The Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA) will mark the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States with a series of exhibitions on view this year that explore the breadth, complexity, and ongoing evolution of American art. From Indigenous works on paper and Martin Puryear’s expressive abstract sculptures to Andrew Wyeth’s innovative watercolors and Emma Amos’s celebration of community, these programs draw on the museum’s collection, alongside key partnerships and loans, to foreground artists whose work reflects the diverse histories, cultural traditions, and creative networks that continue to shape the American experience.
Go to clevelandart.org for more information.
Events & Exhibits
American Art History Tours
Sundays, June 7 through July 26, 2006, 3-4 p.m.
Ames Family Atrium
Free; Ticket Required
In honor of America’s 250th birthday, celebrate more than 250 years of American art. From colonial works created before the Revolution to the sweeping landscapes of the Hudson River school, and from the vibrant modernism of Harlem and Greenwich Village to contemporary voices, this tour traces a distinctly American artistic journey. Explore how art in the United States evolved from John Singleton Copley to Amy Sherald, revealing a nation striving to live out its ideals.
still/emerging: Native American Works on Paper
Through June 7, 2026
James and Hanna Bartlett Prints and Drawings Galleries | Galleries 101 A–B
still/emerging: Native American Works on Paper is the first exhibition to highlight the Cleveland Museum of Art’s rapidly expanding collection of prints and drawings by Native American artists. Around 30 works created from the 1950s through today highlight the unique histories and perspectives of Indigenous artists from a number of backgrounds and tribal affiliations.
Martin Puryear: Nexus
Through Aug. 9, 2026
Martin Puryear’s (American, born 1941) singular work across mediums illuminates the expressive potential for abstraction in our time. Martin Puryear: Nexus highlights the global histories that have inspired Puryear’s practice, offering a fresh and timely perspective on his impactful body of work. While accentuating the art’s visual allure, this exhibition and its accompanying catalogue shed light on the ways that the artist’s unique visual vocabulary has been shaped by his enduring interests in global traditions of material culture, African American history, and the natural world.
American Printed Silks, 1927–1947
Through Sunday, Nov. 8, 2026
Arlene M. and Arthur S. Holden Gallery
Free; No Ticket Required
Between the late 1920s and late 1940s, the US was a leader in printed silks used in fashionable attire and interiors. This exhibition showcases printed silks in the CMA’s collection from four American companies—Stehli Silks Corporation, H. R. Mallinson and Company, Silks Beau Monde, and Onondaga Silk Company.
The Gift: Emma Amos with Friends
Sept. 13, 2026–Jan. 24, 2027
Emma Amos: Among Friends centers on Amos’s monumental portrait series The Gift (1990–94), which was recently acquired by the Cleveland Museum of Art. This suite of 48 watercolor portraits, painted from life, depicts women artists, writers, and curators in Amos’s intergenerational community. Made as a birthday present for her daughter India, The Gift animates the importance of creative kinship as a source of strength, support, and inspiration, which Amos learned from her mother. Marking the first time The Gift has been displayed in nearly 20 years, this exhibition as well as its accompanying catalogue and digital resource illuminate the context for this work’s production and its legacies.
Spectacular Freedom: Andrew Wyeth and the Modern American Watercolor
September 20, 2026–January 18, 2027
The Kelvin and Eleanor Smith Foundation Gallery
Explore Andrew Wyeth’s innovative watercolor practice through nearly 75 works from the artist’s estate—most never previously exhibited—alongside a selection of his tempera paintings. Spectacular Freedom: Andrew Wyeth and the Modern American Watercolor offers a fresh perspective on a celebrated American artist’s early decades, highlighting his engagement with watercolor at a time when it was seen as a national medium, distinctively suited for depicting American experiences
Image: Maine Fisherman, 1936. Andrew Wyeth (American, 1917–2009). Watercolor on paper; 55.9 x 76.8 cm. Wyeth Foundation for American Art Collection, 0033. © 2026 Wyeth Foundation for American Art / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
