The cultural heritage and history that art museums hold have traditionally made it harder for them to position themselves as vanguards of modernity and progress. In recent years, many institutions have attempted to step more fully into the 21st century with visual and narrative rebrands, but not all to positive reception.
Art Galleries & Museums
The Barnes Foundation's Henri Rousseau: A Painter’s Secrets is a knockout. If you aren’t familiar with his work– though you likely have seen his masterpiece, The Sleeping Gypsy (1897), borrowed from MoMA for the occasion– this show is a must-see. And, even if you think you know Rousseau, the exhibition still brims with surprises.
Famously known as Grandma Moses, American folk artist Anna Mary Robertson Moses (1860–1961) had a huge, and often unacknowledged, impact on American arts and culture. Frequently used as a prime example that it's never too late, the 79-year-old splashed onto the art scene in 1939, with three works in MOMA’s group show Contemporary Unknown American Painters, followed by a solo exhibition at Otto Kallir's New York Galerie St.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s recently opened Dive Egypt exhibition is the latest in a long line of shows centered on ancient Egyptian art to draw massive crowds and fanfare.
In a mysterious photograph from 1922, a pair of shadowy figures hold each other’s faces in their glowing hands and kiss. Perhaps their palms and fingers can deliver heat, and that’s why the bushy brows of the figure on the left trail up in a smoky wisp, suggesting fire. A dark form resembling a thin, double-sided knife also cuts across the image just below the couple’s noses.
The Book of Esther in the Age of Rembrandt centers on the popularity of the Jewish heroine Esther in Dutch art. Celebrated for delivering her people from genocide, this Queen of Persia strategically revealed her previously hidden Jewish identity to her royal husband, convincing him to foil his advisor’s plot. Michele L.
The exhibition, Painting Without Rules, is not only an immersion into American abstract expressionist Helen Frankenthaler’s work, but it is also an opportunity to see and understand how friendships among committed artists are important.
Influencer marketing has been a mainstay of consumer brands for years, but only recently have museums embraced the trend with the same enthusiasm. With about 300 million people globally considering themselves content creators, there are plenty of partners to choose from.
“What belongs to one, belongs to almost no one,” said Spanish sculptor Eduardo Chillida, who dedicated a significant portion of his practice to public works. His “De Musica” stands outside Dallas’ IM Pei-designed Meyerson Symphony Center, while his “Rough Chant V” decorates the garden of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
Here are 11 of the most surprising facts about the history of the Louvre.
