States of Change in Africa

Two recently acquired works in the African collection provide insight into far-reaching social and economic changes associated with the independence movement that swept across Africa during the 1950s and 1960s, bringing an end to European colonialism officially, if not in reality. The upbeat Barber’s Sign from Ghana, infused with the optimism of the new era, suggests modern hairstyles for fashionable personal identity, while celebrating the name Ghana along with the red, yellow, green, and black state colors the new nation adopted after declaring autonomy from Britain in 1957.

Revealing another aspect of the transition, the haunting photo montage, Untitled 21, from the suite Mémoire, by Congolese artist, Sammy Baloji investigates the impact of industrial development in the Belgian Congo during the colonial era and its demise after independence in 1960. In this focus installation, both the sign and the photo montage are presented with related works to portray the historic context more broadly and cast a sharper focus on the nature of the changes in society and art that have played out in Africa during the second half of the 20th century.

Forbidden City: Imperial Treasures from the Palace Museum, Beijing

Access our FREE web-based Forbidden City audio tour. Use your own mobile device and headphones and our free wi-fi to stream the audio tour in the galleries or enjoy the tour at home on your computer.

Launch Audio Tour

Drawn from the collection of the Palace Museum in Beijing, Forbidden City will offer visitors a unique journey through a palace once forbidden to the general public, and provide a glimpse into this hidden world through rich and diverse objects from the Ming (1368–1644) and Qing (1644–1911) dynasties. Featured works include large portraits, costumes, furniture, court paintings, religious sculptures, and fine decorative arts such as bronzes, lacquer ware, and jade. This exhibition explores the significant roles of imperial rituals, court painting, imperial family life, and religion in the Forbidden City.

Forbidden City: Imperial Treasures from the Palace Museum, Beijing is organized by the Palace Museum and the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. The exhibition is curated by Li Jian, E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Curator of East Asian Art at VMFA.

This exhibition is part of a groundbreaking exchange between the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and the Palace Museum – a series of collaborative projects between 2011 and 2016 that include exhibition and staff exchange in the areas of administration, curatorship, conservation, education, and security. VMFA is the first art museum in the United States to establish such an extensive collaborative project with the Palace Museum in Beijing, and this is the first time VMFA will host an exhibition of Chinese art directly from China.

A scholarly catalogue accompanies the exhibition, with essays contributed by Li Jian, E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Curator of East Asian Art at VMFA; He Li, Associate Curator of Chinese Art from the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco; Hou-mei Sung, Curator of Asian Art from the Cincinnati Art Museum; and Ma Shengnan, Associate Researcher from the Palace Museum. The exhibition catalogue is published by the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.

THE GREAT WAR: Printmakers of World War I

“The Great War” changed the face of the world when it began on July 28, 1914. The story of World War I and the emotions it brought on are told through prints by British and American artists such as Muirhead Bone, Kerr Eby, Childe Hassam, James McBey, and Claude Shepperson. The works depict scenes of combat in France and the Near East, life on the home front in the United States and England, and the war’s aftermath and its commemoration. All of the prints come from the Frank Raysor Collection, a promised gift to the museum. Curated by Dr. Mitchell Merling, Paul Mellon Curator and Head of the Department of European Art.

Ryan McGinness: Studio Visit

Ryan McGinness: Studio Visit will explore this contemporary artist’s creative process for his 2009 painting Art History Is Not Linear (VMFA). Commissioned by VMFA, this 16-panel painting contains 200 icons inspired by works from the museum’s collection. A three-part exhibition, the first gallery will provide a glimpse of McGinness’s studio practice, the second will display a selection of the objects McGinness chose from the museum collection alongside his sketches and final image, and the last portion will show early works the artist made while growing up in Virginia Beach. The exhibition will engage a wide audience, and an exciting array of education programs will especially encourage young viewers to seek out their own favorite works in the collection and actively participate in their own process of exploration and interpretation.

Fine Arts and Flowers 2014

Presented by The Council of VMFA, the 12th Fine Arts & Flowers features floral interpretations of masterpieces from the permanent collection, presented by members of The Garden Club of Virginia, the Virginia Federation of Garden Clubs, and Garden Clubs of Virginia. This four-day fundraising exhibition combines fine art with floral mastery for a dazzling exhibition of beauty and creativity.

Maps of the floral exhibit placements will be available at Visitor Services.

Related Events

FAF Group Guided Tours

Thu, Oct 24, and Fri, Oct 25
9:30am, 10:30am, 11:30am, 12:30pm, 1:30pm, 2:30pm

Sat, Oct 26, and Sun, Oct 27
11:30am, 12:30pm, 1:30pm, 2:30pm, 3:30pm

$15 per person.
Meet in the Cochrane Atrium

Internal use only. Reserved through Kathy Parrish.

Unfolding Elegance: Gala Preview

Wed, Oct 23, 2024
6:30–9:30 pm
$250 per person. Advance registration required.
Cochrane Atrium

Join us for the opening celebration and preview of Fine Arts & Flowers.

Guided Tours

Thu, Oct 24, and Fri, Oct 25
10 am, 11am, 12 pm, 1pm, 2 pm, and 3 pm

Sat, Oct 26, and Sun, Oct 27
11 am, 12 pm, 1 pm, 2 pm, and 3 pm

$15 per person
Meet in the Cochrane Atrium

Enjoy a 50 minute guided tour of exhibition highlights with a VMFA tour guide.

Guest Speaker | Ingrid Carozzi

Thu, Oct 24, 2024
10–11 am
$50 per person
Cheek Theater

As a leader in sustainable floral design, Ingrid Carozzi teaches workshops and master classes at FlowerSchool in New York. She owns Tin Can Studios, specializing in floral designs for weddings and corporate events, and has been named Best Florist by New York Magazine. Recently, she collaborated with TIME magazine on their announcement gala for the 2023 Person of the Year, Taylor Swift. Carozzi’s latest book is Flowers by Design: Creating Arrangements for Your Space.

Marble Hall Luncheon

Thu & Fri, Oct 24 & 25, 2024
noon–1 pm
$65 per person. Advance registration required.
Marble Hall

Enjoy a seated luncheon in the Marble Hall, accompanied by fashion modeling by the VMFA Shop.

Guest Speaker | Robbie Honey

Thu, Oct 24, 2024
2–3 pm
$50 per person
Cheek Theater

Born in Zimbabwe, Robbie Honey grew up roaming the countryside and developing a love of flowers. At age 25, he opened a London business where he worked with high fashion clients including Hermès, Dior, Valentino, Armani, and Lancôme. As an international horticulturist, Honey is concerned about worldwide threats to native plant habitats. His first publication, The Accidental Botanist: The Structure of Plants Revealed, has garnered a worldwide audience.

Curator Tour and Reception

"The Great American Still Life” with Dr. Christopher Oliver, Bev Perdue Jennings Associate Curator of American Art
Thu, Oct 24, 2024
3:30–5:30 pm
$45 per person
Meet at Visitor Services

Guest Speaker | Canaan Marshall

Fri, Oct 25, 2024
10–11 am
$50 per person
Cheek Theater

Known as “The Flower Whisperer,” Canaan Marshall has demonstrated a knack for all things growing and green since childhood. An animated, joyful floral designer, his skills include largescale event arrangements, with two featured in Flower magazine’s 2023 “Best Flower Arrangements” lists. Marshall’s advice: “Choose flowers you like, put some love into the preparation, and have fun!” He hopes to be a role model for Black children and inspire them to fulfill their dreams, as he has done.

Curator Tour and Reception

“De Heem and the Golden Age of Dutch Still Life Painting” with Dr. Michael Taylor, Chief Curator and Deputy Director for Art & Education
Fri, Oct 25, 2024
3:30–5:30 pm
$45 per person
Meet at Visitor Services

Floral Workshop with David Pippin

Sat, Oct 26, 2024
10–11 am or 2–3 pm
$50 per person
Conference Room 1

Popular floral designer David Pippin will lead “Art for Inspiration," a hands-on creation of arrangements based on works in the VMFA collection.

Luncheon and Fashion Show

Sat, Oct 26, 2024
noon–1 pm
$65 per person. Advance reservations required.
Marble Hall

The Flowers in Fashion luncheon showcases original designs by students from the Virginia Commonwealth University Department of Fashion Design & Merchandising.

Floral Workshop with Sarah Chiffriller

Sun, Oct 27, 2024
10–11 am
$50 per person
Conference Room 1

In her workshop “Environmentally Conscious Design,” Sarah Chiffriller offers instruction and tips, including the use of various sustainable practices

Floral Libations

Sun, Oct 27, 2024
noon–1 pm
$90 per person
Claiborne Robertson Room

Enjoy hearty fare, cocktails, mocktails, and prizes at this brunch featuring creations by Amuse Lead Bartender Molly McCurnin.

Floral Workshop with Ikebana of Richmond

Sun, Oct 27, 2024
2–3 pm
$50 per person
Conference Room 1

Ikeana of Richmond hosts “Ikebana Arrangements,” a hands-on workshop
showcasing the Japanese art of flower arranging.

Presented by The Council of VMFA

Floral designs by members of the Garden Club of Virginia, Virginia Federation of Garden Clubs, and Garden Clubs of Virginia.

Official Supplier of Flowers
and Plant Material

Platinum Sponsor

Gold Sponsors

Silver Sponsors

Barnes & Diehl, P.C.
Charles Schwarzschild Jeweler, Inc.
James River Air Conditioning Company
Lewis T. Stoneburner, Attorney
Mark Franko Custom Building
Middleburg Bank & Middleburg Trust Company
Riverfront Investment Group, LLC
Stoever & Palmore Investment Group of Wells Fargo Advisors
Westminster Canterbury Richmond

Esther Mahlangu: An Artistic Residency

VMFA gives visitors the unique opportunity to watch the creation of a work of art for the permanent collection. In September, renowned South African artist Esther Mahlangu will paint two mural-scale works, which will serve as a gateway to the museum’s African Art Gallery. These 9- by 15-foot works on canvas will be the only major museum commission created by Mahlangu in North America.

Mahlangu, works in the traditional Ndebele style of bold, geometric patterns executed on a very large scale. In the late-nineteenth century, the Ndebele women painted the exteriors of their houses in this style as an expression of identity and pride. Over the years, with the development of commercial paints, the original earth tones created from natural pigments have changed to a brighter palette. Mahlangu is the first woman and only non-Westerner to paint one of the BMW Art Cars, following in the footsteps of the likes of Warhol and Lichtenstein.

As the artist climbs scaffolding and paints without a straight edge of any sort, these large works of art will evolve before visitors’ eyes over the course of a month. VMFA will document Mahlangu’s work for those who cannot watch in person. The finished work will be presented to patrons and the public in programs on October 8 and 9.

Signs of Protest: Photographs from the Civil Rights Era

Signs and protests were inseparable in the 1960s. Like a visual bullhorn, they both amplified and unified the voices fighting injustice. This exhibition includes photographs that feature protest signs, as well as images of the larger culture of resistance surrounding them, with an emphasis on Civil Rights leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, and Stokely Carmichael.

From Picasso to Magritte: European Masters from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts

Current Venue

Jan 25 – Aug 23, 2014 | Taubman Museum of Art | Roanoke, VA

About the Exhibition

Thirty-six works from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts make up a remarkable new traveling exhibition that made its first stop at the William King Museum in Abingdon, Virginia and is currently on display at the Taubman Museum of Art, Roanoke. From Picasso to Magritte: European Masters from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts offers drawings and paintings from the 19^th and 20^th centuries that represent generations of important European artists as they journeyed away from the defined edges of Neoclassicism and toward the uninhibited marks of the modern era.

Artists on view include English painters and German Expressionists, as well as Impressionists such as Edgar Degas, Paul Cézanne, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, and Vincent van Gogh. The works span nearly 150 years, from an 1816 drawing by Jean August Dominique Ingres to a 1960s watercolor by Georgio Morandi.

For more information on Statewide exhibitions, please contact gina.collins@vmfa.museum or phone 804.340.1650.

Identity Shifts

In conjunction with Posing Beauty, this VMFA collection-based exhibition features works by African American artists. These representations of the human figure or aspects of the body explore how we perceive and express personal and cultural identity. The selection of paintings and sculptures from the 1970s to the present features an array of perspectives and styles that underscore the complex factors informing ideas of race and gender. Many of the 21st century artists—such as iona rozeal brown, Trenton Doyle Hancock, and Robert Pruitt—mix national, international, historical, and pop-culture references with personal stylistic preferences to produce images that provoke more questions about identity than they answer. The selection of photographs offers a survey of 20th- to 21st-century work—from James VanDerZee to Carrie Mae Weems to Hank Willis Thomas—while also highlighting the work of lesser-known artists, such as Richmond native Louis Draper, who played a primary role in founding the first African American photography collective, Kamoinge, in New York in 1963. Many of these works will be on view at VMFA for the first time.

Curated by Dr. Sarah Eckhardt, Assistant Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art

Posing Beauty in African American Culture

Posing Beauty in African American Culture examines the contested ways in which African and African American beauty has been represented in historical and contemporary contexts through a diverse range of media including photography, film, video, fashion, advertising, and other forms of popular culture such as music and the Internet. The exhibition explores contemporary understandings of beauty by framing the notion of aesthetics, race, class, and gender within art, popular culture, and political contexts. The exhibition is organized by the Department of Photography & Imaging at New York University, Tisch School of the Arts, traveled by Curatorial Assistance Traveling Exhibitions, and curated by Dr. Deborah Willis. The touring exhibition is made possible in part by the JP Morgan Chase Foundation. Additional support has been provided by grants from the Tisch School of the Arts Office of the Dean’s Faculty Development Fund, Visual Arts Initiative Award from the NYU Coordinating Council for Visual Arts, and NYU’s Advanced Media Studio. Drawn from public and private collections, Posing Beauty features approximately 85 works by artists such as Carrie Mae Weems, Charles “Teenie” Harris, Eve Arnold, Gary Winogrand, Sheila Pree Bright, Leonard Freed, Renee Cox, Anthony Barboza, Bruce Davidson, Mickalene Thomas, and Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe.

Identity Shifts

In conjunction with Posing Beauty, this VMFA collection-based, companion exhibition features works by African American artists. These representations of the human figure or aspects of the body explore how we perceive and express personal and cultural identity. The selection of paintings and sculptures—from the 1970s to the present—features an array of perspectives and styles that underscore the complex factors informing ideas of race and gender. Many of the 21st century artists—such as iona rozeal brown, Trenton Doyle Hancock, and Robert Pruitt—mix national, international, historical, and pop-culture references with personal stylistic preferences to produce images that provoke more questions about identity than they answer. The selection of photographs offers a survey of 20th- to 21st-century work—from James VanDerZee to Carrie Mae Weems to Hank Willis Thomas—while also highlighting the work of lesser-known artists, such as Richmond native Louis Draper, who played a primary role in founding the first African American photography collective, Kamoinge, in New York in 1963. Many of these works will be on view at VMFA for the first time. Curated by Dr. Sarah Eckhardt, Assistant Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art

Japanese Dolls: Woodblock Prints by Kawase Hasui

Japanese woodblock artist Kawase Hasui (1883–1957) was primarily a landscape artist and rarely produced works featuring other subjects. However, in 1935 he designed a series of woodblock prints that focused on traditional Japanese dolls, including Imperial Palace dolls, known as gosho ningyo. That same year, the 24 ningyo prints in this series were published in an album entitled Japanese Dolls: Gosho Ningyo by Meiji-Shobo. The twelve prints on display at VMFA were selected from the album, donated by René and Carolyn Balcer.

Catching Sight: The World of the British Sporting Print

This exhibition sheds new light on a common, but often overlooked aspect of British art: the British Sporting Print. Highly sought after during the 18th and 19th centuries, these prints endure as symbols of English culture.

Featuring more than 100 prints, Catching Sight demonstrates the aesthetic sophistication and accomplishments of the genre. The exhibition takes an innovative approach to the subject, examining these works of art from an art historical perspective rather than simply as documents of the history of sport and rural culture.

By focusing on the visual language of Sporting Prints, Catching Sight demonstrates the qualities of directness, vividness, and even wit for which the genre was prized by both the larger public and artists such as Degas and Géricault, who borrowed extensively from its artistic vocabulary.

Catching Sight: The World of the British Sporting Print is accompanied by a lavishly illustrated catalogue by Mitchell Merling, Paul Mellon Curator, with contributions from Malcolm Cormack, Paul Mellon Curator Emeritus, and Corey Piper, former Curatorial Associate for the Mellon Collection.

Clare Leighton: From Pencil to Proof to Press

This display of approximately 30 drawings, prints, posters, porcelain, and books by the Anglo-American artist Clare Leighton (1898–1989) comes from a local and rarely seen private collection. Born and raised in Great Britain, she moved to America in 1939, residing first in Maryland, then North Carolina, and finally in Connecticut. Leighton occupied a central position in the Arts and Crafts revival of British wood engraving and its related developments in America. Her book illustrations set a new standard in commercially produced literature, while her writing revived interest in early-to-mid-century rural culture. As the first woman to produce a study of the art of wood engraving (Wood-Engraving and Woodcuts, 1932), Leighton played a key role in popularizing the medium. This exhibition, which complements a larger display of Leighton’s work at the University of Richmond’s Harnett Museum of Art, includes examples of her watercolors, government posters, and wood engravings for novels by Thomas Hardy as well as volumes on southern and New England country life. It is organized for VMFA by Chief Curator and Cochrane Curator of American Art Sylvia Yount.

Made in Hollywood: Photographs from the John Kobal Foundation

Complementing Hollywood Costume, Made in Hollywood showcases more than 90 original vintage prints by the most important photographers working in Hollywood 1920–1960.

Selected from the Kobal Foundation collection in England the exhibition features prints of some of the greatest stars during the golden age of the film industry, including Greta Garbo, Marlene Dietrich, Humphrey Bogart, Gloria Swanson and Clark Gable.

The Foundation is the legacy of John Kobal (1940–1991) who was among the pioneering generation of Hollywood historians and among the first to examine seriously the photographs taken to promote the stars, the films, and Hollywood as place.

Hollywood Costume

Organized by the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, Hollywood Costume explores the central role costume design plays in cinematic storytelling. Bringing together the most iconic costumes from a century of cinema, it is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see the clothes worn by unforgettable and beloved characters in films such as The Wizard of Oz, The Birds, My Fair Lady, Superman, Titanic, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince and The Dark Knight Rises.

The exhibition includes cinema costumes from private and archival collections in California. Most have never been publicly displayed or seen beyond the secure walls of the studio archives. The exhibition explores in detail how the design and use of costume has been central to the creation of some of the most iconic characters in popular culture and is a key component in what is arguably the greatest art form of the 20th century: cinema.

In addition to premiering Hollywood Costume in the United States, VMFA is the only East Coast venue for the exhibition.

VMFA teams up with the Virginia Film Festival .
See Tippi Hedren from Hitchcock’s The Birds at both VMFA and the VFF in Charlottesville, plus see some of Hollywood Costumes’ films at the VFF.

Step into the Role of a Lifetime: Present a Hollywood Costume.

Spotlight Loan: Rembrandt

It is always fascinating to chart the course of a great artist from the beginning—but when the artist in question is Rembrandt, that academic exercise can also be quite thrilling. This is certainly the case with two of Rembrandt’s earliest surviving paintings.

They are on view in VMFA’s European Baroque Art Gallery beginning this December and through the next year, thanks to the generous loan from a private collection and funding from the Collector’s Circle.

Aaron Siskind and Abstract Photography of the 1950s and 60s

In a 1951 essay, the artist and art critic Elaine de Kooning described Aaron Siskind as a “painter’s photographer.” Over 60 years later he remains the photographer most closely associated with mid-20^th-century Abstract Expressionism. His flat picture planes, shallow depth of field, and focus on surface textures resonate with the gestural paintings of artists such as Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, and Franz Kline. Siskind also shared an artistic ethos with many of these painters: he emphasized the way his own feelings shaped the image as he made it and became part of the work itself.

Siskind, along with other abstract photographers of this period—such as Harry Callahan, Minor White, and Gita Lenz—broadened the expressive potential of photography and expanded the definition of abstraction. Unlike painters, these artists composed their images directly from the environment around them, actively looking and moving their camera lens as they sought inspiration in subjects as seemingly mundane as rocks and peeling letters. For the most part their subjects can be easily identified, yet they are considered abstract because extreme close-ups or unusual angles take the image out of a narrative context, allowing the viewer to experience something familiar in a new way.

The exhibition includes a dozen of Siskind’s photographs and three to four each from Callahan, White, and Lenz. It will overlap with the final two months of Gesture: Judith Godwin and Abstract Expressionism, offering museum visitors an opportunity to further consider the relationship of abstract photography and painting. Curated by Dr. Sarah Eckhardt, Assistant Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art.

“ What I am conscious of and what I feel is the picture I am making.” — Aaron Siskind, Credo, 1950

“ The world about us, penetrated with imagination, is abstract enough.” — Gita Lenz, 1951

Say What? How Ancient Writing Began

As early civilizations developed, societies became more complicated. Record keeping and communication demanded something beyond symbols and pictures to represent the spoken word. Say What? How Ancient Writing Began Exhibition explores the early writing systems of four ancient civilizations: Mesopotamia, Egypt, China, and Mesoamerica.

Here you’ll also learn about the Rosetta Stone, the 19th-century discovery that gave scholars the key that unlocked the language of ancient Egypt.

Exhibition supported by the Memorial Foundation for Children Endowment

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Related Events

FAF Group Guided Tours

Unfolding Elegance: Gala Preview

Guided Tours

Guest Speaker | Ingrid Carozzi

Marble Hall Luncheon

Guest Speaker | Robbie Honey

Curator Tour and Reception

Guest Speaker | Canaan Marshall

Curator Tour and Reception

Floral Workshop with David Pippin

Luncheon and Fashion Show

Floral Workshop with Sarah Chiffriller

Floral Libations

Floral Workshop with Ikebana of Richmond

Official Supplier of Flowers and Plant Material

Platinum Sponsor

Gold Sponsors

Silver Sponsors

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Current Venue

About the Exhibition

Posing Beauty in African American Culture

Identity Shifts

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