Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art has unveiled its schedule of traveling exhibits that will be coming to the museum in 2023.
In addition to the world-class collection of artwork already on display as part of the museum’s permanent collection, seven additional exhibits or experiences will make their way to Northwest Arkansas this year as part of the museum’s temporary exhibit schedule.
Among them, the Listening Forest outdoor light and sound installation in the wooded area around the museum that debuted over the early winter months of 2022 will return for a warmer-weather event this spring. The exhibit, which includes music by composer Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, brings together eight immersive installations and uses light, sound, and projections to create an interactive walk through the woods. Here’s more information about the project. Listening Forest will be open from March 1 to May 28.
In March, the museum will feature a traveling show featuring more that 150 works by Mexican-born painter and muralist Diego Rivera. The exhibit will include several of Rivera’s well-known works, including Dance in Tehuantepec (1928), The Flowered Canoe (1931), Nude with Calla Lilies(1944), other depictions of flower carriers and vendors, and three major paintings by Frida Kahlo including a self-portrait of Kahlo standing next to Rivera. The show also includes some rarely seen works from private collections, major paintings on loan from museums in both the United States and Mexico, studies for pivotal mural projects in Mexico City, San Francisco, Detroit, and New York, as well as large-scale digital projections that convey the immersive quality of his epic murals. Diego Rivera’s America will be on display March 11- July 31.
The museum will host a group show centered around representations of the U.S. flag called Flagged for Discussion featuring the work of more than 20 artists over the summer. The show, curated by Larissa Randall, includes work created from the 19th century to today, intended to reveal “how the flag functions differently within works of painting, printmaking, fiber, photography, and mixed media.” The exhibit will be on display April 8 through Sept. 23.
Also coming to the museum this summer is a site-specific installation by artist Marie Bannerot Mclnerney. The installation, called Trace Me Back will be located in space inside the museum. The piece, which will include various materials such as silk organza, concrete, light, and sonic elements, the artist says, “speaks to ideas of impermanence, loss, and those fleeting moments that cannot be undone.” McInerney’s work “mines recorded histories, ancient mythologies, and natural phenomena to meditate on the relationships between bodies and space, present and past, and perception and position.” The installation will be on display June 24, 2023-April 22, 2024.
A performance installation called Sonic Blossom by artist Lee Mingwei comes to the museum in the fall. The installation, devised while the artist was taking care of his mother as she recovered from surgury, includes local singers in costume offering a gift of song to museum visitors, intended to “to invite a moment of catharsis, joy, and connection.” The installation will be performed Sept. 9-29.
A photography show featuring the work of famed photographer Annie Leibovitz is coming to the museum late in the year. The show, working title Annie Leibovitz: Portraits, highlights “current events and exceptional figures in today’s world” featuring new work and other portraits of notable figures in entertainment, politics, business, and athletics. This show will be on display Sept. 16, 2023-Jan. 29, 2024.
The final exhibit of the year features work in ceramics by artist Toshiko Takaezu and weaving by Lenore Tawney, and includes 12 new acquisitions to the Crystal Bridges collection that tell the story of the remarkable friendship between the two artists. The items will be on display from Oct. 14, 2023-March 25 of 2024.
These exhibitions are in addition to those currently on view at the museum, including Architecture at Home, Entire/Between, ± by Loring Taoka, and the new Seeing One Another: New Views on the Alfred Stieglitz Collection that opened late last month.
Nearly all of the exhibits are free to attend with no ticket required, except Listening Forest (tickets vary by day), Diego Rivera’s America ($12 for non-members, free for members), and Annie Leibovitz (ticket prices to be determined).
For more information on these exhibits, visit crystalbridges.org/exhibitions.
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