Exhibitions

Upcoming Events

Caravaggio: Behold the Man! The Impact of A Revolutionary Realist
October 21, 2011 - February 12, 2012

This October, CMA offers the rare opportunity to view the work of Italian Baroque master Caravaggio. Ecce Homo (Behold the Man), painted by Caravaggio around 1605, and lent by the Musei di Strada Nuova – Palazzo Bianco, Genoa.  This powerful painting will be the centerpiece of an exclusive exhibition organized by CMA on view October 21, 2011 – February 12, 2012 in the only US venue.

Underscoring his remarkable influence upon his contemporaries will be ten other paintings—images of saints and sinner alike, lent from the collections of major Ohio museums and one private collection. These are works by artists who emulated Caravaggio’s distinctive and dramatically realistic style and they demonstrate the importance of Caravaggism throughout seventeenth-century European painting.

Presenting sponsor: 


 
Sponsors:
Samuel H. Kress Foundation
Robert Lehman Foundation, Inc.
 
Hotel Sponsor:
Renaissance Columbus Downtown Hotel

Currents: Latifa Echakhch
January 13, 2012 – April1, 2012

Currents is a series of exhibitions showcasing vanguard works in a variety of media by emerging and established international artists. In our upcoming exhibition Currents: Latifa Echakhch, Moroccan-born artist Latifa Echakhch creates a sculptural installation that positions continuing themes presented in CMA’s Schiller Collection within a current cultural context. Using vintage lithographic stones, Echakhch responds specifically to prints in the Schiller Collection. Presenting the stones along with icons of the American West, Echakhch provides a poetic and complex view of the eroding cultural divide. In addition, Echakhch has found the perfect icon of the American West to spark our imaginations and encourage us to rethink our assumptions.  I mean really, when is the last time you’ve seen a tumbleweed? See below for the video CMA commissioned in conjunction with the Currents exhibition. Also check out the blog post from our Contemporary Curator.

In 2005, CMA acquired the Philip J. and Suzanne Schiller Collection of American Social Commentary Art, 1930 – 1970, one of the most important collections of its kind in the country and includes works by Jacob Lawrence, Romare Bearden, Rockwell Kent, George Tooker, and Paul Cadmus. These works of art are the keystones between two major areas of strength in the Museum’s American collection: George Bellows and the Ashcan School and American Modernism. These works vividly address complex problems and issues in American history. Echakhch takes her visual cues from the works of American art in the Schiller Collection and utilizes these works as a springboard for confronting issues that continue to face America today. 

The Currents series is supported by a grant from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc.

Monet to Matisse: Celebrating the 20th Anniversary of the Sirak Collection
September 23, 2011 - May 13, 2012

When acquired in 1991, The Howard C. and Babette L. Sirak Collection of the Columbus Museum of Art was saluted in ARTnews as one of the finest private collections in the world. CMA celebrates the 20th anniversary of this watershed moment in the Museum’s history with a special exhibition of the entire collection of 78 works by masters such as Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, Pierre-Auguste-Renoir, Paul Cézanne, Paul Klee, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Chaim Soutine, and Henri Matisse among others. The Sirak collection chronicles the groundbreaking developments in European modernism. Its acquisition by the Columbus Museum of Art perfectly complemented the Museum’s existing Howald collection of American modernist art. 

The Columbus Museum of Art joins the City of Columbus in celebrating our great city’s Bicentennial with programs and exhibitions throughout 2011 and 2012.  Monet to Matisse commemorates the Columbus Bicentennial by recognizing the importance of Columbus collectors and their impact on the Museum. 

Columbus Views
September 30, 2011 – Spring, 2012

Columbus Views celebrates the Bicentennial of the City of Columbus. The exhibition, drawn primarily from CMA’s collection, gathers works by artists such as George Bellows, Emerson Burkhart, Edmund Kuehn, Robert Chadeayne, and others, who were compelled to translate the charms of the city’s various locales and neighborhoods onto canvas.

The Columbus Museum of Art joins the City of Columbus in celebrating our great city’s Bicentennial with programs and exhibitions throughout 2011 and 2012. Columbus Views commemorates the Columbus Bicentennial by highlighting artistic depictions of the city.

Carved and Whittled Sculpture: American Folk Art Walking Sticks from the Hill Collection
November 18, 2011 – April 1, 2012

The collection of American walking sticks belonging to Pam and Tim Hill of Birmingham, Michigan is one of the finest of its kind in the country and a significant number of these fascinating works will be on view at the Columbus Museum of Art. The exhibition addresses the subject of walking sticks as chronicles of American history and culture as well as objects of folk art and personal expression. These amazing objects, carved and painted by their often anonymous makers, are a testament to the creative impulse that has existed in America from its earliest days to the present. 

Ground Control: File on Motor Transgression
January 3, 2012 - March 1, 2012

We begin a new year of Ground Control with a video by Matthew Cusick, File on Motor Transgression (M4-11), (2000–2011).  Compiled from Hollywood film footage over the last decade, Cusick takes us on a wild ride through some of the greatest car scenes in movie history. Ground Control is an exhibition program of video and sound work by contemporary artists screened within the elevator on CMA’s south side.