Exhibitions Archive
American Art from the Huber Family Collection
Embracing Elegance, 1885–1920
This exhibition features over thirty examples of American impressionist and realist pastels, drawings, and paintings by some of the leading artists active at the turn of the twentieth century, including Cecilia Beaux,Thomas Wilmer Dewing, Robert Henri, John Singer Sargent, Everett Shinn, John Sloan, John Henry Twachtman, and J. Alden Weir. Collected by Jack Huber, Dartmouth Class of 1963, and his wife, Russell, these works reveal a range of responses to the dramatic cultural and artistic developments of the era—from the brilliant colors and broad handling of the impressionists to the grit and verve of the urban realists.The predominant aesthetic in this collection, however, is the period taste for refinement and tranquility as seen in serene landscapes, poetic still lifes, and, especially, images of elegant women in repose.
Esmé Thompson
Esmé Thompson envelops her creative enterprise in the colors and complexities to be found in the visual “surfaces” of textiles, illuminated manuscripts, and the botanical world. Her art also embraces the work of other painters whom she admires, particularly Renaissance masters and the remarkably unique paintings French artist Edouard Vuillard (1868–1940). This exhibition of twenty-eight paintings and collages, plus a recent work in glazed ceramic, focuses on the last five to six years of her creative practice and demonstrates the full flowering of her interest in design and pattern. It is also a tribute to the artist’s career as a professor in Dartmouth College’s Studio Art Department, where she has worked for the last three decades.
Grounded in an Infinite Landscape
Aerial Perspectives
The works of art in this exhibition are all abstracted depictions of landscapes from an aerial perspective, a point of view that draws us into the work through an intensified experience of the entire composition. They all share the same basic focus, evoking some geographical construct or another, and a sense of place. While they have a visually abstract quality, this does not mean that we become lost. Rather, the means through which the artists masterfully render their subjects (including line, color, light, shadow, volume, and depth) encourage us to take an active role in these works’ realization. They ground us, ironically, as we examine them from every angle, following the symphony of marks along the surface and subconsciously constructing the imagined landscape both within and beyond the edges of the frame.
The Gibson Girl
A Man-Made Icon
Andy Warhol's American Dream
Follow the Money
A lively mixture of paintings, photographs, and prints juxtaposes Andy Warhol's (1928-1987) renderings of coins and dollar signs with images of people both famous and unknown. Art historian Trevor Fairbrother guest curates this exhibition in honor of the Andy Warhol Foundation's recent gift of 153 Warhol photos to the museum; Follow the Money also includes a rarely seen Warhol portrait of Dartmouth graduate Nelson A. Rockefeller, New York state governor (1959-73) and U.S. vice-president (1974-77).
Photographs from the John Kobal Foundation
Made in Hollywood
This exhibition celebrates the finest portraits and still photography produced during the heyday of the American film industry—1920 to 1960—now considered Hollywood’s Golden Age. It includes ninety-three photographs drawn from the London-based archive of the late author and collector John Kobal. This collection of the work of more than fifty photographers highlights portraits of film celebrities including Greta Garbo, Marlene Dietrich, Gloria Swanson, Clark Gable, and Humphrey Bogart. Through the skill and inventiveness of these photographers, the faces of Hollywood’s greatest stars were memorialized for generations of movie audiences.