Bowdoin College Museum of Art
Current Exhibitions
Between the Lines: Trends in Early Modern Printmaking
- May 01, 2008 – Jun 01, 2008
- Zuckert Seminar Room
An exhibition curated by the students of Art History 216, “The Early Modern Printed Image.” In the period between 1400 and 1700, European artists developed and perfected a variety of printmaking techniques, ranging from woodcuts to engravings and etchings.
You Can't See This: Photography at the Limits of Visibility
- Apr 29, 2008 – Jun 01, 2008
- John A. and Helen P. Becker Gallery
Examines photography’s complex relationship to human vision. What can the camera reveal that the eye literally cannot see?
Moving Landcapes: Short Films by Larry Gottheim and JJ Murphy
- Apr 15, 2008 – Jun 08, 2008
- Media Gallery
Moving Landscapes features two canonical short films: Fog Line (1970) by Larry Gottheim and Sky Blue Water Light Sign (1972) by JJ Murphy. These two works are inspired equally by nineteenth-century American landscape painting and by early cinema.
Beauty and Duty: The Art and Business of Renaissance Marriage
- Mar 27, 2008 – Jul 27, 2008
- Bernard and Barbro Osher Gallery
The major exhibition, Beauty and Duty: The Art and Business of Renaissance Marriage, will examine the manner in which art played a vital role in the rituals and celebrations of Renaissance marriage. The exhibition, with loans from museums and libraries around the country, will center on the Museum’s own intriguing cassone panel, Scenes from Boccaccio’s “Il Ninfale Fiesolano,” painted in Florence in the early 15th century and recently attributed to the young Fra Angelico.
Glimpses into the Floating World: The History of Ukiyo-E
- Mar 18, 2008 – Jun 22, 2008
- Focus Gallery
Reflective of the Museum of Art’s mission to promote understanding and access to non-Western art, Glimpses into the Floating World: The History of Ukiyo-E will showcase the Museum’s varied holdings of Japanese works on paper.
Great Graphics II: Prints from 1970 - Present
- Feb 06, 2008 – May 28, 2008
- Center Gallery
Great Graphics II is continuation of the fall 2007 inaugural exhibition, Great Graphics: Prints & Drawings 1470-1970. In this selection, guest curator David P. Becker showcases the Museum's collection of prints since 1970.
The American Scene Part II
- Jan 19, 2008 – Jun 08, 2008
- Boyd Gallery
The American Scene: Part II thematically focuses on the development of modern American identity and aesthetic vision through the Museum’s impressive holdings of American art. This exhibition will include work by Albert Bierstadt, Cecilia Beaux, Robert Henri, John Sloan,William and Marguerite Zorach, and others.
Ancient Art: Immortal Dreams
- Long-term installation opening Oct 14, 2007
- Northend Gallery
In accompaniment to Ars Antiqua: Ancient Pastimes and Passions, Ancient Art, Immortal Dreams will thematically explore the notion of “life after death” as it existed in ancient cultures. Using objects of ritual significance, Ancient Art, Immortal Dreams will probe into the complexities of human belief systems and polytheistic world views. In addition to portrait heads and funerary jewels and vessels, this exhibition will incorporate ancient Egyptian objects for comparison to the Greek and Roman objects included in the show.
Ars Antiqua: Ancient Pastimes and Passions
- Long-term installation opening Oct 14, 2007
- Walker Gallery
Ars Antiqua: Ancient Pastimes and Passions explores the nature of ancient life and its reflections in the art of the ancient world. Thematic displays investigating the Mediterranean loves of music, athletic pursuits, theatre, and luxury will be on view, as will displays that delve into the ancient fascination with deities, and conversely, with the human form, figure, and identity. Drawing upon the museum’s extensive store of ancient objects, Ars Antiqua: Ancient Pastimes and Passions will feature a rich selection of red and black figure pottery and votive sculpture, and examples of coins, cups, lamps, and jewelry.
The Human Figure - 2500 B.C. to 2000 A.D.
- Long-term installation opening Oct 14, 2007
- Rotunda
The Human Figure-2500 B.C. to 2000 A.D. returns the handsome domed and decorated Rotunda to its original designation as a sculpture hall. Seven sculptures, beginning with a very early Cycladic marble torso, through a plaster cast of Michelangelo’s Dying Slave, to Rodin, Giacometti, and finally a contemporary work by Joel Shapiro, embody different interpretations of this fundamental form in Western art.
Palace Reliefs
- Long-term installation opening Oct 14, 2007
- Assyrian Gallery
The Assyrian relief sculptures in this exhibition are some of the most extraordinary pieces in the Bowdoin collection. Carved at the behest of the Assyrian king Ashurnasirpal II in the 9th century BCE, these stone panels once decorated the walls of the royal palace in the king’s new capital at ancient Kalhu. The reliefs were finished with an overlay of cuneiform listing the king’s accomplishments. Together sculpture and text offer a visual narrative of Ashurnasirpal’s deeds supported by figures both mortal and divine. His extensive and innovative use of stone décor represented a departure from the styles of his predecessors and set a standard for subsequent Assyrian monarchs. Preserved despite the sack of the palace in late 7th century BCE the Bowdoin reliefs remained buried until their rediscovery in the 1840’s, finally making their way to Brunswick in 1860. The works in this exhibition are witnesses to an important era in the history of the ancient Near East and hold a special place in the lore of Bowdoin College.
Seeing and Believing: 600 Years in Europe
- Long-term installation opening Oct 14, 2007
- Bowdoin Gallery
Seeing and Believing is a selective survey of some of Bowdoin’s most important works of European art, from a Gothic carved head of a king from Chartres Cathedral to an early 20th century cubist landscape that was included in the 1913 Armory Show that introduced modern French painting to the United States. The exhibition represents art that derives from myth, history, and religion, as well as that which increasingly became interested in recording the real world. Materials as varied as ivory, wood, bronze and stone, in addition to oil and tempera painting, are included; works will be arranged by theme rather than strict chronology to underscore suggestive comparisons and contrasts over time.
The Walker Sisters and Collecting in Victorian Boston
- Oct 14, 2007 – Aug 28, 2008
- Shaw Ruddock Gallery
In the first Luce Foundation-funded reinterpretation of the American collection, The Walker Sisters and Collecting in Victorian Boston honors the Bowdoin College Museum of Art’s founders with an installation of compelling, diverse, and sometimes unexpected art that they donated to the museum. In keeping with standards of the Victorian and Aesthetic movements, Mary and Harriet Walker began collecting an array of art and artifacts in the 1870s with which to decorate their home, historic Gore Place in Waltham, Massachusetts. Ancient glass, Persian armor, American bronzes, European miniatures and pastoral landscapes were included in the Walker sisters’ bequest. This exhibition, including generous loans from other American museums, will also suggest the objects’ original context-a stylish Victorian interior.
