Tucson Museum of Art announces 2020/21 season
October 1, 2020
Tucson, AZ – Tucson Museum of Art and Historic Block (TMA) announces a new season featuring three major exhibitions: Arizona Biennial 2020, The Wyeths: Three Generations | Works from the Bank of America Collection, and 4×4: Willie J. Bonner, Nazafarin Lotfi, Alejandro Macias and Anh-Thuy Nguyen. Permanent collection galleries have been refreshed to include highlights from TMA’s collection in areas including contemporary Southwestern art, Art of the American West, European art and Modern art. Completely new exhibitions of TMA’s permanent collection of Indigenous Arts and Latin American Folk Art will open in March 2021. The 2020/21 season begins on October 1 and runs through October 3, 2021.
“In addition to the exciting opening of the Kasser Family Wing of Latin American Art, we are proud to focus TMA’s 2020/21 feature exhibitions on the artistic excellence of artists living and working in Arizona, as well as highlight a family of artists that defined the history of American art,” said Jeremy Mikolajczak, the Jon and Linda Ender Director and CEO. “Additionally, members and visitors can anticipate new exhibitions and expanded galleries dedicated to TMA’s extensive permanent collection and look forward to the forthcoming installation of a new Indigenous Arts gallery in spring of 2021.”
The new Kasser Family Wing of Latin American Art, which opened on July 30, 2020 following two years of planning and construction, offers a new perspective on art produced by peoples and cultures of Latin America from ancient civilizations to today. It is a significant addition to the cultural landscape of Southern Arizona, where the region and communities have profound and living ties with the Mesoamerican world. “Latin American art is woven into the history of the museum,” said Mikolajczak. “The new wing, along with its collections, positions TMA as one of largest and finest institutions dedicated to art of the Ancient Americas outside of a major urban center in the United States.”
Programming by TMA curators, Arizona artists and guest scholars will support the exhibition season and permanent collection. A series of virtual lectures and panel discussions have been scheduled in place of TMA’s usual in-person programming, which has been canceled through the end of the year. Programs will be delivered live online through Zoom; RSVP is required to receive connection information prior to the event. The full schedule of programs is available on the museum website at https://TucsonMuseumofArt.org/events.
Timed ticket reservations are required for museum visitors, and attendance is limited to 30% of TMA’s normal capacity in order to facilitate physical distancing. Masks/face coverings are required for all visitors age 5 and over. All in-person events for the fall have been canceled, including the annual Treasure House estate sale, Crush Party, Holiday Artisan Market and Christmas at the Corbett House.
A link to reserve timed tickets, new safety procedures and more information about the 2020/21 season can be found on the museum’s website: TucsonMuseumofArt.org. Follow TMA on Facebook and Instagram (@TucsonMuseumofArt) for the latest news and exhibition highlights.
FEATURE EXHIBITIONS
Arizona Biennial 2020
October 1, 2020 – January 10, 2021
Guest juror: Joe Baker/Lead curator: Julie Sasse
The Arizona Biennial is a juried exhibition held every other year that provides an opportunity to see some of the most innovative new work being created in Arizona. The 2020 exhibition includes 86 Arizona artists working in a variety of media, from nationally and internationally recognized names to emerging artists. Following a call to all artists age 18 and over who currently reside in Arizona, guest juror Joe Baker, Executive Director, Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center, selected 91 works for inclusion from the 1,351 entries received.
The Wyeths: Three Generations |
Works from the Bank of America Collection
January 21 – May 9, 2021
Lead curator: Christine Brindza
For three generations, the Wyeths have created art that captures the imagination and admiration of a wide audience. This exhibition presents more than sixty paintings, drawings and illustrations by N.C. (Newell Convers) Wyeth, his son Andrew Wyeth and his grandson Jamie Wyeth. The works span most of the 20th century in American Realism, revealing the breadth of the Wyeth family’s creative output, and illuminate both common themes within the works and the artists’ individual styles. This exhibition has been loaned through the Bank of America Art in our Communities® program.
4×4: Willie J. Bonner, Nazafarin Lotfi, Alejandro Macias and Anh-Thuy Nguyen
May 22 – October 3, 2021
Curated by Julie Sasse, Marianna Pegno, Jeremy Mikolajzcak and Kristopher Driggers
4×4 presents four solo shows, making up one large exhibition, by four preeminent Southern Arizona artists selected by four TMA curators. Influenced by their personal experiences, politics of space and social issues of our time, these artists contribute to the region’s unique artistic landscape. Willie J. Bonner creates an extended dialogue regarding the culture of African American people both historically and in contemporary society. Nazafarin Lotfi explores the spatial and temporal experience of bodies out of place and belonging. Alejandro Macias considers his Mexican-American identity and the current socio-political climate. Anh-Thuy Nguyen investigates conflicting emotions and thoughts about existing between two cultures. Through these distinct bodies of work and media exploration, including painting, sculpture, photography, video and drawing, they remind us that there is no collective experience of life in contemporary society. Instead, the range of human conditions is varied, nuanced and individual.
SELECTED PERMANENT COLLECTION EXHIBITIONS
Kasser Family Wing of Latin American Art
Ongoing
Curated by Kristopher Driggers
Three of the five galleries in the new wing highlight Ancient American works from the museum’s permanent collection alongside long-term loans from the collections of I. Michael and Beth Kasser and Paul L. and Alice C. Baker. These ancient objects are organized in galleries dedicated to Mesoamerican art, art from West Mexico and the intermediate zone and Andean art, and explore themes of writing, visual narrative, costume and portraiture. A gallery dedicated to Spanish Colonial art includes works from Latin America and the Southwestern United States created from the seventeenth through the nineteenth centuries. The final gallery is dedicated to Modern and Contemporary Latin American art. Works in this gallery reveal a vast range of source material and artistic approaches, including figurative works, abstraction, the intersection of science and art and social commentary.
Tense and Release: Art and Mood from the TMA Permanent Collection
Through August 1, 2021
Curated by Christine Brindza and Kristopher Driggers
Installed in four galleries in the historic Edward Nye Fish House, this exhibition comprises artistic explorations of distinct qualities of mood highlighting experiences of tension and celebration, including portraits, the body at work, surges of color and images that evoke merriment.
Palice Gallery of European Art
Ongoing
Curated by Jeremy Mikolajczak
Installed just weeks before COVID-19 necessitated the temporary closure of the museum, the works in the Palice Gallery go beyond the “ism” movements of the European canon, including Romanticism, Impressionism, Fauvism, Surrealism and Cubism. The addition of artworks by women, LGBTQ+ and artists of color from Europe expand on the traditional “gallery of masterpieces” dominated by white, male artists.
New exhibitions of Latin American Folk Art and Indigenous Arts
Opening March 2021
Supported by a National Leadership Grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), the Indigenous Arts exhibition at TMA will be the first large-scale installation reflecting a community-based approach to curation. Curators, cultural liaisons and tribal representatives are working together to identify themes and multivocal approaches to recontextualizing TMA’s permanent collection. TMA’s Indigenous Arts collection is an important resource due to its connection to local communities, and the inclusion of Indigenous voices, expertise and knowledge in exhibition practices is an essential component to the new installation.
With the reinstallation of TMA’s Latin American Folk Art galleries, the museum will highlight recent donations to the collection including the Bill and Cheryl Green collection of Peruvian folk art. The Green collection includes paintings and ceramic sculptures from the Ayacucho region, one of Perú’s most active artistic centers. Visitors to the exhibition will learn how works of folk art engage with regional and national history, explore how folk art imagines community and will observe how art cleverly integrates images and texts, among other topics.
The 2020-2021 Exhibition Season at TMA is presented by James and Louise Glasser.
With support from the following season sponsors: Fran and Jim Allen, Alice and Paul Baker, Mary Jo Brown, Connie Hillman Family Foundation, I. Michael and Beth Kasser, Anne and Ed Lyman, Jeanne Pickering and Mike Andrew, TMA League, Contemporary Art Society, Latin American Art Patrons and Western Art Patrons.
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