Current Exhibitions
Art in Transition
Born in 1471 in Nuremberg, Germany, Albrecht Dürer began his career immersed in a conventional naturalism found in the Low Countries. Although his artistic inheritance was rooted in Flemish late Gothic painting, he became profoundly influenced by the work of Italian contemporaries, and struggled to blend the Gothic traditions of the North with Italy's triumphs in mathematical perspective and color. Painter, printmaker, draughtsman, and art theorist, Durer was perhaps the only Northern artist to fully grasp the complex relationship between scientific theory and art in Italy. Drawing from the formidable collection of Durer graphics at the Hessisches Landesmuseum, Darmstadt, Germany, Albrecht Durer: Art in Transition is a chronological presentation of the artist's life and times and the advances he made to improve the popular perception of graphics as a higher art form. The exhibition, which is restricted to only three venues in the United States, includes a fully-illustrated catalog with text by Dr. Mechthild Haas, Graphics Curator, Hessisches Landesmuseum.
The Florence Portfolio
"The Florence Portfolio" is composed of 20 etchings created in July 1993 by six contemporary artists exploring the theme of sacrifice in the Old and New Testaments. Selections from each artist's contribution to The Florence Portfolio are on display in the Museum's Education Gallery. The etchings - probing, surprising, and haunting - represent high achievement in the graphic arts and comprise a modern compliment to the masterful engravings in Albrecht Dürer: Art in Transition.