Ruth Adler Schnee: Modern Designs for Living at the Cranbrook Art Museum, December 14 to March 15, 2020
Through vintage textiles, archival drawings and photography, and assorted ephemera, the prolific life and career of Ruth Adler Schnee comes alive in this exhibition. Modern interior design owes a great deal to Schnee, who created textile patterns that helped define the mid-century American modernist aesthetic. Her vibrant colors and energizing textures will warm your spirit a bit this season. cranbrookartmuseum.org
Shades of Subalternity at the University of Arizona Museum of Art, to December 12
Art is never shy, particularly when it comes to challenging authority and oppression. Fifteen works spanning two centuries tell the stories of insubordination and resistance across classes, races, genders, and geographic locations. artmuseum.arizona.edu
Masterpieces of Italian Drawings from The British Museum at the Timken Museum of Art, to December 15
Italian Renaissance and Baroque paintings by such masters as Parmigianino, Andrea del Sarto, Agostino Carracci, Luca Giordano and Domenico Tiepolo are brought together for this exhibition. The evergreen themes of birth, death, and resurrection act as the through line for the 54 drawings and prints on view. timkenmuseum.org
Portraits of the World: Denmark at the National Portrait Gallery, December 13 to October 12, 2020
Kuntsdommere (Art Judges), a monumental 1906 group portrait by Danish artist Michael Ancher, is the centerpiece of a display of complementary American portraits. The power of the artists’ community in Ancher’s northern Denmark helps highlight the proliferation of such artistic communities that flourished in New York City; both movements developed modern art in their respective countries. npg.si.edu
Bruegel’s The Wedding Dance Revealed at the Detroit Institute of Arts, December 14 to August 20, 2020
This is the story of art as an object, rather than a static image. The Detroit Institute of Arts offers an immersive exhibition, featuring various installations addressing aspects of the underpainting, materiality, restoration, and conservation of Bruegel’s monumental painting. dia.org
Fashionable Luxuries: French and Italian Textiles at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, to December 15
Sumptuous silk textile fragments from the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries, created with fanciful and engaging embroidery patterns for the fashionable elite are collected for this exhibition. Between brocades, embroidery and other processes in-between, these upholstery and fashion materials are filled with eye-catching patterns. In our age of minimalism take time to enjoy a maximalist vision for a change. nelson-atkins.org
Fantasy and Reality: The World According to Felix Buhot at the Palmer Museum of Art, Pennsylvania State University, to December 15
Buhot was a uniquely imaginative printmaker from France. In the final quarter of the nineteenth century, Buhot produced cheerful and somber scenes alike, and he was especially adept at scenes of city life on rainy and foggy days. palmermuseum.psu.edu
The Web of Life: John Biggers and the Power of Pedagogy at the Palmer Museum of Art, to December 15
The centerpiece of this exhibition is the monumental Sharecropper Mural; an encapsulation of Biggers’ engagement with mural painting, the African American experience, and African culture. A selection of accompanying works on paper will further address Biggers’ influences, as well as the influence of his mentors, Viktor Lowenfeld and Charles White. palmermuseum.psu.edu
