ATLANTA, March 28, 2022 — The High Museum of Art presents a rotating schedule of exhibitions throughout the year. Below is a list of current and upcoming exhibitions as of March 28, 2022. Note: The exhibition schedule is subject to change. Please contact the High’s press office or visit www.high.org for more information or to confirm details.
Upcoming Exhibitions
“Oliver Jeffers: 15 Years of Picturing Books”
April 15-Aug. 7, 2022
Featuring 80 original drawings, sketches and finished illustrations by the award-winning artist and children’s book author Oliver Jeffers, this retrospective exhibition draws from 16 of the picture books spanning his career, including the wildly popular New York Times bestseller “The Day the Crayons Quit” as well as “The Incredible Book Eating Boy,” “A Child of Books” and “Once Upon an Alphabet.” Organized by the National Center for Children’s Illustrated Literature, the exhibition continues the High’s multiyear initiative to engage family audiences and inspire the Museum’s youngest visitors through picture book art. The exhibition will be organized into six sections focused on Jeffers’ artistic process, character development and storytelling. This exhibition is organized by the National Center for Children’s Illustrated Literature, Abilene, Texas.
Read the full press release here.
Download press images here.
“Bob Thompson: This House Is Mine”
June 17-Sept. 11, 2022
This nationally touring exhibition is the first major survey of work by American artist Bob Thompson (1937-1966) to be presented in more than two decades. It includes paintings and works on paper spanning his brief but prolific career, which is characterized by a rigorous engagement with art history and a commitment to expressive figuration. Throughout Thompson’s practice, canonical European painting served as a point of departure for his radically inventive contemporary allegories. Inspired by European old masters such as Jacopo Tintoretto and Francisco de Goya, he developed a highly personal and symbolic visual vocabulary known for its characteristic vignettes of silhouetted figures and animals in pastoral settings. Taking its title from one of his paintings, “This House Is Mine” traces Thompson’s transatlantic artistic journey as he wrestled with the exclusionary Western canon. The exhibition reflects and contextualizes his significance as a contemporary artist and illuminates critical questions about the politics of representation, particularly for Black artists, while presenting new possibilities for a more inclusive art history. This exhibition is organized by the Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, Maine.
Read the full press release here.
Download press images here.
“Off the Grid”
July 1-Sept. 4, 2022
The grid — a geometric form of intersecting vertical and horizontal lines — has for more than 50 years been recognized for its iconic presence in 20th-century art. This exhibition surveys the High’s diverse collecting areas, offering unprecedented juxtapositions of works by artists from a variety of cultural backgrounds and artistic practices, unified conceptually by their engagement with grids. Art critics such as Rosalind Krauss and Jonathan Elderfield began writing about the prominence of grids in the 1970s, referencing the ubiquity of the form in the work of artists such as Sol LeWitt, Agnes Martin, Ad Reinhardt and Frank Stella. This exhibition highlights works on paper in the collection by those artists, presenting them alongside artists from across the collection who also played “off” notions of the grid over the course of the 20th century and into the 21st, including quilters such as Agatha Bennett, photographers such as Harry Callahan and multimedia artists such as Howardena Pindell. “Off the Grid” not only confirms the grid as a dominant force in 20th-century art but also expands this notion beyond canonical minimalist and abstract artists to include a more diverse group of artists working in a wide array of media. This exhibition is organized by the High Museum of Art, Atlanta.
“Stephen Burks: Shelter in Place”
Sept. 16, 2022-March 5, 2023
In the wake of several global crises, designers have responded by redefining our relationship to our homes, including interrogating the modernist trope of better living through design. “Stephen Burks: Shelter in Place” explores ideas concerning domesticity — namely asking how we can design our interiors to enable joyful living while empowering creativity. It is the first exhibition in over a decade to survey Burks’ workshop-based design practice, presenting several key projects from the last 10 years. These industrial design and craft-centered projects will be seen in conversation with “Shelter in Place,” a new speculative project that will explore the visionary possibilities of design. As an African American designer, Burks has forged a unique path by embracing the challenge to advocate for hand production as a strategy for innovation within industrial production. “Shelter in Place” will also demonstrate Burks’ holistic approach across the disciplines of art, architecture and design that underscores principles of synthesizing craft, community and industry. This exhibition is organized by the High Museum of Art, Atlanta.
“Deana Lawson”
Oct. 7, 2022-Feb. 19, 2023
Featuring work made over the past two decades, this exhibition is the first museum survey dedicated to Deana Lawson. Working primarily in photography, Lawson investigates and challenges conventional representations of Black identities and bodies. Her work evokes a range of photographic histories and styles, including family albums, studio portraiture and staged tableaux; she also employs documentary pictures and appropriated images. In Lawson’s highly staged scenes, individuals, couples and families are pictured in intimate domestic spaces and public settings, interacting with one another. The artist describes her work as “a mirror of everyday life, but also a projection of what I want to happen. It’s about setting a different standard of values and saying that everyday Black lives, everyday experiences, are beautiful, and powerful, and intelligent.” Lawson’s practice is global in scope, as she creates her images throughout the African diaspora in locations as varied as Brooklyn, Haiti, Jamaica, Ethiopia, Brazil, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Southern United States. This broad geographical range points to a collective memory of shared experiences and various cultural histories of the past. This exhibition is co-organized by the Institute of Contemporary Art Boston and MoMA PS1.
“Rodin in the United States: Confronting the Modern”
Oct. 21, 2022-Jan. 15, 2023
Auguste Rodin (French, 1840–1917) is one of the most celebrated sculptors of the modern age, represented in museums and private collections across the globe. However, this was not always the case. From his first sculpture to enter an American museum in 1893 and culminating with his popular revival in the 1980s, this exhibition follows Rodin’s rise to eminence in the United States due in large part to the collectors, critics and curators who helped make it happen. The more than 70 sculptures and drawings in the exhibition encompass many of Rodin’s best-known compositions, including “The Thinker,” “Monument to Balzac” and “The Kiss,” as well as less-familiar subjects and an exceptional number of his expressive and probing drawings. The exhibition shows Rodin working across an array of media — from bronze and marble to terracotta and plaster — and illuminates his creative process, from studies and maquettes to completed works. “Rodin in the United States” also reveals Rodin’s incredible daring and inventiveness as he continually pushed against and beyond traditional notions about sculpture. This exhibition is organized by the Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts.
“Monir Farmanfarmaian: A Mirror Garden”
Nov. 18, 2022-April 9, 2023
This is the first posthumous exhibition at an American museum for Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian (1924-2019), one of Iran’s most celebrated and revered visual artists, known internationally for her geometric mirror sculptures that combine the mathematical order and beauty of ancient Persian architectural motifs with the forms and patterns of hard-edged, postwar abstraction. The exhibition’s title is borrowed from Farmanfarmaian’s 2007 memoir, co-authored by Zara Houshmand, which evokes the visual splendor of the artist’s mirror-mosaic sculptures. Objects on view will include a selection of sculptures, drawings, textiles and collages spanning four decades, from 1976 to 2019. The exhibition was inspired by the High’s 2019 acquisition of Farmanfarmaian’s cut-mirror sculpture “Untitled (Muqarnas)” (2012) as well as her 2014 drawing “Untitled (Circles and Squares).” This exhibition is organized by the High Museum of Art, Atlanta.
Download press images here.
Currently on View
“Disrupting Design: Modern Posters, 1900-1940”
Through April 24, 2022
Though not precious or unique, the poster is the ultimate design object — it disseminates ideas and images that reflect a time and place. As an object of design history, the poster can comment on social or cultural shifts, but it is probably best known for its most prominent role — selling commercial products. This exhibition surveys the origins of modern poster design featuring works from the collection of Merrill C. Berman, who focused on 20th-century radical art. Berman’s collection represents a complex history of modernism, as avant-garde artists actively produced fine and applied art for commercial and political aims. Starting in the early 1900s, these designers revolutionized typography and the graphic image, creating poster designs that changed artistic perspectives, as well as the hearts and minds of people. The works on view demonstrate the origins of modern graphic design, as practiced in Europe, and how the medium could be marshaled into service for social change. This exhibition is organized by the High Museum of Art, Atlanta.
Read the full press release here.
Download press images here.
“André Kertész: Postcards from Paris”
Through May 29, 2022
In 1925, photographer André Kertész (American, born Hungary, 1894-1985) arrived in Paris with little more than a camera and meager savings. Over the next three years, the young artist carved out a photographic practice that allowed him to move among the realms of amateur and professional, photojournalist and avant-garde artist, diarist and documentarian. By the end of 1928, he had achieved widespread recognition, emerging as a major figure in modern art photography alongside such figures as Man Ray and Berenice Abbott. During this three-year period, he chose to print most of his photographs on carte postale, or postcard paper. Although this choice may have initially been born of economy and convenience, he turned the popular format toward artistic ends, rigorously composing new images in the darkroom and making a new kind of photographic object. “Postcards from Paris” is the first exhibition to bring together Kertész’s rare carte postale prints. These now-iconic works offer new insight into his early, experimental years and reveal the importance of Paris as a vibrant meeting ground for international artists, who drew inspiration from each other to create new, modern ways of seeing and representing the world. This exhibition is organized by The Art Institute of Chicago.
Read the full press release here.
Download press images here.
“What Is Left Unspoken, Love”
Through Aug. 14, 2022
Is love intrinsic, or is it a habit? What is the difference between love and friendship? What is the relationship of love to truth, freedom and justice? These are just some of the questions explored in “What Is Left Unspoken, Love,” featuring nearly 70 contemporary artworks from the early 1990s through the present, including painting, sculpture, photography, video, media art and installation, by more than 35 diverse and multigenerational artists that examine the different ways that one of the most powerful forces of life — love — is understood, expressed or perhaps left unspoken. The exhibition juxtaposes iconic works that represent watershed moments in the history of contemporary art, such as Felix Gonzalez-Torres’ “‘Untitled’ (Perfect Lovers)” (1987-1990), with art of the past decade, including six works created especially for the exhibition, such as “Our Love Was Deeply Purple” (2021) by Alanna Fields. The exhibition considers love as a profound subject of exploration from time immemorial that is nonetheless still relevant to the contingencies of 21st-century life. Other artists featured include Rina Banerjee, Patty Chang, Jeffrey Gibson, Kahlil Robert Irving, Tomashi Jackson, María de los Angeles Rodríguez Jiménez, Rashid Johnson, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Kerry James Marshall, Wangechi Mutu, Ebony G. Patterson, Magnus Plessen, Gabriel Rico, RongRong&inri, and Carrie Mae Weems. This exhibition is organized by the High Museum of Art, Atlanta.
Read the full press release here.
Download press images here.
About the High Museum of Art
Located in the heart of Atlanta, the High Museum of Art connects with audiences from across the Southeast and around the world through its distinguished collection, dynamic schedule of special exhibitions and engaging community-focused programs. Housed within facilities designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architects Richard Meier and Renzo Piano, the High features a collection of more than 18,000 works of art, including an extensive anthology of 19th- and 20th-century American fine and decorative arts; major holdings of photography and folk and self-taught work, especially that of artists from the American South; burgeoning collections of modern and contemporary art, including paintings, sculpture, new media and design; a growing collection of African art, with work dating from prehistory through the present; and significant holdings of European paintings and works on paper. The High is dedicated to reflecting the diversity of its communities and offering a variety of exhibitions and educational programs that engage visitors with the world of art, the lives of artists and the creative process. For more information about the High, visit www.high.org.
# # #
Media contact:
Marci Tate Davis
Manager of Public Relations
404-733-4585
marci.davis@high.org