Milwaukee Art Museum
Art, Life, Legacy: Northern European Paintings in the Collection of Isabel and Alfred Bader through January 28, 2024 Featuring masterpieces of 17th-century Dutch and Flemish painting—including works by Rembrandt van Rijn and Jan Lievens--Art, Life, Legacy: Northern European Paintings in the Collection of Isabel and Alfred Bader is the only U.S. exhibition of the Baders’ exquisite collection. This major exhibition pays tribute to the extraordinary lives and generosity of the late Drs. Isabel and Alfred Bader, and also illuminates the transformations that occurred across Dutch society during the Baroque period. Paintings reflecting themes of generosity, sacrifice, struggle, faith, family, and journey open the exhibition and impart the collectors’ life story. These are primarily scenes from the Hebrew Bible. Subsequent sections in the exhibition examine the role of mythology, the construction of identity, and the global trade and colonial expansion that not only built the wealth and prestige of the Dutch Republic but also fundamentally shifted how it viewed the world. The exhibition is organized by the Milwaukee Art Museum in collaboration with the Agnes Etherington Art Centre at Queen’s University. |
![]() |
Art Institute of Chicago
Picasso: Drawing from Life
through April 8, 2024 This exhibition, centered on the artist’s works on paper, brings into focus Picasso’s life and art as it intersected with a network of artists, dealers, printers, family members, and lovers. The many women with whom he had passionate and sometimes volatile relationships inspired him and are frequently represented in his art, as are several friends and family members. A complex person, Picasso represented his subjects with both tenderness and aggression. Behind-the-scenes, the printers and dealers with whom Picasso collaborated helped him realize and bring attention to thousands of works. These partnerships, both professional and personal, allowed Picasso to gain international renown. Featuring over 60 works—drawings, prints, and illustrated books, along with a handful of paintings and a sculpture—the exhibition spans his rich and varied 70-year career. Arranged chronologically, the presentation moves from Picasso’s student years in Barcelona, Spain, to his formative and collaborative invention of Cubism in Paris in 1908 and on to his return to representation in the 1920s. Picasso’s production exploded in the 1930s; fueled by his tumultuous personal life and the horrors of WWII, his imagery ranged from war-torn victims to predatory mythological creatures. His last two decades were marked by continued creative experimentation as Picasso, now personally and financially secure, largely retreated into his studio in the south of France. |
Saint Louis Art Museum
The Culture: Hip Hop and Contemporary Art in the 21st Century
August 19, 2023–January 1, 2024 The Culture: Hip Hop and Contemporary Art in the 21st Century presents a sweeping art history of hip hop culture and its myriad expressions across the globe. This multidisciplinary and multimedia exhibition examines the resounding impact of hip hop on contemporary art and culture, including its unique contributions to innovations in music, visual and performing arts, fashion, and technology. To illuminate the depth of hip hop’s influence, the exhibition will feature immersive installations, fashion, painting, sculpture, photography, and video, showcasing the complex, expansive, and international allure of one of the 20th and 21st century’s great cultural movements. The Culture prominently showcases iconic paintings not previously exhibited in St. Louis by some of the art world’s most famous practitioners, including Jean-Michel Basquiat and Mark Bradford, as well as works by artists represented in the SLAM collection, such as Julie Mehretu and Carrie Mae Weems. The exhibition also includes significant examples of fashion as well as a range of music ephemera. To further illuminate hip hop’s influence, the exhibition incorporates artists with deep ties to local communities. The exhibition explores a series of themes, emphasizing pressing issues in the hip hop industry, such as the complex relationship between capitalism, commodification, and racial identity; hip hop culture’s connection to gender, sexuality, feminism, appropriation, and misogyny; as well as hip hop’s relationship to the art world and the art market. The Culture is organized by the Saint Louis Art Museum and the Baltimore Museum of Art with an emphasis on community access and engagement as core to the exhibition experience. This exhibition is generously supported by the Ford Foundation, the Henry Luce Foundation and The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. |