Past Exhibitions, 2006–Present

2008

Turner Watercolors from the Taft Collections
February 29–May 4, 2008
Along with two major oil paintings, one from early in his career and one late, the Taft Museum of Art holds ten watercolors by Joseph Mallord William Turner (British, 1775–1851). Spanning the first half of the 19th century, these watercolors depict landscapes of Switzerland, Germany, England, Scotland, and Italy. Historically, they broke new ground in the artistic fields of book illustration, travel views, and the watercolor medium itself.

Keystone Gallery Sponsor: Mr. and Mrs. Michael T. Schueler
Fine Arts Fund Partner: GE Aviation

From Winslow Homer to Edward Hopper: American Watercolor Masterpieces from the Brooklyn Museum
February 22–May 11, 2008
The Brooklyn Museum holds one of the oldest and finest public collections of American art in the United States, certainly within the top five in the country. Among its holdings is an extensive collection of watercolors. Seventy of the best will be lent to the Taft Museum of Art. Ranging in date from the late 18th century to 1945, the works represent all the major movements in American art, with an emphasis on landscape and scenes of daily life: late 18th-century picturesque view-painting; the Hudson River School’s ideal landscapes; post–Civil War realism; American Impressionism; early 20th-century modernist abstractions; and American Scene painting of the 1920s and 30s, also known as Regionalism.

Among the featured artists are some of the finest American practitioners of the watercolor medium, including Winslow Homer, Thomas Eakins, Childe Hassam, John Singer Sargent, Maurice Prendergast, John Marin, and Edward Hopper. The artistic motifs represented in the exhibition range from Coney Island to Santa Barbara and from Spain to Tahiti. This selection constitutes a rich and informative survey of the development of landscape art and watercolor practice in the United States over the course of two hundred years.

From Winslow Homer to Edward Hopper: American Watercolor Masterpieces from the Brooklyn Museum has been organized by the Brooklyn Museum.

Sponsors:
Ellen and George Rieveschl Endowment
A Friend of the Taft Museum of Art
The H.B., E.W. and F.R. Luther Charitable Foundation, Fifth Third Bank and Narley L. Haley, Co-Trustees
The Sutphin Family Foundation
The Frank J. Kloenne and Jacqueline D. Kloenne Foundation, Fifth Third Bank and Narley L. Haley, Co-Trustees
Robert C. and Adele R. Schiff Foundation
75th Anniversary Season Sponsor: Western & Southern Financial Group
Fine Arts Fund Partner: P & G
Media Partners: WGUC 90.9/WVXU 91.7

Romanticism to Post-Impressionism: 19th-Century German Art from the Milwaukee Art Museum
September 7–November 4, 2007
The exhibition Romanticism to Post-Impressionism: 19th-Century German Art from the Milwaukee Art Museum looks at the course of German art during a time of great national change. Gothic architecture, contemporary writing, and the beauty of the landscape became new sources of inspiration for Romantic artists such as Schinkel, Olivier, and Friedrich.

German immigration and German-American cross-cultural exchange influenced the culture of Cincinnati during the 19th century. In recognition of this fact, the Taft Museum of Art is presenting an exhibition of German fine arts from that formative century. It traces the development of German art by featuring 71 outstanding prints, drawings, watercolors, and paintings from the Milwaukee Art Museum, which holds one of the premier collections of this material in the United States. During the century of Germany's political unification, many German artists sought to create a national art by using elements of German identity in their work. Romantic artists active during the first half of the century included Gothic cathedrals, pine forests, and scenes from German literature in their images, for example. Even after unity was achieved in 1871, and German art opened more widely to European influences, it remained distinctive. German painters and printmakers produced unique variants of the international movements Impressionism, Naturalism, and Post-Impressionism.

Antique Christmas at the Taft Museum of Art
Nov. 2, 2007 - Jan. 6, 2008
See the best of holiday decorations from Christmas past and present during An Antique Christmas at the Taft Museum of Art from November 2, 2007, through January 6, 2008. This year, the Museum will feature old-fashioned Christmas decorations in the historic house and traditional holiday trimmings including wreaths, garlands, lights, and trees from the pages of the Frontgate catalog adorning the Taft’s exterior.

A variety of rarely displayed objects and toys created during the years that the former house was inhabited (1820–1931) will grace its halls and rooms. Notably, German feather trees made of wire and goose feathers will be trimmed with sparkling ornaments that were made in America or imported here from around the world.

Among the types of ornaments on display will be early German wire-wrapped glass ornaments, early 19th-century wax ornaments, Dresden pressed cardboard ornaments, and American paper scrap and tinsel ornaments. Small trees will be devoted to ornaments in the forms of mushrooms, angels, fruit, Santas and butterflies and birds. Some rare antique objects will also be on view: an arrangement of Belsnickles (Father Christmas figures), some examples of 19th-century lighting systems for Christmas trees anda collection of German-made miniature sheep.

The Keystone Gallery will be hung with Christmas prints by the famous 19th-century illustrator Thomas Nast (1840–1902).Festive garlands and lights will deck the halls and exterior of the historic house, and the Dining Room table will be set for a holiday party with antique silver.

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Sponsors: Frontgate, Ellen and George Rieveschl

Fine Arts Fund Partner: U.S. Bank

Jewels of Time: Watches from the Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute
Nov. 30, 2007–Jan. 27, 2008
The ornate and historic timepieces in the exhibition Jewels of Time: Watches from the Munson-Williams-Proctor Art Institute call to mind the Tafts’ own collection of watches, as well as recognize the watch and clock making industries that are a part of Cincinnati’s history. The beautifully crafted watches will be on display November 30, 2007, through January 27, 2008. 

This exhibition presents 80 of the most visually appealing, finely worked, and technically sophisticated European and American watches from the collection formed around 1900 by brothers Thomas and Frederick Proctor, collectors from Utica, New York. Spanning the period of the Renaissance to the early 20th century, the collection is one of the largest and most important ever formed in the United States.

The installation will be divided into eleven different categories that demonstrate distinct types of watches, each with its own opulent masterpieces. This exhibition is the first to explore watches within the history of decorative arts and jewelry as opposed to the history of their engineering.

Museum exhibitions dedicated to any aspect of watchmaking come along rarely, however. This one will complement the Taft’s own historic watch collection and can be seen against the background of the watchmaking industry that flourished in the Tristate area during the 19th and 20th centuries.

Jewels of Time was organized by the Museum of Art, Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute, Utica, New York. The exhibition and catalogue were funded in part by the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency.

Sponsors:
Charles H. Dater Foundation
A Friend of the Taft Museum of Art
Ellen and George Rieveschl Endowment
Wodecroft Foundation
The Carl Lindner Family
Legg Mason

75th Anniversary Season Sponsor: Western & Southern Financial Group

Fine Arts Fund Partner: P & G

2007

Hiram Powers: Genius in Marble
May 18–August 12, 2007
This exhibition explores the Cincinnati origins, patronage, artistic production, and techniques of Hiram Powers, the most famous mid-19th-century American sculptor. Approximately 35 sculptures and some artifacts from public and private collections explore Powers's influential processes of plaster modeling and marble-cutting, his portrait busts, and his ideal (allegorical) subjects. Powers is important in the history of the Baum-Longworth-Sinton-Taft House. Nicholas Longworth was an early supporter, making possible Powers' stay in Washington, D.C. and indirectly his trip to Italy, from which he never returned. Members of the Sinton and Taft families had their portrait busts made by Powers. This exhibition will be accompanied by a catalogue offering new research on the artist.

Luminist Horizons: The Art and Collection of James A. Suydam
January 26–April 29, 2007
Luminism refers to a group of scenic American 19th-century landscape paintings with profoundly quiet moods and almost magical effects of light. Their saturation of light and atmosphere has been much admired and often connected to American intellectual trends of the time, including Transcendentalism. James Augustus Suydam was one of the Luminist landscapists who painted in the Hudson River valley, along the Rhode Island coast, and in other locations. A man of independent means, he not only painted but also assembled a fine collection of works by his American and European colleagues. Approximately 55 works selected from the National Academy in New York City highlight the finest examples of Suydam's masterful art and superlative collection. Included are major paintings by John F. Kensett, Asher B. Durand, Frederic Edwin Church, and Sanford Gifford.

Small Paintings
December 15, 2006–April 15, 2007
Treasures can as often be found in small frames as in large ones. A group of diminutive oil paintings from the Taft Museum of Art and Cincinnati Art Museum offers an intimate experience of collecting tastes at the turn of the 20th century. Featured are tiny paintings by 18th- and 19th-century artists from France, Holland, Belgium, and the United States.

2006

An Antique Christmas at the Taft Museum of Art
November 17, 2006–January 7, 2007
Bring the whole family as the halls and galleries of the Taft Museum of Art are adorned with antique Christmas decorations and festive greenery, and the Dining Room table is set for a holiday party with sparkling china, crystal, and silver. Traditional German feather trees made of wire and dyed goose feathers are trimmed with rare ornaments from the mid-19th through early 20th century and surrounded by toys, figures, and dolls. Featured are Belsnickles (papier-mâché Santas), Kugels (blown-glass ornaments with decorative metal tops), Dresdens (embossed paper ornaments), paper dolls, and many other beautiful and rare ornaments on loan from private collections.

Michael Scott: Farny Fables
September 29–December 31, 2006
Contemporary artist Michael Scott's new sequence of 30 vividly colored and imagined pictures offers one surprise after another. Using a realistic technique that entices the eye, Scott offers an original meditation on problems of luck, originality, value, and worth. Along the way, he pays tribute to the old masters by borrowing and recasting motifs from great works of art, including two pictures from the Taft Museum of Art. Scott sets his unusual story in lushly rendered environments that draw on 17th-century Dutch painting, the Old West, and 20th-century pop culture. A printed narrative by the artist carries viewers through the engaging tale, while an additional group of six oil studies offers insight into his working process.

A Western View: Five Paintings by Henry Farny
October 13–December 10, 2006
Native American Indian life in the American West inspired 19th-century Cincinnati artist Henry Farny (1847-1916). He painted Indians hunting, trekking, and camping in stunning wilderness landscapes at a time when the American frontier was already disappearing and tribes were mostly confined to reservations. Farny singled out the exotic aspects of the legendary West but also highlighted the Indians' dignity and harmony with nature. A Western View, a selection of five of Farny's nostalgic and luminous pictures, is timed to coincide at the Taft Museum of Art with a larger exhibition of contemporary art, Michael Scott: Farny Fables, in which the living artist Scott refers frequently to Farny's body of work. 

Dark Jewels: Chinese Black and Brown Ceramics from the Shatzman Collection
July 14–September 10, 2006
Primarily dating from the 11th through the 14th centuries, 70 examples explore the subtle and rich beauty of tea bowls, jars, bottles, and other ceramic forms created during the Song, Jin, and Yuan dynasties of China. During these periods, patronage by the ruling class and educated elite had an impact on the development of distinctive aesthetics in ceramics. Produced at numerous kilns over a large geographic area, the black and brown wares with their striking patterns and pictorial designs were achieved by sophisticated manipulation of glazes rich in iron oxide.

Marvels of Maiolica: Italian Renaissance Ceramics from the Corcoran Gallery of Art Collection
April 7–June 18, 2006
Approximately 50 pieces of Italian Renaissance maiolica (tin-glazed earthenware) include plates, apothecary jars, inkwells, and other types of decorative objects from all the major centers of production, including Faenza, Urbino, and Tuscany. The objects are decorated with scenes from mythology, the Bible, history, portraiture, coats-of-arms, and other colorful and fanciful design elements.

American Impressions: An Arcadian Vision, Paintings from the Akron Art Museum
December 16, 2005–March 12, 2006
Spanning the years 1860 to 1917, the 35 paintings in this exhibition display the broad range of subject matter and technical developments that marked the Impressionist movement in Europe. The Impressionists' radical experiments with atmospheric effects, optical relationships between color and light, and brighter palettes likewise influenced their American counterparts, who successfully applied them to American landscapes and portraiture. Artists include William Merritt Chase, Frank Duveneck, Frederick Childe Hassam, George Inness, and John Twachtman among others.