Exhibitions
Current Exhibitions
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
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 & Charles Addams Foundation.
Upcoming Exhibitions
The Agrarian Spirit: Cultivating Ruralism and Regionalism in American Art
January 28 – May 14, 2023
Beginning with the advent of farming during the Neolithic Era, humans have long cultivated an intimate relationship with land through agricultural practice. In the early 20th century, Regionalist art celebrated American agrarianism and its adherents with emotion-laden landscape scenes while advocating for ruralism (country living and values) over urbanism and city living. The style derived its formal characteristics from the work of Thomas Hart Benton, Grant Wood, and John Steuart Curry – the Regionalist Triumvirate. Their works feature among the 20 works on paper in this exhibition, which examines the compositions and contexts of agrarian imagery produced in this country between 1920 and 1950.
Feature Image
George Schreiber (American, 1904-1977), Cotton Pickers, 1943, Lithograph on paper, Museum purchase with funds from the Exchange Club Charities, 1982.6.18.
Carmen Herrera: Estructuras
May 4 – September 3, 2023
Five boldly colorful, geometric sculptures by Cuban-born, American artist Carmen Herrera will be featured in Cheekwood’s gardens. It’s an opportunity to celebrate this indomitable woman’s lifelong passion for creating art. Her skyrocketing assent in popularity wasn’t realized until she reached the age of 89 and continued until her passing in 2022 at the age of 106. Her story is an inspiration to everyone confronting the challenges of age and gender.
The sculptures on display at Cheekwood are part of a series collectively entitled Estructuras (Structures.) Begun in the late 1960s, Estructuras were derived from paintings that, according to Herrera, were “really crying out to become sculpture.” Herrera’s work evokes a simultaneous sense of instability and order, encompassing symmetry and asymmetry, shadow and light, all of which convey movement and rhythm through a careful geometric balance of lines, forms, and color, teetering between the solidity of a three-dimensional sculpture and the weightlessness of an ethereal shape lifting off the ground.
Feature Image
Carmen Herrera, Untitled Estructura (Yellow), 1962/2015. Acrylic and aluminum, 36 1/8 x 48 3/8 x 17 1/4 in. Courtesy Lisson Gallery © Carmen Herrera. Photography by Adam Reich.