Exhibitions
Current Exhibitions
INTERVENTIONS: Michael Eden
August 13 – November 6, 2022
INTERVENTIONS, an arts initiative focused on activating the mansion’s historic period rooms, aims to create a dialogue between the craftsmanship of the contemporary creative minds of today and the classical collections present within the Cheekwood mansion.
In the 1920s, the Cheek family traveled to England with architect Bryant Fleming to acquire architectural elements, furniture and décor for the Cheekwood Mansion, then under construction. Some ninety years later, artist Michael Eden finds inspiration in the Cheek’s collection.
Eden is known internationally for creating artworks that explore the abstract qualities of vessels, utilizing digital manufacturing and materials to redesign familiar historical objects. He earned an MPhil at the Royal College of Art in London, England, allowing him to explore how his interest in digital technology could be developed and combined with the craft skills he had acquired during his previous experience as a potter.
Made with 3D printing technology, the exhibition contains fifteen works, displayed throughout the period rooms in the Cheekwood Mansion on custom-made packing crates, as if they have just been delivered to the estate. The works serve as visual links to the historic objects, recorded activities and built environments of the Cheekwood site.
Michael Eden, Icons I and Icons II, 2018. Additive Layer Manufacturing from a high-quality nylon material with a soft mineral coating. Courtesy of Adrian Sassoon, London. Photography by Sylvian Deleu.
Supported by the Sandra Schatten Foundation
Glamour & Style: Portrait Photography from the Golden Age of Cinema
September 30, 2022 – January 1, 2023
This exhibition centers on the work of George Hurrell (1904-1992), whose pioneering approach to photography became synonymous with the glamour portraits of Hollywood movie stars of the 1930s and 1940s. It also features the fashion photography of Louise Dahl-Wolfe (1895-1989) and the documentative yet dramatic imagery of Barbara Morgan (1900-1992) and W. Eugene Smith (1918-1978), whose works likewise emphasize the sophisticated elegance of the period now referred to as the Golden Age of Cinema.
George Hurrell (American, 1904-1992), Gene Tierney, 1945. Gelatin silver print. Gift of Dr. Farel A. Rosenberg. 1983.18.2
Upcoming Exhibitions
Inside the World of Charles Addams
October 8, 2022 – January 8, 2023
“They’re creepy and they’re kooky, mysterious and spooky,” so describes the characters to spring forth from the mind of Charles Addams, a dominant force in twentieth century visual humor. The approximately eighty works of ink, gouache, and watercolor on paper spanning Addams’ career from the late 1930’s through his death in 1988 come from the Tee & Charles Addams foundation. His work is filled with subtle suggestions, double entendre, visual puns, along with commentary on contemporary society, historic events, and artistic triumphs. Best known today for The Addams Family television series, movies and animated features, Addams was a significant contributor to The New Yorker for over five decades as well as one of the great humorists of the 20th century.
Charles Addams (American, 1912-1988) Boiling Oil, 1946. 26 x 22 inches. © Charles Addams, with permission Tee and Charles Addams Foundation.