Upcoming Exhibitions

A Circus Family: Picasso to Léger
February 22–May 17, 2009

This exhibition provides a fascinating glimpse of acrobats, clowns, and other circus performers in the early 20th century through approximately 80 works by artists such as Pablo Picasso, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Fernand Léger, and Marc Chagall. A variety of paintings, prints, drawings, and artist books drawn fromthe BMA’s world-renowned collection of modern art celebrate the colorful spectacle of the circus as entertainment and also reveal a private, more solitary side of circus life outside the ring.

The exhibition, divided into five thematic groups, begins with colorful 19th-century posters designed by Toulouse-Lautrec and Jules Cheret that showcase the circus as a public spectacle. A group of more than 30 works on paper by Picasso, as well as paintings and sculpture loaned from the collections of the Göteborg Museum of Art in Sweden, The Museum of Modern Art in New York, and the Detroit Institute of Arts, explore the private side of circus life with sympathetic portrayals of circus families, many of whom the artist befriended while visiting the Médrano Circus in Paris. George Rouault, Juan Gris, and other School of Paris artists embraced circus themes in a variety of modern art styles. German avant-garde artists like Max Pechstein’s and Max Beckmann’s use of circus imagery ranges from a child-like fascination with the circus and equating feats of daring with artistic self-expression to a somber critique of modern mass spectacle and society. The final section features two circus-related artist books: Léger’s Cirque (1950) and Matisse’s iconic Jazz (1947).

Curated by Oliver Shell, Associate Curator of European Painting & Sculpture.

 

 

Art of Darkness: Inspired by Poe
October 4, 2009 – January 17, 2010

This dramatic exhibition showcases works by some of the greatest artists of the 19th and 20th centuries who were inspired by Edgar Allan Poe’s chilling and unforgettable tales. Drawn largely from the BMA’s renowned collection, these rarely seen prints, drawings, and illustrated books explore the enduring legacy of Poe's uniquely dark fiction on modern artists. Included in the exhibition are vivid illustrations for The Raven by Edouard Manet and a haunting portrait of Poe by Henri Matisse. The exhibition also features works by contemporary artists from Maryland responding to the universal themes taken up in Poe’s poems and stories—love, loss, silence, obsession, and terror. Film screenings, performances, and writing and poetry workshops will complement the exhibition.

 

Matisse as Printmaker
October 25, 2009–January 3, 2010

This comprehensive exhibition, featuring more than 100 of Matisse’s prints created between 1900 and 1951, is drawn from two extraordinary collections of works by Henri Matisse—the Pierre and Tana Matisse Foundation and The Baltimore Museum of Art. Every printmaking medium Matisse used is represented: etchings, monotypes, aquatints, lithographs, and linocuts (all in black and white) as well as his two color prints. Several of his best illustrated books, such as the Poésies de Stephane Mallarmé (1932), Pasiphaë (1944), and Jazz (1947), demonstrate the artist’s brilliant innovations in arranging printed images to control the experience of serial imagery.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue with an essay by BMA Senior Curator of Prints, Drawings & Photographs Jay Fisher that explores Matisse’s use of printmaking throughout his career. It also reprints a seminal essay by curator William Liberman from 1956, the first significant study of Matisse’s prints.

The exhibition is organized by the American Federation of Arts, and guest curated by Jay Fisher, BMA Senior Curator of Prints, Drawings & Photographs.