The Museum Gardens will be closed for renovation August 1 - August 15. We appreciate your understanding. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.

Mick Namarari Tjapaltjarri: Mysteries that Remain

One of Australia’s most acclaimed Indigenous artists, Mick Namarari Tjapaltjarri was a founder of the Western Desert art movement. Mysteries that Remain is an important survey of Namarari’s work, featuring paintings on canvas and board from 1971-1990. It reveals the depth and complexity of Namarari’s artistic experiments as he restlessly strove to present the ancestral narratives of his desert homelands in new and innovative ways. Drawn from the extensive holdings of Namarari’s work in the Kluge-Ruhe Collection at the University of Virginia, Mysteries that Remain tracks Namarari’s progress from his iconographic and ritually explicit works of the 1970s to more abstracted landscapes of the 1990s. It shows Namarari to be an artist who grasped the creative challenge of painting for the art market while never losing sight of the ancestral underpinnings of his country. In turning our focus to Namarari’s art, we might see this reserved figure more clearly. And despite their alluring colors and designs, these paintings retain their mystery, hinting at the spiritual world beyond the painted image. This exhibition sheds new light on this enigmatic and important artist as he moved from detailed figurative works through to grand abstractions. A quiet, reserved man, this exhibition places Namarari in his rightful place as contemporary master.

This exhibition is organized by the Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection of the University of Virginia.

Image: Mick Namarari Tjapaltjarri (Pintupi, 1926 – 1998), Ceremony at Tjilka, 1973, synthetic polymer paint on composition, 23 15/16 x 18 x 1/2 in., Gift of John W. Kluge, 1997, Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection of the University of Virginia, 1996.0002.002.

Fabric of a Nation: American Quilt Stories from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Quilts are a democratic art. They provide a window into the lives of the many people who have made and used textiles, across geographic, political, social and economic contexts. Organized by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA), Fabric of a Nation: American Quilt Stories showcases more than 50 remarkable textiles by a variety of individuals—male and female, known and unidentified artists, urban and rural makers, immigrants, and Black, Latinx, Indigenous, Asian and LGBTQ+ Americans. The exhibition explores how the quilt, which is often seen today as a timeless, quintessentially “American” art form, has in fact continuously evolved, shaped by a broadly underrecognized diversity of artistic hands and minds. Dating from the 17th century to the present day, the masterpieces on view reveal a rich—and richly complicated—story of the nation’s shared history, contributing to the evolving conversation about what defines the American experience.

Credit: Bisa Butler (American, b. 1973), To God and Truth, 2019, printed and resist‑dyed cottons, cotton velvet, rayon satin, and knotted string, pieced, appliquéd, and quilted, John H. and Ernestine A. Payne Fund, The Heritage Fund for a          Diverse Collection, and Arthur Mason Knapp Fund, © Bisa Butler. Photograph © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Julien De Casabianca: The Outings Project

In 2014, Julien de Casabianca, a French artist and filmmaker, conspired to release some of the world’s great art, typically locked away within museums, into urban settings. His global Outings project, now in more than 70 locations world-wide, is a multi-step experience. First, he isolates figures from historical works of art, then prints them large scale and installs them in urban settings, and finally photographs the new composition. In conjunction with Jacksonville Outings, the Cummer Museum presents a sampling of Mr. de Casabianca’s photographs from his Lyon, New York, Paris, San Francisco, and Warsaw installations.

Fields of Color: The Art of Japanese Printmaking

Fields of Color: The Art of Japanese Printmaking presents nearly 20 prints from the 19th to early 20th century, which were selected from a prized collection of more than 230 examples. Lush pools of color combined with delicate, dark lines create images ranging from the absurdly fantastic to the serenely mundane. These scenes of the floating world, better known as ukiyo-e prints, are defined by their ability to transport the viewer to a weightless dimension ruled by bright, vibrant hues and compositional arrangements. The captivating work of master printmakers such as Ando Hiroshige (1797 – 1858) and Katsushika Hokusai (1838 – 1912) will be on display. A small selection of netsukes — ornate sculpted toggles — will complement this exhibition.

Augusta Savage: Renaissance Woman

Organized by guest curator Jeffreen M. Hayes, Ph.D., the Augusta Savage: Renaissance Woman exhibition features nearly 80 works of art, including sculptures, paintings, and works on paper, and is the first to reassess Harlem Renaissance artist Augusta Savage’s contributions to art and cultural history in light of 21st-century attention to the concept of the artist-activist. The fully illustrated companion catalogue presents the most up-to-date scholarly research, 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 art world.

A gifted sculptor, Savage (1892 – 1962) was born in Green Cove Springs and later became a significant teacher, leader, and catalyst for change. Overcoming poverty, racism, and sexual discrimination, Savage became one of this country’s most influential artists of the 20th century, playing an instrumental role in the development of some of the most celebrated African American artists, including: Charles Alston, William Artis, Romare Bearden, Robert Blackburn, Selma Burke, Ernest Crichlow, Gwendolyn Knight, Jacob Lawrence, Norman Lewis, and Morgan and Marvin Smith, whose works are also included in the exhibition. A prodigious and highly acclaimed artist in her own right, Augusta Savage created works that elevated images of black culture into mainstream America. A central figure in the Harlem Renaissance, she worked with other leaders, writers, musicians, and artists to showcase the contributions of African American culture. As a community organizer and teacher, Savage created a bridge between the first generation of Harlem Renaissance artists and subsequent generations of artists.

Through this exhibition, the Museum will highlight the artistic, social, and historic impact of Augusta Savage who, despite how she transformed the artistic landscape, is deserving of greater national appreciation. Today, Savage is best known for Lift Every Voice and Sing (formerly known as The Harp), her commissioned sculpture for the 1939 World’s Fair, and is recognized in Black community as an educator and an important community leader. However, Savage’s artistic skill was widely acclaimed nationally and internationally during her lifetime, and a further examination of her artistic legacy is long overdue. This exhibition will introduce Savage as a pioneering artist and community organizer who helped shape artistic movements that changed the way artists represent the Black figure, using art as a form of activism. This exhibition has received support from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Sotheby’s Prize and was on view between October 12, 2018 to April 7, 2019.

Little Leaders: Bold Women in Black History

Author, illustrator and filmmaker, Vashti Harrison is an artist with a background in cinematography and screenwriting, with a passion for storytelling. This exhibition includes 10 illustrations from her debut book Little Leaders: Bold Women in Black History, which features 40 biographies of African American women that helped shape history.

French Moderns: Monet to Matisse, 1850 – 1950

Figge Art Museum French Moderns: Monet to Matisse, 1850–1950 exhibits approximately 65 works of art from the Brooklyn Museum’s renowned European collection and positions France as the artistic center of international modernism from the mid-19th to mid-20th centuries. Ranging widely in scale, subject matter, and style, these paintings, drawings, and sculptures were intended for public display and for private collections, and were produced by the era’s leading artists, those born in France as well as those who studied and showed there, including Pierre Bonnard, Gustave Caillebotte, Paul Cézanne, Marc Chagall, Edgar Degas, Jean-Léon Gérôme, Henri Matisse, Jean-François Millet, Claude Monet, Berthe Morisot, Odilon Redon, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Auguste Rodin, Édouard Vuillard, and more.

The works in the exhibition exemplify the avant-garde movements that defined modern art in the 19th and 20th centuries, tracing a shift from capturing the visual to evoking the idea, from an emphasis on naturalism to the rise of abstraction.

French Moderns: Monet to Matisse, 1850–1950 is organized by Rich Aste, former Curator of European Art, and Lisa Small, Curator of European Painting and Sculpture, Brooklyn Museum. A fully illustrated catalogue accompanies the exhibition.

Tour Schedule with Dates
  • Davenport, Iowa – October 5, 2018 through January 6, 2019
  • Canada – February 16 through May 20, 2019