Looking for something to do as the winter drags on? Head over to the Cleveland Museum of Art. Here’s an updated list of current exhibits that highlight the wealth of treasures housed within the walls of this premier institution.
Through March 13
The Kelvin and Eleanor Smith Foundation Exhibition Gallery
Responding to the current time, Picturing Motherhood Now brings together works by a diverse range of contemporary artists who reimagine the possibilities for representing motherhood. The exhibition focuses on art made in the past two decades, while integrating work by significant pioneers to narrate an intergenerational and evolving story of motherhood.
Exhibition Tickets
Adults $12; seniors, college students with ID and children ages 12 to 17 $10; member guests $6; children ages 11 and under and CMA members FREE. Reserve tickets online at cma.org, at the box office or by calling 216-421-7350.
Cycles of Life: The Four Seasons Tapestries
February 13, 2022 to February 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.
Art historical research for this exhibition was a collaboration with Case Western Reserve University graduate students in the museum’s joint art history graduate program.
BLACK HISTORY MONTH
Currents and Constellations: Black Art in Focus
February 20 to June 26, 2022
Julia and Larry Pollock Focus Gallery | Gallery 010
FREE
Currents and Constellations: Black Art in Focus puts art from the CMA’s permanent collection in conversation with a vanguard of emerging and mid-career Black artists, as each explores the fundaments of art making, embracing and challenging art history. Nine thematic groupings, five in the Julia and Larry Pollock Focus Gallery and four in the permanent collection galleries, place Black American art and artists at the center of discussions about the relevance of art history to contemporary artists.
Through May 29, 2022
Mark Schwartz and Bettina Katz Photography Gallery | Gallery 230
FREE
Hair and wigs carry cultural and political weight in Black culture, rendering them powerful tools for self-representation. Derrick Adams: LOOKS features nine monumental paintings of wigs on mannequin heads from the artist’s recent Style Variations series. Through his paintings, Adams aims to make the practice he refers to as “costuming,” or the desire to be unique and stand out, normal to the broader public.
Women in Print: Recent Acquisitions
Through June 19, 2022
James and Hanna Bartlett Prints and Drawings Gallery | Gallery 101
FREE
Women in Print: Recent Acquisitions debuts approximately 30 recent acquisitions to the museum’s collection by contemporary women printmakers. The featured artists range from those avidly experimenting with printmaking processes to others who are exploring the practice for the first time. Working with an array of techniques over the past several decades, these artists have used printmaking as a vehicle for investigating topics as expansive as personal identity, social issues and even the creative process itself.
Medieval Treasures from Münster Cathedral
Through August 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.
COLLECTION EXHIBITIONS opening this month
February 11 to August 24, 2022
Indian Painting Gallery | Gallery 242B
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.
Through April 10
Kelvin and Eleanor Smith Foundation Japanese Art Galleries | Gallery 235A
Japan is known today for anime and manga (animations and graphic novels) and has a long tradition of storytelling in the visual arts. This gallery explores Japanese narrative art with diverse examples from the 1300s to the 1900s.
Popular Art from Early Modern Korea
Through April 24
Korea Foundation Gallery | Gallery 236
In the 1960s, practitioners of Pop Art looked toward everyday commodities and commercial images for inspiration. Such an artistic spirit that challenged the rigid concept between high- and lowbrow arts in fact had long existed in Korean art, flourishing in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
Migrations of Memory––The Poetry and Power of Music
平沙落雁 — 音樂的詩意與力量
Through May 1
Clara T. Rankin Galleries of Chinese Art | Gallery 240A
An installation by Peng Wei in collaboration with the Cleveland Museum of Art. Surrounded by classical Chinese paintings and instruments from the museum’s collection, the central installation Migrations of Memory—Wild Geese Descend on Level Sands (平沙落雁) by contemporary Chinese artist Peng Wei addresses the vital role of music and the arts during the COVID-19 pandemic. Made of music stands, letters by Western composers and paintings, Peng Wei’s installation is dedicated to the Cleveland Orchestra and musicians worldwide. This exhibition is accompanied by a free, fully illustrated booklet.
Through May 31
Gallery 116
Artwork from the Islamic world is as diverse and vibrant as the peoples who produced it. The objects presented in this gallery were created during the 8th through 19th centuries, a period of great cultural and geographic expansion. As a result, these works represent a vast area including Spain, North Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia. While these pieces originate within the Islamic world, they reflect the unique artistic and cultural traditions of disparate regions.
Through December 4
Sarah P. and William R. Robertson Gallery | Gallery 231
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 stonecut print by Alec (Peter) Aliknak Banksland, a founding member of the Holman Eskimo Arts Cooperative, now the Ulukhaktok Arts Centre in Ulukhaktok, Canada.
Through December 4
Jon A. Lindseth and Virginia M. Lindseth, PhD, Galleries of the Ancient Americas | Gallery 232
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: Gallery Rotation
Through December 18
Galleries 108A–C
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.
Image courtesy Cleveland Museum of Art: Four Seasons: Summer: Harvest Scene, late 1600s–early 1700s. Gobelins Manufactory (France, Paris, est. 1662). Wool, silk, and gold filé: tapestry weave; 252.7 x 255.3 cm. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Francis Ginn, Marian Ginn Jones, Barbara Ginn Griesinger, and Alexander Ginn in memory of Frank Hadley Ginn and Cornelia Root Ginn.
