February 12, 2018
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 some quotidian, some celebratory and others somber. Drawing upon collections at the Muscarelle, Special Collections Resource Center at William & Mary Libraries, and elsewhere around William & Mary, along with sociological ideas about the effervescent liveliness of communal artifacts. Objects of Ceremony presented a rich […]
December 4, 2017
In the Light of Caravaggio: Dutch and Flemish Paintings from Southeastern Museums featured 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 […]
December 4, 2017
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. This exhibition featured over thirty works by prominent women artists from the permanent collection and was comprised of a variety of media styles and time periods expressing their vision. Press release available here. Image Citation: GEORGIA O’KEEFFE | American, 1887 – 1986 | White Flower, 1932 | Oil on panel | Muscarelle Museum of Art at the College of William & Mary | Gift of Mrs. John D. Rockefeller, Jr. | © […]
December 1, 2017
February 10 – May 13, 2018 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 created by the Guerrilla Girls from 1985 through 2016. Since 1985 and even more stridently today, the Guerrilla Girls have been concerned with broader discrimination; particularly social oppression related to race, class, and gender. In this exhibition you will […]
June 14, 2017
Fred Eversley, 50 Years an Artist: Light & Space & Energy features 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.” Eversley’s strong interest in energy has led to further creations that utilize wind current to create dynamic acrylic cast forms. This retrospective exhibition featuring the works of Fred Eversley, an important African American sculptor and innovator, will coincide with the College’s fiftieth anniversary of the first residential […]
May 5, 2017
September 2, 2017 – January 14, 2018 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: Lynn Briley, Janet Brown and Karen Ely. In honor of this milestone, the Muscarelle Museum of Art is proud to showcase works from the permanent collection that encompasses a variety of media, styles and time periods, exemplifying the plurality […]
April 17, 2017
April 21 – August 13, 2017 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 on view at the Muscarelle Museum of Art are part of larger group and promised gift from the Collection of Robert Turvene (W&M ’53) and are comprised of every revered type including Lingbi, Ying, Taihu, Mohu, Nine Dragon, Kun, […]
April 5, 2017
February 11 – August 13, 2017 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. From observations of stylistic progression and considerations of an artist’s chronology, to the identification of retouched surfaces and studies of paint samples, each of the Muscarelle’s new works presents distinctive issues in connoisseurship.
March 21, 2017
May 6 – August 13, 2017 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 in bronze spanning through 1279-1368 AD. In the course of this journey, the exhibition and the visitor will encounter enchanting examples from two golden ages of Chinese art, the Han Dynasty (206 BC – 220 AD) and culminating in […]