as glitter, talcum powder, and perfume to stretch the boundaries of the rigid tradition of rectangular canvas painting. She has also infused her work with traces of her labor, such as obsessively generating paper dots with an ordinary hole punch then affixing the pigmented chads onto the surfaces of her paintings. Despite the effort exerted in the creation of these paintings, Pindell’s use of rich colors and unconventional materials gives the finished works a sumptuous and ethereal quality.
The work created in the aftermath of a 1979 car accident that left her with short-term amnesia not only reintroduces figuration into the work, but also asserts the artist’s activist sensibilities. Expanding on the experimental formal language she previously developed, Pindell has explored a wide range of subject matter, from the personal and diaristic to the social and political. Her Autobiography series not only literally and figuratively traced her body into her work, but also transformed ordinary material such as postcards from her global travels and photographs into incredible works of art. Pindell’s photo-based collages emerged as an act of memory reconstruction after the car accident. Other bodies of work, such as her Rambo series, respond to broader cultural concerns and critique sexism, racism, and discrimination at large.
Paintings and large-scale works will be shown in the 21st-Century Galleries, while additional paintings, works on paper, and a video will be shown in the Evans Court Galleries.
Howardena Pindell: What Remains To Be Seen is organized by the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago.
Presented by
Canvas at VMFA
Peter and Nancy Huber
Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Papa
Marketing support for Evans Court exhibitions is provided by the Charles G. Thalhimer Fund.
Lead support for Howardena Pindell: What Remains To Be Seen is provided by the Harris Family Foundation in memory of Bette and Neison Harris: Caryn and King Harris, Katherine Harris, Toni and Ron Paul, Pam and Joe Szokol, Linda and Bill Friend, and Stephanie and John Harris; Kenneth C. Griffin; The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts; and Marilyn and Larry Fields.
Major support provided by the National Endowment for the Arts, the Terra Foundation for American Art, Charlotte Cramer Wagner and Herbert S. Wagner III of the Wagner Foundation, Liz and Eric Lefkofsky, and Nathan Cummings Foundation, with the support and encouragement of Jane Saks.
Additional generous support provided by Garth Greenan Gallery.
Exhibition co-curated by Naomi Beckwith, Manilow Senior Curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago and Valerie Cassel Oliver, Sydney and Frances Lewis Family Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, and former Senior Curator, Contemporary Arts Museum Houston.
Organized by 1708 Gallery, InLight Richmond is a public exhibition of light-based art and performances. This year the setting of this free event is at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. This year’s Inlight features performances, sculpture, video, and interactive projects that illuminate pathways, walls, sidewalks, green spaces, and kicks off with the Community Lantern Parade.
InLight 2018 will take place on Friday, November 16, 2018 from 7 pm to Midnight and on Saturday, November 17, 2018, from 7 – 10 pm, at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. And in recognition of 1708 Gallery’s 40th Anniversary, InLight 2018 will focus on ideas of Community. Recent editorials have described two Richmonds. “RVA” encompasses revitalization, creativity and growth. “Richmond” is divided, challenged, and struggling. Artists are invited to consider this dynamic and to imagine an ideal community—ONE Richmond.
InLight 2018 will kick off with the Community Lantern Parade, which will travel around the grounds of the VMFA. Make your own lantern at one of our many lantern making workshops happening around the city leading up the InLight 2018. See the Schedule and locations of workshops. Make sure to bring your lantern back to InLight to walk in the parade. Or join us at 6:00 pm on November 16 + 17 to make one at the event! The parade gathers at 7:00 pm and then begins its procession at 7:30 pm.
Precisionism typically characterizes American paintings and works on paper produced between the two World Wars that employ a linear aesthetic, pronounced contours and localized colors to depict architectural, infrastructural, mechanical and often urban imagery. This exhibition of 18 watercolors, prints, drawings, photographs and paintings from VMFA’s collection demonstrates that this term may also describe work produced before 1915 and after 1945, and that the “impulse” also plays out in rural and non-architectural imagery.
Roof and Steeple, 1921, Charles Demuth (American, 1883–1935), pencil and watercolor on paper. Adolph D. and Wilkins C. Williams Fund, 86.198
Skyscraper, Chanin Building, 1993, Andrew Bordwin (American, born 1964), gelatin silver print. Gift of M. Holt Massey, 96.120 © Andrew Bordwin
City Arabesque, 1938, Bernice Abbott (American, 1898–1991), gelatin silver print. Floyd D. and Anne C. Gottwald Fund, 2012.2 © Bernice Abbott
Drydock and Repair, 20th century, Edmund D. Lewandowski (American, 1914–1998), casein on paperboard. John Barton Payne Fund, 58.20
The Precisionist Impulse shows that, much as the camera crops, distills angles and exaggerates planes, so the 20th-century landscape provokes awe in some unlikely places.
Curated by Dr. Leo Mazow, Louise B. and J. Harwood Cochrane curator of American art at VMFA.
Cutting across continents, cultures, and a millennium, this installation brings together eighteen objects from VMFA’s permanent collections created in regions where Islam is or has been the dominant religion, or by artists from these places. Some themes recur—the written word, self-awareness, cultural tension—but perhaps most apparent is these works’ great diversity. This cross section of artistic creations from Islam’s sphere of influence is meant to provoke the question whether, and in what ways, we should call them “Islamic Art.”
Page from the “Houghton Shahnama”: The Combat of Giv and Kamus, ca. 1522-1540, Iranian, manuscript ink, transparent and opaque watercolors, gold paint, and gold leaf on wove papers. Adolph D. and Wilkins C. Williams Fund, 78.121
Calligraphic Album Page, 1606/07, Abdul-Rahim Al-Harawi (Indian, Lahore, present-day Pakistan), ink and opaque watercolor on paper. Adolph D. and Wilkins C. Williams Fund, 82.128
Talismanic Shirt, 15th-16th century, Indian, North India or Deccan, ink and opaque watercolor on cotton. Robert A. and Ruth W. Fisher Fund, 2000.9
Kalki Confronted, 2003, Gulammohammed Sheikh (Indian, born 1937), opaque watercolor on Arches paper. Kathleen Boone Samuels Memorial Fund, 2003.42
S4M53, 2004, Farhad Moshiri (Iranian, born 1963), oil on canvas. Kathleen Boone Samuels Memorial Fund, and funds given by Dr. and Mrs. G. Dastgir Qureshi and Mary and Donald Shockey Jr., 2004.68
Folio from a Qur’an, 11th-12th century, Probably Egyptian, manuscript ink and opaque watercolor on laid paper. Arthur and Margaret Glasgow Fund, 78.20
Qur’anic Writing Tablet, 19th-20th century, Hausa culture (Nigeria), wood, leather, string, pigment. Arthur and Margaret Glasgow Fund, 95.83
Step inside the private world of Napoleon Bonaparte (1769–1821) for an upclose encounter with the propaganda machine that modernized and legitimized his reign as self-titled Emperor in the wake of the French Revolution. Corsican by birth and French by design, Napoleon was a man of continual reinvention—a minor nobleman and military general whose political ambition inspired his every move. Discover the exquisite works of art that crafted Napoleon’s image and the Imperial Household that supported his audacious rise to power. More than 200 works of art—many of which have never before been exhibited in the United States—reveal the intricacies of the Emperor’s daily life and the range of works commissioned by and for him. This exhibition of international loans includes major masterpieces of painting, an array of decorative arts, sculptures, engravings, and more—brought together from the Château de Fontainebleau, the Louvre, the Musée de l’Armée in Paris, and other world-class collections. Projection technology further enhances the spectacle by creating an experience that is innovative, immersive, and visceral.
Bust-Length Portrait of Napoleon in Ceremonial Robes, ca. 1805–14, Workshop of Baron François‐Pascal‐Simon Gérard, oil on canvas. Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Ben Weider Collection. Photo MMFA, Christine Guest Bust-Length Portrait of Napoleon in Ceremonial Robes, ca. 1805–14, Workshop of Baron François‐Pascal‐Simon Gérard, oil on canvas. Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Ben Weider Collection. Photo MMFA, Christine Guest
Pair of Ice Pails with Elephant‐Head Handles, from the Greek Iconography Service Given to Cardinal Fesch in Commemoration of the King of Rome’s Baptism, 1810–11,Sèvres Imperial Manufactory, porcelain. Collection Comte et Comtesse Charles‐André Colonna Walewski, Geneva. Photo Thierry Genand Pair of Ice Pails with Elephant‐Head Handles, from the Greek Iconography Service Given to Cardinal Fesch in Commemoration of the King of Rome’s Baptism, 1810–11,Sèvres Imperial Manufactory, porcelain. Collection Comte et Comtesse Charles‐André Colonna Walewski, Geneva. Photo Thierry Genand Iconography Service Given to Cardinal Fesch in Commemoration of the King of Rome’s Baptism, 1810– 11,Sèvres Imperial Manufactory, porcelain. Collection Comte et Comtesse Charles‐André Colonna Walewski, Geneva. Photo Thierry Genand
The Emperor’s Grand Vermeil, Pot à Oille and Tray, 1789–1804, Henry Auguste (1759–1816), vermeil. Château de Fontainebleau, musée Napoléon I (dépôt du Mobilier national). Photo © RMN‐Grand Palais /Art Resource, NY The Emperor’s Grand Vermeil, Pot à Oille and Tray, 1789–1804, Henry Auguste (1759–1816), vermeil. Château de Fontainebleau, musée Napoléon I (dépôt du Mobilier national). Photo © RMN‐Grand Palais /Art Resource, NY
Napoleon: Power and Splendor is organized, produced, and circulated by the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts with the participation of Château de Fontainebleau and the exceptional support of Mobilier national de France. The exhibition program at VMFA is supported by the Julia Louise Reynolds Fund.
The exhibition is curated by Sylvain Cordier, Curator of Early Decorative Arts, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.
Altria Group
The Lettie Pate Whitehead Evans Exhibition Endowment
The Julia Louise Reynolds Fund
Mrs. Frances Massey Dulaney
Mr. and Mrs. Fred T. Tattersall
Lilli and William Beyer
Mr. and Mrs. Achille Murat Guest
Mr. and Mrs. Joseph T. Knox
Peachtree House Foundation
Mr. and Mrs. James H. Price III
Additional ongoing support for VMFA’s exhibition program is provided by the Dr. Donald S. and Beejay Brown Endowment, the Council Exhibition Fund, and the Fabergé Ball Endowment.