Past Exhibitions

Throughout the Museum’s history the staff has produced a wide array of critically acclaimed exhibitions both with works from the permanent collection and with objects borrowed from other institutions.

In addition, we have hosted a number of nationally and internationally recognized exhibits curated by organizations that specialize in traveling shows. Some of our more recent exhibitions are archived here. Please browse the links to the left to view our past exhibitions by year

  • Edward Hopper in Vermont

    –

    This exhibit assembles for the first time many of Hopper’s twenty-three known Vermont watercolors and six known drawings. Of these particular works, relatively unknown to most and rarely on view, are subjects that depict details of the hill farms bordering the White River. Marked by nuances of distinctive color, light, and shadow, they are studies in artistic process, illustrating how Hopper’s vision of Vermont developed between the time of his first visit, in 1927, and his last, in 1938.

  • Nature Transformed: Edward Burtynsky's Vermont Quarry Photographs in Context

    –

    Burtynsky’s iconic photographs of the quarries of Vermont are explored within the context of the geological and social history of the area, including in particular the Italian immigrant stoneworkers in the granite quarries near Barre. This exhibition has been extended through early June in conjunction with Burtynsky’s designation as an honorary degree recipient at Middlebury’s 2013 commencement proceedings.

  • Linear Thinking: Sol LeWitt, Modern, Postmodern, and Contemporary Art from the Collection

    –

    Linear Thinking was conceived in conjunction with several spring courses in the History of Art and Architecture. It includes prints and one sculpture by artists in the museum’s collection as well as a temporary wall drawing by Sol LeWitt (1928–2007). LeWitt’s Wall Drawing #394, which was first conceived in 1983 at the Musée d’Art Contemporain de Bordeaux in France, is on loan to the museum from the artist’s estate and will be installed during the week of February 25 by students in Professor Edward Vazquez’s course “Minimalism: Art, Objects, and Experience.”

  • Black, White, and Beautiful: Silver Prints from the Museum Collection

    –

    Visiting Professor of Studio Art May Mantell selected these prints in conjunction with her January-term course Introduction to Black and White Photography. The criteria were two:  that they be exceptionally beautifully crafted silver prints and that they be meaningful works of art made by significant artists.

  • Oliphant: Editorial Cartoons and the American Presidency, 1968–2012

    –

    As a prelude to the national presidential election in November, the museum is showing publicly for the first time a group of historic political cartoons by the syndicated artist Patrick Bruce “Pat” Oliphant (b. 1935). A 1967 recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning, Oliphant has been called “probably the most influential cartoonist now working” by The New York Times. The exhibit is comprised of ten political cartoons and one sculpture, created over a span of forty years, which represent each of the presidencies from Lyndon B. Johnson to George W. Bush.

  • China Modern: Designing Popular Culture 1910–1970

    –

    China Modern is a vast and substantive exhibition of approximately 175 objects which takes an in-depth look at the rich tradition of Chinese designs and styles in advertising, packaging, and promotional art for cinema, music, comic books, pulp fiction, fashion, games and toys. The exhibition’s iconic images chronicle China’s changing attitudes, identity, and its transition to a giant, commercial superpower.

  • Camera Work: Stieglitz, Steichen, Strand, and Company

    –

    First published in 1903, Alfred Stieglitz’s magazine Camera Work quickly became one of the most influential photographic journals in the country. Created in response to the emergence of haphazard snapshots being taken by vast numbers of amateur photographers using Kodak box cameras, Camera Work set the standard for photographic art. Focusing on the work of the Photo-Secession, an elite group of invited members presided over by Stieglitz, the magazine promoted photography as a means of personal expression through articles about artistic issues and illustrations of fine art photography.

  • Shapes in Time: Contemporary Chinese Calligraphy

    –

    Organized by Visiting Assistant Professor Stephen Whiteman, with translations by a number of colleagues in the College’s Chinese and History Departments, this installation demonstrates the endurance and continued vitality of Chinese calligraphy. Works on view, all from the Museum’s collection, are primarily contemporary inscriptions of revered texts. A manuscript dating to the 7th century C.E. and some of the accoutrements of the art of calligraphy are also included.

  • Environment and Object • Recent African Art

    –

    This exhibition presents work by contemporary artists living in African nations and around the world. Including internationally renowned artists El Anatsui and Yinka Shonibare, among others, the exhibition features works of art motivated by the impact of the environment on contemporary African life and the artists’ recurring aesthetic practice of using found objects and appropriated materials.

  • Four Works by New York Artist Richard Dupont

    –

    New York artist Richard Dupont employs cutting edge technology to produce drawings, prints, sculptures and installations that explore opportunities for self-surveillance and the perception of identity in an increasingly digital world. In 2000 and 2004, he made full-body laser scans of himself that would serve as templates for future works. Four of these are on display at the museum.