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High Museum of Art Announces 2021-2022 Advance Exhibition Schedule
The High Museum of Art presents a rotating schedule of exhibitions throughout the year. Below is a list of current and upcoming exhibitions as of Aug. 30, 2021. Note: The exhibition schedule is subject to change. Please contact the High’s press office or visit high.org for more information or to confirm details.
Upcoming Exhibitions
“Really Free: The Radical Art of Nellie Mae Rowe”
Sept. 3, 2021-Jan. 9, 2022
For the last 15 years of her life, self-taught artist Nellie Mae Rowe (1900-1982) lived on a busy thoroughfare just outside of Atlanta and welcomed visitors to her “Playhouse,” which she decorated with found-object installations, handmade dolls, chewing-gum sculptures and hundreds of drawings. Featuring nearly 60 works drawn from High’s leading collection of Rowe’s art, “Really Free” is the first major exhibition of her work in more than 20 years and the first to consider her practice as a radical act of self-expression and liberation in the post-civil-rights-era South. Rowe began making art as a child in rural Fayetteville, Georgia, but only found the time and space to reclaim her artistic practice in the late 1960s, following the deaths of her second husband and members of the family for whom she worked. The exhibition will offer an unprecedented view of how she cultivated her drawing practice late in life, starting with colorful and at times simple sketches on found materials, and reveal their relationship with her most celebrated, highly complex compositions on paper. Through photographs and reconstructions of her Playhouse created for an experimental film on her life, the exhibition also will be the first to put her drawings in direct conversation with her art environment. “Really Free” marks the Museum’s first partnership with the Art Bridges Foundation, an organization dedicated to expanding access to American art, which will allow the exhibition to travel nationally into 2023. This exhibition is organized by the High Museum of Art, Atlanta.
“Picturing the South: 25 Years”
Nov. 5, 2021-Feb. 6, 2022
Launched in 1996, the High Museum of Art’s renowned “Picturing the South” series supports contemporary photographers in creating new bodies of work inspired by the American South for the High’s collection, which is among the nation’s leading photography programs and has strength in work made in and about the region. To commemorate the series’ 25th anniversary, the High will bring together for the first time nearly 200 works from all the past commissions by artists including Dawoud Bey, Sally Mann and Richard Misrach and will debut new work by the latest photographers selected for the series, Sheila Pree Bright, Jim Goldberg and An-My Lê. Taken as a whole, the photographs amount to a complex and layered archive of the region that addresses broad themes, from the legacy of slavery and racial justice to the social implications of the evolving landscape and the distinct and diverse character of the region’s people. This exhibition is organized by the High Museum of Art, Atlanta.
“KAWS PRINTS”
Dec. 3, 2021-March 27, 2022
One of the world’s most acclaimed artists, KAWS (Brian Donnelly) brings the same level of complexity and skill to his printmaking as he does to his painting, sculpture and editioned works, which unite the worlds of design, popular culture and fine art. Since his groundbreaking solo show at the High in 2012, KAWS has taken the world by storm with major exhibitions across the United States, Europe, Australia, Asia and the Middle East. At the same time, his monumental sculptural installations, augmented reality sculptures, design collaborations, toys, editioned objects and related works have seized the attention of a massive and diverse audience. KAWS’s work is grounded in a deep and sustained involvement with graphic art and printmaking, from his early “subvertisements” to the sumptuous, painstakingly crafted screenprints of the last decade. Drawing exclusively from the High’s collection, this exhibition features all the artist’s editioned silkscreen prints in the Museum’s holdings along with a selection of drawings, color charts and rare early prints. This exhibition is organized by the High Museum of Art, Atlanta.
“Disrupting Design: Modern Posters, 1900-1940″
Dec. 10, 2021-April 24, 2022
Though not precious or unique, the poster is the ultimate design object—it disseminates ideas and images that reflect a time and place. As an object of design history, the poster can comment on social or cultural shifts, but it is probably best known for its most prominent role—selling commercial products. This exhibition surveys the origins of modern poster design featuring works from the collection of Merrill C. Berman, who focused on 20th-century radical art. Berman’s collection represents a complex history of modernism, as avant-garde artists actively produced fine and applied art for commercial and political aims. Starting in the early 1900s, these designers revolutionized typography and the graphic image, creating poster designs that changed artistic perspectives, as well as the hearts and minds of people. The works on view demonstrate the origins of modern graphic design, as practiced in Europe, and how the medium could be marshaled into service for social change. This exhibition is organized by the High Museum of Art, Atlanta.
“The Obama Portraits Tour”
Jan. 14-March 20, 2022
From the moment of their unveiling at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery in February 2018, the official portraits of President Barack Obama and Mrs. Michelle Obama have become iconic. Kehinde Wiley’s portrait of President Obama and Amy Sherald’s portrait of the former First Lady have inspired unprecedented responses from the public. The High will present both portraits as part of a five-city tour organized by the National Portrait Gallery. In addition to the portraits, the gallery will feature an approximately eight-minute video providing background on the commissioning of the paintings by the Portrait Gallery and putting them into the context of the national collection of presidential portraits. This exhibition is organized by the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C. Support for the national tour has been generously provided by Bank of America.
“André Kertész: Postcards from Paris”
Feb. 18-May 29, 2022
In 1925, photographer André Kertész (American, born Hungary, 1894-1985) arrived in Paris with little more than a camera and meager savings. Over the next three years, the young artist carved out a photographic practice that allowed him to move among the realms of amateur and professional, photojournalist and avant-garde artist, diarist and documentarian. By the end of 1928, he had achieved widespread recognition, emerging as a major figure in modern art photography alongside such figures as Man Ray and Berenice Abbott. During this three-year period, he chose to print most of his photographs on carte postale, or postcard paper. Although this choice may have initially been born of economy and convenience, he turned the popular format toward artistic ends, rigorously composing new images in the darkroom and making a new kind of photographic object. “Postcards from Paris” is the first exhibition to bring together Kertész’s rare carte postale prints. These now-iconic works offer new insight into his early, experimental years and reveal the importance of Paris as a vibrant meeting ground for international artists, who drew inspiration from each other to create new, modern ways of seeing and representing the world. This exhibition is organized by The Art Institute of Chicago.
“What Is Left Unspoken, Love”
March 25-Aug. 14, 2022
Is love intrinsic, or is it a habit? What is the difference between love and friendship? What is the relationship of love to truth, freedom and justice? These are just some of the questions to be explored in “What Is Left Unspoken, Love,” featuring contemporary artworks from 1987 to 2021 that address the different ways the most important thing in life — love — is expressed. Organized during a time of social and political discord, when cynicism often seems to triumph over hope, this exhibition will examine love as a profound subject of critical commentary from time immemorial yet with a persistently elusive definition. As poet and painter Etel Adnan wrote, love is “not to be described, it is to be lived.” “Love” will feature more than 70 works, including paintings, sculpture, photography, video and media art, by more than 35 international artists based in North America, Europe and Asia such as Rina Banerjee, Patty Chang, Jeffrey Gibson, Tomashi Jackson, María de los Angeles Rodríguez Jiménez, Rashid Johnson, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Kerry James Marshall, Wangechi Mutu, Ebony Patterson, Magnus Plessen, Gabriel Rico, RongRong and inri, and Carrie Mae Weems. This exhibition is organized by the High Museum of Art, Atlanta.
“Oliver Jeffers: 15 Years of Picturing Books”
April 15-Aug. 7, 2022
Born in Australia and raised in Northern Ireland, Oliver Jeffers is an award-winning artist and author working in painting, bookmaking, illustration, collage, performance and sculpture. This retrospective exhibition showcases nearly 100 artworks, some never seen, including original line drawings, sketches and finished illustrations, from 16 of Jeffers’ picture books, including the wildly popular “The Day the Crayons Quit” and its sequel, “The Day the Crayons Came Home,” “Here We Are,” “The Incredible Book Eating Boy,” “This Moose Belongs to Me” and “Once Upon an Alphabet.” This exhibition is organized by the National Center for Children’s Illustrated Literature.
Currently on View
Through Sept. 19, 2021 Alexander Calder and Pablo Picasso are two of the foremost figures in the history of 20th-century art. This touring exhibition, which debuted in 2019 at the Musée national Picasso-Paris, presents more than 100 paintings, sculptures and works on paper from all phases of Calder’s and Picasso’s careers that reveal the radical innovation and enduring influence of their art. Conceived by the artists’ grandsons, Bernard Ruiz-Picasso and Alexander S. C. Rower, the exhibition focuses on the artists’ exploration of the void, or absence of space, in representations ranging from the figurative to the abstract. Calder’s wire figures, paintings, drawings, and revolutionary nonobjective mobiles and stabiles are integrated throughout the exhibition with profoundly inventive works by Picasso in every media. The juxtapositions are insightful, surprising and challenging, demonstrating the striking innovations these great artists introduced through their ceaseless reexamination of form, line and space. This exhibition is organized by the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; de Young Museum, San Francisco; and the High Museum of Art, Atlanta, in partnership with the Calder Foundation, New York; Musée national Picasso-Paris (MnPP); and the Fundación Almine y Bernard Ruiz-Picasso para el Arte (FABA).
“Electrifying Design: A Century of Lighting”
Through Sept. 26, 2021
Since the invention of the first electric light in the 1800s to the development of ultraefficient lightbulbs in the 21st century, lighting technology has fascinated engineers, scientists, architects and designers worldwide, inspiring them toward new creative expression. The High is the exclusive Southeast venue for this exhibition, the first large-scale show to consider electrical lighting over the past 100 years as a catalyst for technological and artistic innovation within major avant-garde design movements. The exhibition features nearly 80 rare lighting examples by leading international designers including Achille Castiglioni, Christian Dell, Poul Henningsen, Ingo Maurer, Verner Panton, Gino Sarfatti, Ettore Sottsass and Wilhelm Wagenfeld, among many others. The works on view demonstrate how these innovators harnessed light’s radiance and beauty, resulting in designs that extend beyond or challenge the functional nature of lighting. This exhibition is organized by the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
Through Nov. 28, 2021
This immersive maze of accessible, sensory environments by award-winning design and research practice Bryony Roberts Studio is the seventh site-specific installation on The Woodruff Arts Center’s Carroll Slater Sifly Piazza, continuing the High’s multiyear series of inclusive and inviting commissions to activate the Museum’s outdoor space and encourage community engagement. “Outside the Lines” emerged from conversations between Bryony Roberts Studio and self-advocates with disabilities and their allies throughout Atlanta, with the goal of creating a space that is engaging for all. It provides an environment that is accessible and playful for those with physical, developmental and/or intellectual disabilities, supporting discovery and connection. The gently curving steel structure supports thousands of hanging strands, along the rise and fall of the frame, that form both small enclosures for quiet relaxation and open environments for social interaction. Emulating a forest-like atmosphere, the tactile materials, designed in collaboration with individuals who are blind and visually impaired, invite safe engagement and enable dynamic navigation through touch. The variety and height of the materials provide a spectrum of exploration within reach of all people, including those who use wheelchairs and mobility devices, and produce a range of intensity and stimulation, offering choice for people with sensory sensitivities. This exhibition is organized by the High Museum of Art, Atlanta.
“Gatecrashers: The Rise of the Self-Taught Artist in America”
Through Dec. 11, 2021
After World War I, artists without formal training began showing their work in major museums, “crashing the gates” of the elite art world, as the newspapers of their day put it. This touring exhibition organized by the High will celebrate more than a dozen early 20th-century painters who fundamentally reshaped who could be an artist in the United States and paved the way for later generations of self-taught artists. “Gatecrashers” will highlight three painters who became the most widely celebrated self-taught artists of the interwar period — John Kane, Horace Pippin and Anna Mary Robertson “Grandma” Moses — and present their work alongside paintings by others, including Morris Hirshfield, Lawrence Lebduska and Josephine Joy, who represent the breadth of the art world’s attraction to self-taught artists in the first half of the 20th century. Despite their lack of formal training, these artists’ paintings of American life in the cities and rural communities where they lived, as well as fantastical scenes derived from their imaginations, were celebrated by fellow artists, collectors and taste-making museums such as New York’s Museum of Modern Art, especially in the 1930s and early 1940s. This exhibition will demonstrate how that recognition foreshadowed the increasing visibility of self-taught artists in today’s art world. Following its presentation at the High, the exhibition will travel to the Brandywine River Museum of Art (May 28–Sept. 5, 2022) and The Westmoreland Museum of American Art (Oct. 30, 2022–Feb. 5, 2023). This exhibition is organized by the High Museum of Art, Atlanta.
“Pioneers, Influencers, and Rising Voices: Women in the Collection”
Ongoing
In observance of the centennial of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution granting some women the right to vote, this installation is drawn from the High’s collection and features artworks made exclusively by women. Artists represented include some of the most influential voices of the past 50 years, such as Kiki Smith, Lorna Simpson and Shirin Neshat; midcareer artists such as Won Ju Lim and Chantal Joffe; emerging artists such as Jamian Juliano Villani and Ella Kruglyanskaya; and Atlanta-based artists Annette Cone-Skelton and Rocío Rodríguez. Whether exploring the multidimensionality of installation art, refashioning Minimalist forms and strategies, or challenging male-dominated social hierarchies, the selected works are inspired by or related to feminist concerns, which were advanced by the women’s movement of the 1960s and ’70s. Concerns that still persist today include voter suppression strategies that seek to disenfranchise people from participating in the democratic process. This exhibition is organized by the High Museum of Art, Atlanta.
The special exhibition of the Medford and Loraine Johnston Collection will run January 17 through May 25, 2025
In the mid-1970s, artist and Georgia State University professor Medford Johnston, along with his wife and collaborator Loraine, began collecting works by artists who were in the vanguard of contemporary art. Today, they hold one of the finest collections of postwar American drawings and related objects of its kind, now numbering more than 85 works.
In 2025, the High Museum of Art will present Thinking Eye, Seeing Mind: The Medford and Loraine Johnston Collection, featuring their collected works, which is a promised gift to the museum. Featuring artists such as Sol LeWitt, Brice Marden, Elizabeth Murray, Martin Puryear, Ed Ruscha, Al Taylor, Anne Truitt, Stanley Whitney and Terry Winters, among others, the exhibition will demonstrate how establishing the parameters of an art collection requires infinite patience, focus, discipline and a keen eye.
“The Johnstons have been friends of the High for a very long time. They’ve also built an impressive collection featuring works by many of the 20th century’s most significant abstract artists,” said the High’s Director Rand Suffolk. “We are honored that they have promised to leave their collection to the Museum where it will be preserved for future generations — and we are delighted that they are sharing it with our audiences now, hopefully inspiring the next generation of art collectors and supporters.”
A curated collection
The Johnstons’ story is a testament to, in the words of the High’s Wieland Family Senior Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, Michael Rooks, “knowing the difference between what is right and what is almost right” when building a collection.
Although the Johnstons acquired several paintings and objects when they first began collecting in 1972, they quickly narrowed their focus to drawing, primarily by artists working on the frontlines of abstraction in the mid-1960s during a time of great innovation and experimentation.
Rooks added, “Med and Loraine’s collection struck me at once by its single-minded focus on a specific moment in time, which was essentially the time of their contemporaries. The artists in their collection are like close friends to the Johnstons — in fact many are or were. What is equally astonishing about the collection is the Johnstons’ dogged pursuit of quality. Their in-depth knowledge of each artist’s practice combined with their understanding of specific qualities to look for — or more appropriately, to hold out for — will be a revelation to emerging collectors.”
The Johnstons have built their collection with the High in mind as the benefactor of their passion and discernment. For them, their collection “is a labor of love, pursued over more than 50 years, and we are delighted to be able to help the High Museum document and celebrate these important artists working during the same decades as our lives.”
About the exhibit
Thinking Eye, Seeing Mind: The Medford and Loraine Johnston Collection will be presented in the Special Exhibition Galleries on the second level of the High’s Stent Family Wing.
The exhibit is organized by the High Museum of Art and made possible through the generosity of sponsors:
- Premier Exhibition Series Sponsor Delta Air Lines, Inc.
- Premier Exhibition Series Supporters Mr. Joseph H. Boland, Jr., The Fay S. and W. Barrett Howell Family Foundation, Harry Norman Realtors and wish Foundation
- Benefactor Exhibition Series Supporters Robin and Hilton Howell
- Ambassador Exhibition Series Supporters Loomis Charitable Foundation and Mrs. Harriet H. Warren
- Contributing Exhibition Series Supporters Farideh and Al Azadi, Mary and Neil Johnson, Mr. and Mrs. Baxter Jones, Megan and Garrett Langley, Margot and Danny McCaul, Wade A. Rakes II and Nicholas Miller and Belinda Stanley-Majors and Dwayne Majors.
Support has also been provided by the Alfred and Adele Davis Exhibition Endowment Fund, Anne Cox Chambers Exhibition Fund, Barbara Stewart Exhibition Fund, Dorothy Smith Hopkins Exhibition Endowment Fund, Eleanor McDonald Storza Exhibition Endowment Fund, The Fay and Barrett Howell Exhibition Fund, Forward Arts Foundation Exhibition Endowment Fund, Helen S. Lanier Endowment Fund, John H. and Wilhelmina D. Harland Exhibition Endowment Fund, Katherine Murphy Riley Special Exhibition Endowment Fund, Margaretta Taylor Exhibition Fund, RJR Nabisco Exhibition Endowment Fund and USI Insurance Services.
About the High Museum of Art
Located in the heart of Atlanta, the High Museum of Art connects with audiences from across the Southeast and around the world through its distinguished collection, dynamic schedule of special exhibitions and engaging community-focused programs.
Housed within facilities designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architects Richard Meier and Renzo Piano, the High features a collection of more than 19,000 works of art, including an extensive anthology of 19th- and 20th-century American fine and decorative arts; major holdings of photography and folk and self-taught work, especially that of artists from the American South; burgeoning collections of modern and contemporary art, including paintings, sculpture, new media and design; a growing collection of African art, with work dating from prehistory through the present; and significant holdings of European paintings and works on paper.
The High is dedicated to reflecting the diversity of its communities and offering a variety of exhibitions and educational programs that engage visitors with the world of art, the lives of artists and the creative process.
For more information about the High or to purchase tickets, visit high.org.
Top image: (from the collection) Terry Winters (American, born 1949), Orb, 2020, oil on paper, The Johnston Collection. © Terry Winters, Courtesy Matthew Marks Gallery, New York.
This holiday season, Atlanta’s Center for Puppetry Arts is proud to present groundbreaking displays highlighting how puppetry — an ancient form of storytelling — brings together diverse religious and cultural traditions.
Running from November 12 to December 29, this special holiday exhibition invites visitors to experience a global celebration of unity — all under one roof.
Two remarkable exhibits at the heart of this year’s holiday programming are Jane Henson’s Nativity Story and The Famous Chelm Players by Robert Rogers. These powerful displays bring to life Christian and Jewish traditions through the art of puppetry, alongside contributions from other world cultures.
In addition to these new exhibits, the Center’s signature Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer™ performance returns, making the Center for Puppetry Arts a must-visit holiday destination.
A rare display of Christian artistry: Jane Henson’s Nativity Story
Jane Henson’s Nativity Story, a masterful crèche, brings the birth of Jesus to life through puppetry. Created by the co-founder of The Jim Henson Company (and wife of Muppets creator, Jim Henson), Nativity Story adds emotion to the traditional display, making it an engaging exhibit for all ages.
The Center for Puppetry Arts is one of the few museums in the world to publicly showcase Jane Henson’s work, offering a rare chance to experience her artistry. This unique celebration of Christian tradition is also a tribute to an often-overlooked female pioneer in puppetry.
A closer look: The Famous Chelm Players
Another highlight of the holiday exhibition is The Famous Chelm Players, created by renowned puppeteer Robert Rogers. These characters, inspired by Eastern European Jewish folklore, depict the Wise Men of Chelm, a town known in Jewish stories as the “village of fools.”
The puppets bring to life the lighthearted and well-meaning — yet comically misguided — characters who share wisdom and are used to tell stories about holidays and everyday lessons. They have been a beloved part of many Jewish traditions.
Designed with intricate detail, the Chelm puppets evoke the shtetls (small Jewish towns) of the past, capturing the essence of Jewish cultural heritage. Originally performed in Rogers’ New York playhouse, the debut at the Center for Puppetry Arts marks a rare opportunity for Southern audiences to see these whimsical puppets and learn about the timeless tales of Chelm.
A global holiday experience
In addition to these special exhibits, The Center maintains a rich collection of global puppetry in its permanent collection, some include:
• Puppets of Hindu deities, crafted by Indian artist Anupama Hoskere, depict stories from Hindu epics like the Ramayana, showcasing the intricate traditions of Indian puppetry.
• Muslim folk characters from various regions illustrate how puppetry has been used to convey religious stories and community traditions from the Middle East to Southeast Asia.
• Asian puppets, including shadow puppets from Indonesia and China, show how they are used in religious ceremonies and folk storytelling.
Rudolph returns for holiday fun
No visit to Atlanta’s Center for Puppetry Arts during the holidays would be complete without Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.
Running fromNovember 13 to December 29, this family-friendly adaptation of the 1964 Rankin/Bass television special features fully staged puppetry performances that capture the timeless story of Rudolph, Santa, Yukon Cornelius and the Abominable Snowman.
An Invitation to All Faiths and Communities
The Center for Puppetry Arts is extending a warm invitation to religious and interfaith organizations to participate in this celebration of global traditions.
By bringing together these diverse stories, the Center is offering a rare chance for communities of all backgrounds to come together through the common love of art and storytelling.
Plan Your Visit
Dates: November 12–December 29; Performances of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer™ begin November 13.
Location: The Center For Puppetry Arts: 1404 Spring St NW, Atlanta, GA 30309. Parking is free.
For more information and to purchase tickets, visit: puppet.org/programs.
Rudolph performance tickets include the show, as well as admission to the Worlds of Puppetry Museum, Festive Features special exhibition and a Create-A-Puppet™ Workshop.
To purchase a membership, visit: puppet.org/visit/become-a-member.
About the Center for Puppetry Arts
The Center for Puppetry Arts is the largest nonprofit in the U.S. dedicated solely to puppetry, offering live performances, interactive workshops and a world-class museum. Home to the Jim Henson Collection, featuring original Muppets, Fraggle Rock characters and Sesame Street icons, the Center provides a rare, behind-the-scenes look at beloved TV and film favorites.
With over 4,000 puppets from around the world in the museum, the Center immerses visitors in diverse cultural traditions, making it a must-visit destination for families. Supported by local institutions, it remains a key player in Atlanta’s vibrant arts scene.
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