Past Exhibitions
Women of Color Existence/Resistance in Contemporary Art
Still We Rise
Still We Rise features contemporary art from six women of color whose work embodies the theme of existence/resistance. Working against the backdrop of sexism and racism in the United States today, in its particular “post-racial” moment, these artists remind us that women of color live in the dangerous intersection of race-and gender-based forms of oppression.
Class of 1965 Photographers
Picturing the World
The Class of 1965 produced Dick Durrance, Dewitt Jones, Christopher Knight, Heinz Kluetmeier, and Joel Sternfeld, a remarkable group of photographers. With subjects from the Olympics to the Vietnam War, the photographs in this exhibition depict a variety of subjects from around the world, capturing the unique viewpoint of each photographer. This exhibition honors the fiftieth reunion of the Class of 1965.
Seventeenth-Century Art in the Netherlands
The Golden Age
This exhibition showcases seventeenth century Dutch and Flemish paintings and prints from the Hood Museum of Art’s collection. It includes a dramatic seascape, a still life, Biblical subjects, scenes of everyday life, and several portraits by artists including Rembrandt, Frans Hals, Hendrik Goltizus, and Anthony van Dyck. The exhibition was organized in conjunction with Art History Professor Joy Kenseth’s course on Northern Baroque art, which examines painting in Flanders and Holland from 1600 to 1700. These works touch on many of the course’s themes and the students will examine and write papers on selected works throughout the term.
Exploring the Excesses of Human Emotion
The Tortured Soul
When encountering the tortured soul, one is forced to confront aspects of the human experience that are often easier to ignore. The tragedies of human folly frequently appear in literature and have captured the attention of a variety of people, including artists. Often the aberrant behavior of a troubled individual comes as the result of excess, whether it is lust for power, greed, love, or some emotion that is felt so intensely that the pull is irresistible, regardless of consequences. As artists depict these struggles, the relationship between the rational and irrational comes into play. Questions arise about the role of imagination and creativity in the face of fact and logic. Both imagination and reason have much to offer; yet both can be dangerous. The works of art featured in The Tortured Soul represent the darker aspects of humanity described in literature in order to reveal continuities with contemporary life.
A Centennial Exhibition
Allan Houser
Allan Houser (1914–1994) was a noted American sculptor, painter, and draftsman and one of the major figures in Native American art of the twentieth century. He often drew on his Chiricahua Apache heritage when making sculptures that depict the Native American people of the Southwest. A versatile artist, he also created modernist abstract sculptures and worked in a variety of media including bronze, stone, and steel. Dartmouth College and the Hood Museum of Art celebrate the centennial of his birth with an installation of five major sculptural works in the Maffei Arts Plaza and Hood gateway, as well as a fall 2014 exhibition of drawings in the Strauss Gallery, Hopkins Center.
Emblem, type, symbol, token, trope, image, sign—all of these words describe specific visual forms that represent abstract ideas through recognized shapes, colors, and figures. Many emblems contain culturally specific messages, often taken from sacred or ancient texts, the meanings of which evolve over time. Since these images are quickly legible to members of a shared culture, artists mobilize emblems to provoke certain reactions in an audience. This exhibition draws together various types of emblematic prints—primarily woodcuts—that address social problems and issues.