Exhibitions

Modern and contemporary prints and photographs address issues of urbanization, suburbanization, and the changing gender and social roles prompted by the mass expansion and development that occurred in mid-20th-century America. Becker Gallery. (Through March 2, 2008)

Being: A Selection of Photographic Portraits

The photographs in this exhibition, ranging from the 1860s to 1990, create complex portrayals of individuals from all walks of life. Focus Gallery. (Through March 6, 2008)

The American Scene: Part II

As the post-1850 component to the inaugural The American Scene (which closed January 13), The American Scene: Part II will thematically focus on the development of modern American identity and aesthetic vision through the museum's impressive holdings of American art. Boyd Gallery. (Through August 31, 2008)

Patty Chang: For Abramovic, Love Cocteau

Six works by New York-based performance and media artist Patty Chang. Chang's works are characterized by the bold, outrageous, and yet subtle use of her own body to test the borders of flesh and the body. Media Gallery. (Through April 13, 2008)

Modern Times: Alumni Collect

Seven Bowdoin alumni and alumnae, representing classes from 1937 to 2000, are sharing works from their collections of recent art. Works by Warhol, Lichtenstein, Betye Saar, Glenn Ligon, Kara Walker, and Kiki Smith included. Bernard and Barbro Osher Gallery. (Through March 7, 2008)

Great Graphics: 1470-1970

Highlights more than sixty works on paper from the Museum's renowned holdings of prints and drawings. Curated by esteemed print collector, scholar, and Bowdoin alumnus David Becker '70, this show will feature a comprehensive display that unites Rembrandt and Picasso, Rubens and Homer, Dürer and Cassatt, and Goya and Klee. Halford Gallery. (Through March 7, 2008)

Transformations: Traditional and Contemporary Chinese Art in Dialogue

Highlights the rich traditions of Asian art. Juxtaposes ancient Chinese scrolls and prints with contemporary Chinese photography, prints, and mixed media works that reference historic subjects and compositions. Center Gallery. (Through February 1, 2008)

The Walker Sisters and Collecting in Victorian Boston

In the first Luce Foundation-funded reinterpretation of the American collection, this exhibition honors the Bowdoin College Museum of Art's founders with an installation of compelling, diverse, and sometimes unexpected art. Shaw Ruddock Gallery. (Through August 24, 2008)

Ars Antiqua: Ancient Pastimes and Passions

Explores the nature of ancient life and its reflections in the art of the ancient world. Walker Gallery. (Long-term installation)

Ancient Art: Immortal Dreams

In accompaniment to Ars Antiqua: Ancient Pastimes and Passions, this exhibition will thematically explore the notion of "life after death" as it existed in ancient cultures. Northend Gallery. (Long-term installation)

Seeing and Believing: 600 Years in Europe

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-twentieth-century cubist landscape that was included in the 1913 Armory Show. Bowdoin Gallery. (Long-term installation)

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. Rotunda. (Long-term installation)

Palace Reliefs from Kalhu (Nimrud)

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 ninth 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. Assyrian Gallery. (Long-term installation)

David Saul Smith Union

Adaptive Measures

Zachary Montgomery's work reflects his keen interest in nature and environmentalism. He claims that we as humans assume that we can adapt technologically to whatever harm we do to the world. His work not only addresses this assumption but directly challenges it. Lamarche Gallery. (Through Feb. 29, 2008) Read more...

Hawthorne-Longfellow Library

A Gift of Flowers: An Exhibition of Floral Images from Special Collections Commemorating the Centennial of Kate Furbish's Flora of Maine

Opening January 21. In 1908, self-taught botanist and painter Kate Furbish completed her monumental Flora of Maine, a lifelong project of depicting the flowering plants then known to grow in Maine, and presented her work to Bowdoin College. Flora of Maine consists of 1,326 watercolors and pencil sketches. Read more... Second Floor. (January 21–June 1, 2008)

A Chamberlain Sampler: From the Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain Collection

Third floor. (Ongoing)

"...a Peaceful Pursuit": An Exhibition Honoring the Career of Senator George J. Mitchell

Third floor. (Ongoing)

Flora of Maine: A Look at the Kate Furbish Collection

Third floor display cases. (Ongoing)

Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum

Chilling Discoveries about Global Warming

Polar Photography by Bryan Alexander

Alexander's interest in northern work began in 1967 when, as a student at the London College of Printing, he wrote a thesis on "Photography in Cold Climates." In 1971 a fellowship allowed him to spend three months living with and photographing Inughuit in northwest Greenland. By the 1980s he and his wife, Cherry, also a photographer, had gained enough recognition for their work that they were able to concentrate on polar photography, working in both the Arctic and Antarctic. Read more about the exhibit...

Carved in Stone: Two Views of Inuit Art

This exhibition was created by the students in the Cultures on Display (Anthropology 331) class, which studies how Western groups experience the cultural representation on non-Western groups through art, crafts, travel, film, and history.