Prestigious exhibitions in partnership with leading international institutions
The Center hosts two to three exhibitions of American art per year in partnership with leading institutions in France, the United States and around the world. Exhibitions focus on a single artist or theme and represent a wide range of artistic styles and movements. Recent exhibitions include Mary Cassatt in Paris: Prints and Drawing from the Ambroise Vollard Collection and The Wyeths: Three Generations of American Art.
Current ExhibitionsQuilt ArtFebruary 13 – May 19, 2013
Mixing cloths and traditions from the Old World, local production and natural imagery unique to the United States, quilt making evolved into a distinctively American tradition with its own style and iconography. Types of quilts developed to reflect the new country, patterns that never existed before: Star of Bethlehem, Rose of Sharon, Album quilts, and more. Quilt art will feature twenty-five such quilts from the distinguished collections of the American Museum in Britain, an exceptional occasion to celebrate the depth and diversity of the American tradition.
ZOE PETTIJOHN SCHADEFebruary 13 – May 19, 2013
A contemporary counterpoint to the exhibition QUILT ART, the Mona Bismarck American Center is pleased to welcome the works of Zoe Pettijohn Schade on the first floor.
Graduate of the famous Cooper Union School, this American artist reflects on historical textile patterns in her distinctive works on paper. Her gouaches are plays in repetition: assembling and layering, creating enigmatic images, halfway between representation and abstraction. Her original approach sheds light on the value of decorative traditions and explores traditional hierarchies that separate fine art and craft. The artist, currently based in Paris, has a Fulbright Research Scholars Grant to work with a rare collection of paintings from the 17th century that exemplifies the French tradition of gouache patterns for textiles.
This project has been made possible with the support of the Public Affairs Office of the US Embassy in Paris and the Fulbright Commission.
Upcoming ExhibitionsLittle Black DressJuly 3 – September 22, 2013
Organized by the Savannah College of Art and Design Museum of Art and curated by SCAD trustee and Vogue Contributing Editor André Leon Talley, Little Black Dress charts the historic and contemporary significance of a singular sartorial phenomenon. Featuring approximately fifty garments from a canon of modern fashion designers, the exhibition includes contributions from veteran fashion designers and those of the international Best-Dressed List. The exhibition highlights the strength of individualism, charting the evolution of the little black dress from its native definition of invariable propriety, to new and distinctly contemporary explorations of texture, tone and silhouette.
Yousuf Karsh: Icons of the Twentieth CenturyOctober 16, 2013 through January 26, 2014
The remarkable artistic career of Yousuf Karsh was matched only by the extraordinary lives of cultural, political, artistic and intellectual figures that he photographed. Organized by Jerry Fielder, Curator and Director of the Estate of Yousuf Karsh, uniquely for the Mona Bismarck American Center, this exhibition celebrates Karsh’s exceptional contribution to shaping personal and historical memory throughout the twentieth century. Original photographs of American and French luminaries will be presented alongside archival material from the dozens of Life and Paris-Match covers that Karsh captured, marking the transformation of his intimate portraits into public icons.
© The Estate of Yousuf Karsh. All Rights Reserved.
Past ExhibitionsMARY CASSATT A PARIS: Dessins & Gravures de la Collection Ambroise VollardSeptember 26, 2012 – January 20, 2013
Mary Cassatt (1844-1926), the only American and one of only three women included among the French Impressionists, was captivated by the challenges and artistic possibilities of making prints. Born in Pennsylvania and embarking for Europe as a student, she chose to pursue her artistic career in Paris, finding inspiration abundant for her prints, drawings, etchings, paintings, pastels and counterproofs.
Ambroise Vollard, the daring art dealer of the Impressionists, renowned for his taste in the graphic arts, recognized early on the extraordinary technical quality of her prints. So struck was he by their modernity and appeal that he went on to acquire Cassatt’s entire studio collection of prints and drawings, most of which have never been exhibited in France – until this exhibition.
