Past Exhibitions
Wabanaki Ash Splint Baskets from Maine
Spirit of the Basket TreeSpirit of the Basket Tree: Wabanaki Ash Splint Baskets from Maine, guest curated by Jennifer Sapiel Neptune, focuses on the rich visual dialogue between contemporary Wabanaki basket artists of Maine and the legacy of Native American basket making in northern New England and southeastern Canada. Originally created for indigenous use, baskets emerged as valued items of trade with European settlers during the colonial era. They have remained at the center of cultural exchanges between Wabanaki people and Americans of non-native descent up to the present day, serving to solidify cultural identity, perpetuate intergenerational continuity, and symbolize political sovereignty for Wabanaki tribal members through the centuries.
Jennifer Sapiel Neptune, a basket maker herself and a co-manager of the Maine Indian Basket makers Alliance (MIBA), also has written an essay for the gallery brochure that accompanies the exhibition.
In Black and White?
AmericaFour Depictions of Women in Mid-Twentieth-Century American Art
Confronting Class
Images, Icons, and Ideologies of the African Body
Black Womanhood
Organized by the Hood Museum of Art, this major traveling exhibition examines the historical roots of a charged icon in contemporary art: the black female body. Only through an exploration of the origins of black womanhood's prevalent stereotypes can we begin to shed new light on the powerful revisionism occupying contemporary artists working with these themes today. The exhibition features over one hundred sculptures, prints, postcards, photographs, paintings, textiles, and video installations presenting three separate but intersecting perspectives: the traditional African, the colonial, and the contemporary global. Together they reveal a common preoccupation with themes of ideal beauty, fertility and sexuality, maternity and motherhood, and identities and social roles and enable us to peel back the layers of social, cultural, and political realities that have influenced stereotypes of black womanhood from the nineteenth century to the present. This approach promotes a deeper understanding of the ideologies of race, gender, and sexuality that inform contemporary responses—both the viewers' and the artists'—to images of the black female body. A fully illustrated catalogue published by the Hood Museum of Art and the University of Washington Press accompanies the exhibition.
Highlights from the Hood Museum of Art
European Art at Dartmouth
The earliest known European objects to arrive at Dartmouth were “a few coins and curiosities” obtained by President John Wheelock during his 1783 tour of England, France, Holland, and Scotland. The collection grew gradually throughout the nineteenth century, but the introduction of European art history courses in 1905 led to a significant expansion of the College’s holdings. A dramatic increase in gifts and acquisitions occurred after the 1985 opening of the Hood Museum of Art, which now houses several thousand European objects dating from the Renaissance to the early twentieth century.The core of the European collection, comprised of an exceptional array of works on paper, has been significantly enhanced in recent decades by the addition of a large number of remarkable paintings and sculptures. The exhibition highlights over 150 objects from the Italian and German Renaissance, the Dutch Golden Age, the Enlightenment and Romantic periods, and the early modern era. Featured artists include Andrea Mantegna, Pietro Perugino, Albrecht Dürer, Claude Lorrain, Rembrandt van Rijn, Jan Davidsz. de Heem, Louis-Léopold Boilly, John Constable, Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, Georges Braque, and Pablo Picasso.
Works from 1950 to Today
Focus on PhotographyFocus on Photography surveys the Hood Museum of Art's post-1950 photography collection concentrating on two major themes: portraiture and landscape. Bridging these two themes, a small assortment of documentary and photojournalist works will present work by major figures such as James Nachtwey, Sebastiao Salgado, and Eugene Smith. Focus on Photography maps several contemporary trends in photography including a trend towards adolescence in portraiture, the clash of man versus nature in landscape imagery, the negotiation of identity through self-portraiture, and images of the urban landscape.
In addition, Focus on Photography will trace advances in technology that drive a number of artists's work, including digital photography and computer manipulation (with artists like Loretta Lux), photogenics (Lotte Jacobi), extended exposure times (Gary Schnieder and Matthew Pillsbury) and camera obscura (Abe Morell). Even with such developments, the show will underscore how artists working today continue to draw on traditional subject matters, styles, and processes.