Object of Devotion: Medieval English Alabaster Sculpture from the Victoria and Albert Museum

"OBJECT OF DEVOTION: Medieval English Alabaster Sculpture from the Victoria and Albert Museum" presents 60 beautifully-carved alabaster panels and free-standing figures that were displayed in the homes, chapels and churches of both aristocratic and non-aristocratic Christians in the 15th and 16th Centuries.

Upcoming Exhibitions

Pat Oliphant: Interesting Times

Pat Oliphant is America's most influential and widely admired editorial cartoonist, creating controversy and consternation with every flick and whirl of his marvelously irreverent pen. Since his arrival in the United States from Australia almost fifty years ago, Oliphant has skewered the powers-that-be in America and around the globe, using his art to expose avarice and malfeasance, incompetance and corruption wherever it appears.

"Global Modernism and the Indian Progressives" investigates the "radical" modernist artwork produced in India between the 1940's and the 1980's. Presented for the first time in the United States, these 80 paintings are some of the crucial works of the Progressive Artist group -- a collective formed within months of India winning its freedom from colonial rule. This decisive era witnessed the demise of the British Empire and the rise of independent India, a nation that has emerged as a powerful player on the global scene in the 21st century.

The first exhibition held outside Tokyo dedicated to Japanese Art Deco, "DECO JAPAN" provides dramatic examples of the spectacular craftsmanship and sophisticated design long associated with Japan and conveys the complex social and cultural tensions during the Taishô and early Shôwa epochs (1912-1945). In these pre-war and war eras, artists and patrons created a Japanese modernism that signaled simultaneously the nation's unique history and cosmopoltinism. The vitality of the era is further expressed through the theme of the moga, or modern girl, the emblem of contemporary urban chic that flowered along with the Art Deco style in the 1920's and 1930's.

The Japanese are well-attuned to the changing seasons: showers of cherry blossoms in spring, the mesmerizing hum of cicadas in summer, windblown scarlet leaves contrasting gray autumn skies, and the first snowflakes in the chill of winter. Shaped by the cycle of changes in nature, utilitarian pieces take on new meaning and reveal a rich artistic heritage. With over 100 examples from the renowned collection of Jeffrey Montgomery, this exhibition explores the changing seasons and their profound impact on traditional Japanese art by examining the beauty and significance of day-to-day objects.

OBJECT OF DEVOTION: Medieval English Alabaster Sculpture from the Victoria and Albert Museum presents sixty beautifully-carved alabaster panels and free-standing figures that were displayed in the homes, chapels, and churches of both aristocratic and non-aristocratic Christians in the 15^th and 16^th centuries.

Panel of the Crucifixion. Late 14th Century, alabaster, Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

Jean-Jaques Tissot (1836-1902) and Paul César Helleu (1959-1927) devoted much of their lives to the pursuit of beauty, though each approached it with his own indvidual obsessions. Tissot was fascinated by clothing, the texture, shape and fall of fabrics and the details of settings. Helleu employed the simplest of lines to capture human sentiments: fleeting expressions from playfulness to challenge, from concentration to sleep. This exhibition explores the intimate preoccupations of these two artists through 100 superb drawings and prints selected from private collections in Europe.

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