Crystal Bridges announces 2018 temporary exhibitions

Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville unveiled on Tuesday (Aug. 8) its temporary exhibition schedule for 2018.

The schedule includes the U.S. debut of Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power and two Crystal Bridges-organized exhibitions, with the working titles Georgia O’Keeffe and Contemporary Art and Native North America.

“Our 2018 exhibitions complement the story of American art shared through our permanent collection,” Crystal Bridges Executive Director Rod Bigelow said in a press release. “You can explore how American culture was shaped through Black artists of the 1960s through the ‘80s; the legacy of Georgia O’Keeffe alongside contemporary artists, and how we think about contemporary American art through the lens of Native artists. Crystal Bridges developed the latter two exhibitions to create an engaging experience for a wide-ranging audience, while furthering our collection-based research, and expanding Crystal Bridges’ role as a creator and collaborator in the field of American art.”

SOUL OF A NATION
Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power will be on display Feb. 3 to April 23, 2018.

Organized by the Tate Modern in London, Soul of a Nation “is a look at how American culture was reshaped through the work of Black artists during the tumultuous 1960s, ‘70s, and early ‘80s,” according to a Crystal Bridges press release.

The exhibition will feature more than 150 artworks from more than 60 black artists, including Romare Bearden, Melvin Edwards, Betye Saar, Faith Ringgold, Charles White, Alvin Loving, Alma Thomas and Lorraine O’Grady.

It also includes posters by artists of the AfriCOBRA collective, graphic art created by Emory Douglas for The Black Panther newspaper and black feminist art, according to Crystal Bridges.

Following its debut at Crystal Bridges, the Soul of a Nation exhibition will travel to the Brooklyn Museum in New York. It was curated at Crystal Bridges by Lauren Haynes, curator of contemporary art, and at Tate Modern by Mark Godfrey, senior curator of international art, and Zoe Whitley, curator of international art, according to Crystal Bridges.

GEORGIA O’KEEFFE & CONTEMPORARY ART
Georgia O’Keeffe and Contemporary Art is scheduled to be on display May 26 through Sept. 3, 2018.

“This exhibition demonstrates the continuing power of O’Keeffe’s work as a touchstone for contemporary art,” according to Crystal Bridges.

Adding to the O’Keeffe works in Crystal Bridges’ permanent collection, including Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1 and Radiator Building, Night, New York, the museum has put together a number of significant O’Keeffe artworks, which will be displayed alongside works by a select group of emerging contemporary artists that seem to draw upon O’Keeffe’s artistic legacy. Those artists include Sharona Eliassaf, Monica Kim Garza, Loie Hollowell, Molly Larkey and Matthew Ronay.

O’Keeffe and Contemporary Art was curated by Lauren Haynes, curator of contemporary art,  and Chad Alligood, chief curator of American art at The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens in San Marino, Calif.

After its presentation at Crystal Bridges, the exhibition will travel to additional venues, to be announced at a later date, according to the museum.

NATIVE NORTH AMERICA
Native North America will be on display Oct. 6, 2018, through Jan. 7, 2019.

“For generations, Native North American artists have largely exhibited their work outside the mainstream of contemporary art. A new exhibition, organized by Crystal Bridges, aims to dissolve those boundaries and invite new dialogue on contemporary American art,” according to the museum press release.

Native North America charts the development of contemporary indigenous art from the United States and Canada from the 1960s to present.

The exhibition presents about  75 works of art by artists including Kay WalkingStick, Carl Beam, Fritz Scholder, Andrea Carlson and Kent Monkman.

“Ultimately, Native North America is a call to action that radically expands the definition of American art and sets the tone for future consideration of the subject,” according to the press release.

Native North America is co-curated by Mindy Besaw, curator of American art; independent curator Candice Hopkins (Tlingit, citizen of Carcross/Tagish First Nation); and Manuela Well-Off-Man, chief curator of the Institute of American Indian Art’s Museum of Contemporary Native Arts in Santa Fe, N.M.

After its presentation at Crystal Bridges, the exhibition will travel to additional venues, to be announced at a later date.