Past Exhibitions

1222 results found

In the Tower: Theaster Gates: The Minor Arts

Closed September 4, 2017

Salvaging discarded materials found in and around his native Chicago, Gates responds to the decline of urban institutions and traditions and resurrects them as art. Gates gives new form to the outdated and the left-behind and stakes a claim for the artfulness of the everyday.

Narrow boards of a wood gymnasium floor were taken apart and reassembled as vertical planks that make up this wide, rectangular panel, which hangs on a wall. Several boards have long strips of black tape and one, near the top right corner, has a band of red tape. Most of the markings are short checks of black, white, red, and green tape. The wood stain is dark in some areas, gray with damage in others, or flaking in places. The two longest horizontal black stripes are near the top left corner and across the right half, about a third of the way down from the top edge of the piece. The room where this hangs has wider planked wood floors and a white wall.

The Urban Scene: 1920–1950

Closed August 6, 2017

The image depicts a cityscape viewed from ground level, surrounded by tall skyscrapers. The buildings dominate the scene, showing a style characterized by strong lines and shading. The architecture is rendered with meticulous pencil or ink lines creating depth. The color palette is primarily black, white, and shades of grey, emphasizing light and shadows. People and vehicles are present, and roads curve into the distance among the buildings. In the background, smoke or clouds drift skyward above the city. A flag prominently waves from a building on the left, adding movement to the scene.

In the Library: Process and Participation in the Work of Christo and Jeanne-Claude

Closed April 14, 2017

Della Robbia: Sculpting with Color in Renaissance Florence

Closed June 4, 2017

This exhibition will present some 40 works by Luca della Robbia, his nephew Andrea, Andrea’s sons, and the competing Buglioni workshop. Sculptural types such as reliefs, portraits, architectural decorations, household statuettes, and active full-scale figures will be on display.

Exhibition: Rineke Dijkstra

Closed July 16, 2017

The image shows two individuals standing side by side, capturing their full bodies from head to toe. The person on the left stands with his hands tucked into his pockets, wearing a serious expression. He has closely shaved black hair and is dressed in a green jacket layered over a Timberland sweatshirt with light-colored jeans and black shoes. The person on the right stands with one hand in his pocket and the other at his side. He has short black hair and is wearing a black Reebok tracksuit with white detailing, along with white sneakers. This individual is also wearing a black waist bag and a ring on one finger. The background is a plain, light-colored wall with a wooden floor.

Stuart Davis: In Full Swing

Closed March 5, 2017

Davis assimilates the imagery of popular culture, the aesthetics of advertising, the lessons of cubism, and the sounds and rhythms of jazz into works that hum with intelligence and energy. This exhibition includes his 1921 tobacco package paintings through five decades to his last canvas.

Drawings for Paintings in the Age of Rembrandt

Closed January 2, 2017

Alfred Stieglitz and His Circle

Closed April 11, 2017

Best known as an early promoter and practitioner of photography as a fine art, Alfred Stieglitz was also a champion of modern painting and sculpture. Between 1908 and 1917 his gallery, 291 (named for its address on Fifth Avenue), introduced New York audiences to almost every new European art movement and to many of the American artists on view in this room — including Georgia O’Keeffe, whom he married in 1924.

Pools of sapphire, aquamarine, and cobalt-blue watercolor puddle and bleed together in this abstract painting on paper. Most of the horizonal sheet is taken up with a dark blue form reminiscent of a hill. The upper corners of the sheet are painted powder blue, suggesting sky. The sheet is edged with the white of the paper, and the darker and lighter blue areas are also mostly separated by a thin white line.

Los Angeles to New York: Dwan Gallery, 1959–1971

Closed January 29, 2017

This exhibition will trace Virginia Dwan's activities and the emergence of an avant-garde gallery in an age of mobility, when air travel and the interstate highway system linked the two coasts and transformed the making of art and the sites of its exhibition.

In the Tower: Barbara Kruger

Closed January 22, 2017

A focused exhibition of Kruger’s conceptual work of related images of faces and figures in profile over which striking phrases and figures of speech are superimposed. Active verbs and personal pronouns contrast with selected images of side-glancing figures, receiving and averting the viewer’s gaze.