Current Exhibitions
Featured Exhibition
Advancing Abstraction in Modern Sculpture
July 21, 2010 – February 20, 2011
Free exhibition
One of the earliest examples of David Smith’s welding is shown for the first time in this exhibition of more than 30 works drawn from the BMA’s collection, the Estate of David Smith, and private collections. Once considered “lost” by the Smith Estate, Head with Cogs for Eyes came to the BMA last year as part of a generous bequest. It is joined by works by Hans Arp, Naum Gabo, Julio Gonzalez, Henry Moore, Louise Nevelson, and other modern artists who moved beyond the figure to create sculptures based on a new language of abstract forms.
David Smith. Head with Cogs for Eyes. 1933. The Baltimore Museum of Art: Ryda and Robert H. Levi Collection, Gift of the Estate of Ryda Hecht Levi, Baltimore, BMA 2009.194. Ar ©Estate of David Smith/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NYM
On the Mark: Contemporary Works on Paper
July 3 - September 12, 2010
Free exhibition
This intimate exhibition of nine recently acquired prints and drawings shows how a single element takes on new meaning when multiplied or magnified. The highlight is Ellsworth Kelly’s River II, a monumental lithograph more than six feet by nine feet in size that presents a grid of enlarged brushstrokes rearranged in what appears to be random order. Also shown are works by Astrid Bowlby, Annabel Daou, Tara Donovan, Ann Hamilton, Juan Logan, Vik Muniz, Gerhard Richter, and Koo Kyung Sook. These prints and drawings find beauty in the ordinary—the curve of a rubber band, the repetition of word, an artist’s mark.
Textiles Recycled/Reimagined
March 10, 2010–October 10, 2010
Free exhibition
This intimate exhibition presents more than a dozen unique objects made either wholly or in part from reused and/or repurposed materials. Examples include a Japanese Buddhist priest’s robe most likely composed of expensive fabrics donated by wealthy acolytes, a quilt made of scraps of ordinary commercial fabrics sewn by an African-American woman, and handcrafted mats from the Grenfell missions of Labrador made of silk or rayon jersey from worn out stockings and undergarments. Also featured is a contemporary American quilted wall hanging made from vintage handkerchiefs, and a silk fabric made with feathers from restaurant-harvested fowls.
Also on View
The Cone Collection
Ongoing
Visit some of your old favorites with works by Matisse, Picasso, Pissarro, Courbet, and a self-portrait by Degas-back on view at the BMA for the first time in several years. Discover new works by Matisse on view alongside those of his contemporaries in this new installation showing this great artist’s importance in the 20th century. See the incredible 3D technology, featured in last year’s special exhibition Matisse: Painter as Sculptor, a groundbreaking study of Matisse’s creative process and the culmination of the first technical study of Matisse’s sculpture by BMA experts. By combining art historical research with 3D laser scanning, x-ray fluorescence spectrometry, and other methods, they uncovered how Matisse created works in series. Don’t miss this groundbreaking view of Matisse’s sculpture now on view in this exciting multimedia display.
A Grand Legacy: Five Centuries of European Art
European Art Galleries
Ongoing
A Grand Legacy: Five Centuries of European Art features the monumental Rinaldo and Armida, one of the world's finest paintings by Sir Anthony van Dyck, as well as masterpieces by Frans Hals, Rembrandt van Rijn, and Jean Baptiste Siméon Chardin.
Collection Highlights
Paint!
American Decorative Arts Gallery
Ongoing
Discover a dazzling sample of japanned, ebonized, grained, and polychromed American and European furniture. These delicate and bold 18th- and 19th-century clocks, cabinets, tables, and chairs are gathered from Baltimore, Boston, and beyond.
