Status: Archive

Looking is a very complex process—nearly as complex as seeing. It requires that we let go of what we know, so we can open ourselves to what we see. Or, as American artist Robert Irwin said, “Seeing is forgetting the name of the thing one sees.” Works of art are never merely mimetic representations, but … Read more

Curated by the nine William & Mary students in Professor Xin Conan-Wu’s class The Curatorial Project, Scales of Chaos: The Dance of Art & Contemporary Science presented fresh ways of reading art, and of artworks that embody a sensible intuition of complex phenomena. Scales of Chaos: The Dance of Art & Contemporary Science was originally … Read more

This exhibition marks the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the first documented African slaves in Colonial Virginia that, while part of the greater narrative of slavery in the Americas, helped to set into motion the ongoing repercussions of this historical event.  As a contemporary response to the 1619 commemoration in Virginia, 1619 / 2019  features art works from African American and Native American emergent and established artists in a variety of media expressing a complexity of experience, addressing the past and present.

American Vision: A Tribute to Carroll Owens, Jr. was originally scheduled to run from February 8 through April 7, 2020. In light of current conditions the Museum has extended the exhibition through January 10, 2021. The Muscarelle Museum of Art is a fortunate beneficiary of The Owens Foundation here at William & Mary. The Foundation … Read more

In Focus was originally scheduled to run from February 8 through April 7, 2020. In light of current conditions the Museum has extended the exhibition through October 11, 2020. The Museum strives to build the collection in meaningful and strategic ways, including a commitment to inclusivity and representation. It became apparent during a survey of … Read more

Faculty Show 14 highlighted the diverse talents of the William & Mary studio instructors and emeritus professors in a variety of media including drawing, painting, photography, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics and installation art.  A long-standing collaboration between the Museum and the Department of Art & Art History, participating artists included William Barnes, David Campbell, Lewis Cohen, Suzanne Demeo, … Read more

This exhibition considered neuro-aesthetics and brought first-hand experiential interaction with contemporary abstract works from a distinguished group of living artists composed of Michelle Benoit, Phil Chang, Stefan Chinov, Jaynie Crimmins, Sara Dochow, Diane Englander, Pamela Farrell, Karen Fitzgerald, Helen O’Leary, Lorraine Tady, Jo Volley and Susan York. The twelve invited artists make work that moves … Read more

Sankofa is an Adinkra symbol from Ghana, which translates as “to look into one’s past in order to move forward.” Sankofa: Looking Back, Moving Forward was composed of drawings and prints by artist Steve Prince. His work offers a candid look into America’s past and challenges us to look deeper for meaning and understanding of how … Read more

This spring, William & Mary students curated this exhibition as part of a required practicum course for Art History majors called The Curatorial Project (ARTH 331). The exhibition explored ceremony as a vital cultural impulse expressed by communities and individuals around the world through an incredible diversity of artistic forms and objects, some grand and … Read more

In the Light of Caravaggio: Dutch and Flemish Paintings from Southeastern Museums features important Caravaggesque paintings from the renowned collections of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, North Carolina Museum of Art, Speed Museum, Bob Jones University Museum & Gallery, and Chrysler Museum of Art including recent acquisitions to the collection of the Muscarelle.  As seen previously in 2014 at the Muscarelle Museum of Art, Michelangelo Merisi called Caravaggio (Italian, 1571-1610), had an enormous influence on Baroque art with his dramatic use of light and emotive realism.  Paintings by Rembrandt, ter Brugghen, van Baburen, Honthorst, Janssen and Rombouts exemplify Caravaggio’s influence on Dutch and Flemish painters of the seventeenth century.  This rare gathering of masterworks, on view together for the first time in twenty years, provides a unique opportunity for Muscarelle visitors to see an embarrassment of riches from Southeastern Museums.

The Muscarelle Museum of Art is proud to present Women With Vision: Masterworks from the Permanent Collection in conjunction with William & Mary’s 100 Years of Women celebration.

We are proud to present Guerrilla Girls: Conscience of the Art World in the Herman Graphic Arts Room as part of the commemoration of the 100th anniversary of coeducation at William & Mary and in Virginia. In 2017, the Museum acquired the Guerrilla Girls Portfolio Compleat, a portfolio that contains over 125 posters and projects … Read more

A survey of the artist’s work representing an extraordinary fifty-year career.  Eversley, trained as an engineer, began making his polyester resin sculptures with an aim to “create kinetic art without using kinetic elements such as mechanical movement or artificial light changes.”

Building on the Legacy: African American Art from the Permanent Collection is comprised of more than thirty paintings, drawings, works on paper and sculptures by some of this country’s most renowned artists.  This academic year of 2017-2018, the College of William & Mary commemorates the fiftieth anniversary of the first African American students in residence: … Read more

In Chinese philosophy and ancient legend, Scholars’ rocks were viewed as “the bones of the earth”. Since the Song dynasty (960–1279), these natural sculptures have been regarded as artifacts of the sacred relationship between man and nature and described in folklore as otherworldly. Collectors of these stones use them for contemplation and inspiration. The selections … Read more

The Art and Science of Connoisseurship explores the creative narrative behind six paintings attributed to Agnolo Bronzino, Annibale Carracci, Guido Reni, Peter Paul Rubens, Peter Lely, and Paul Cézanne.  This exhibition presents a series of visual examinations and scientific analyses that address the questions of who, what, where, when, and why surrounding these recently-acquired paintings.  … Read more

This exhibition represents a celebration and first public showing of an outstanding collection of Chinese art recently donated to the Muscarelle Museum of Art.  The generous gift comprised of twenty-one superb works, covers an arc of almost two thousand years of the world’s greatest tradition of pottery-making, dating from circa 475-221 BC in clay and 400-201 BC … Read more

The restless genius of Sandro Botticelli (Florence, 1445-1510) is explored in depth in the most important Botticelli exhibition ever seen in the United States, Botticelli and the Search for the Divine; a major international loan exhibition organized by the Muscarelle Museum of Art in Williamsburg, Va., in partnership with Italy’s Associazione Culturale Metamorfosi. Every phase of the artist’s tumultuous career is represented in this selection, as well as nine works by his master Filippo Lippi, the only pupil of Masaccio. Botticelli was guided to success by the Medici dynasty, the patrons for sacred altarpieces and sensuous paintings of classical mythology, including several in this unprecedented exhibition.

Unpublished and on view for the first time, these letters are an important new resource for research and scholarship, providing viewers with a unique, inside glimpse of the man who served as President of the United States from 1817 to 1825.  Playing out as a drama in letters, these documents shed light on Monroe’s deliberations, … Read more

Thomas Jefferson’s Honorary Degree , from collection of the Massachusetts Historical Society, is the only diploma Jefferson received from his alma mater and confers upon him “gladly and eagerly of the degree of doctor in the civil law.”  This pocket exhibition focuses on Jefferson’s years at William & Mary and the mentors who helped shaped … Read more

Hosted every three years by museums across the U.S., the American Society of Marine Artists (ASMA) holds a juried competition for the best in contemporary marine art.  ASMA is a non-profit educational organization whose purpose is to recognize and promote marine art and maritime history, and to encourage cooperation among artists, historians, academics, enthusiasts and … Read more