The Cleveland Museum of Art is busy not only with FRONT International 2022, which runs now through Oct. 2 (and was detailed in last week’s newsletter) but has several other exhibits to take us through the summer and beyond.
Here’s the rundown of what to see and when to see it. Get details at clevelandart.org:
- The New Black Vanguard: Photography between Art and Fashion
Through Sept. 11
Kelvin and Eleanor Smith Foundation Exhibition Gallery
The New Black Vanguard: Photography between Art and Fashion features vibrant portraits and
conceptual images that fuse art and fashion photography. The exhibition opens conversations around
the representation of the Black body and Black lives as subject matter and challenges the idea that
Blackness is homogenous.
In Cleveland, the exhibition has a unique addition to the photographs on the walls: mannequins dressed in fashionable looks created by three of the stylists represented in the show. Arielle Bobb-Willis and Daniel Obasi, who work both as stylists and photographers, and stylist Jermaine Daley each produce a special look that highlights the important role played by stylists in creating the narratives that audiences consume from fashion and photography.
Exhibition Tickets: Adults $12; seniors, students and children ages 6 to 17 $10; children 5 and under and CMA members, FREE. Tickets are expected to book quickly and are not guaranteed. The CMA highly recommends reserving exhibition tickets in advance online by visiting The New Black Vanguard exhibition webpage. Tickets can also be reserved by phone at 216-421-7350 or on-site at one of the ticket desks.
- Medieval Treasures from Münster Cathedral
Through Aug. 14
Gallery 115
FREE
Gold and silver reliquaries, jeweled crosses, liturgical garments and illuminated manuscripts are among the rare treasures kept in the Cathedral of Saint Paul in Münster, in northwestern Germany. Many of Münster’s reliquaries, created between the 1000s and 1500s, were permanently displayed on the altar, while others were brought out only during liturgical celebrations. Medieval Treasures includes eight of these reliquaries.
- Cycles of Life: The Four Seasons Tapestries
Through Feb. 19, 2023
Arlene M. and Arthur S. Holden Textile Gallery | Gallery 234
FREE
Cycles of Life: The Four Seasons Tapestries offers visitors an in-depth look at a rare, complete set of
tapestries in the museum’s collection that has not been displayed since 1953 because of the tapestries’
fragile condition. Each tapestry depicts seasonal activities: fishing and gardening (Spring), grain
harvesting (Summer), wine making (Autumn) and ice skating (Winter). When viewed together, the
tapestries represent a full cycle of life.
- Martial Art of India
Through Aug. 21
Indian Painting Gallery | Gallery 242B
FREE
Scenes of battles and portraits of soldiers in Indian painting include both historical and mythical, real and idealized images—and often in combination. This selection of paintings from the museum’s permanent collection reveals a range of depictions from historical documents to illustrations of epic tales.
- Japan’s Floating World (日本の浮世)
Through Oct. 2
Kelvin and Eleanor Smith Foundation Japanese Art Galleries | Galleries 235A–B
FREE
A significant share of paintings, prints and decorative arts made in Japan from the mid-1700s to mid-1800s captured artists’ responses to urban sex and entertainment districts unofficially known as the ukiyo (浮世), or “floating world.” Ukiyo-e (浮世絵), or “pictures of the floating world,” inspired by these exceptional spaces and their occupants, eschewed the grim realities of sex work, instead marketing beauty, celebrity, pleasure and fashion, often in combination with allusions to famous literature or historical episodes. The term “ukiyo” was repurposed in the late 1600s from its much older use in Buddhism, where it described human frailty in the face of constant change. The new floating world, designed as an escape from the constraints of daily life for male government servants, thrived on ephemeral experiences and suggested a kaleidoscope of enjoyable possibilities.
In addition to paintings, prints of courtesans and musicians vie with those of Kabuki actors and a sumo wrestler for attention in the spring installation (April 8–July 10), while prints of boating parties on the Sumida River feature in the summer installation (July 12–October 2). The exhibition also presents a feminist work by Oda Mayumi (b. 1941), whose work is rooted in the ukiyo-e tradition.
- Creating Urgency: Modern and Contemporary Korean Art
Through Oct, 23
Korea Foundation Gallery | Gallery 236
FREE
Creating Urgency: Modern and Contemporary Korean Art sparks a stimulating discussion about
contemporary Korean artists and their expressive language of defining diasporic artistic identities.
Korean-born French painter Ungno Lee (1904–1989) reimagined traditional Korean ink painting and its
conventional methods through his exploration of Art Informel (French Abstract Expressionist approaches
of the 1940s and ’50s). The Berlin-based Korean artist Haegue Yang (b. 1971), on the other hand, invites
the audience to critically explore issues of identity, migration and displacement. The selected works on
display share each Korean artist’s experiences and challenges in the global art scene.
- Escaping to a Better World: Eccentrics and Immortals in Chinese Art
Through Nov. 6
Clara T. Rankin Galleries of Chinese Art | Gallery 240A
FREE
In times of a pandemic, migration crises, and frequent natural and humanitarian disasters, the theme of Escaping to a Better World may resonate with many of us. In fact, this idea has long been part of China’s culture, embedded in the country’s religious and philosophical thinking. China’s legendary eccentrics and immortals often exhibit unconventional appearances and behaviors, expressing supernatural power and a rejection of everyday norms. By doing this, they embody the longing for an ideal world. This installation presents paintings, porcelain and metalwork, all mediums in which these popular figures and their stories were depicted throughout the ages, including today.
- Native North America
Through Dec. 4
Sarah P. and William R. Robertson Gallery | Gallery 231
FREE
Works on display in the Native North American gallery include a group of objects from the Great
Plains—a child’s beaded cradle; a woman’s hair-pipe necklace, one of the most memorable of Plains
ornaments; and several beaded or painted bags that served varied purposes. A basket rotation features
creations that Timbisha Shoshone (Panamint) weavers of California’s Death Valley made for the early
20th-century collector’s market. Finally, for the first time in at least 20 years, two works by contemporary Inuit artists of the Canadian Arctic make an appearance. One is a 1972 stone-cut print by Alec (Peter) Aliknak Banksland, a founding member of the Holman Eskimo Arts Cooperative, now the Ulukhaktok Arts Centre in Ulukhaktok, Canada.
- Ancient Andean Textiles
Through Dec. 4
Jon A. Lindseth and Virginia M. Lindseth, PhD, Galleries of the Ancient Americas | Gallery 232
FREE
The textiles represent several different civilizations that flourished in the ancient Andes, today Peru and
parts of adjacent countries. Though unrelated by cultural affiliation, they are unified by being special in
some way, whether through rarity, complexity of execution or luxuriousness of materials.
- Arts of Africa
Through Dec. 18
Galleries 108A–C
FREE
Seventeen rarely seen or newly acquired works are installed in the African arts galleries. These 19th- to
21st-century works from northern, central and western Africa support continuing efforts to broaden the
scope of African arts on view at the CMA.
- Special Loan
The Cleveland Museum of Art is honored to feature Kerry James Marshall’s masterpiece Bang (1994), on
loan from the Progressive Corporation, in Toby’s Gallery for Contemporary Art (229A). The artwork is
included in the recent contemporary gallery installation featuring several new artworks.
Photo: Adeline in Barrettes, 2018. Micaiah Carter (American, b. 1995). Image courtesy of Aperture, New York, 2019. © Micaiah Carter
