Motorcycling ensemble, detail, 1930s Photo: Brian Sanderson © FIDM Museum Courtesy American Federation of Arts

Sporting Fashion: Outdoor Girls 1800 to 1960

October 14, 2023–January 14, 2024 | Fifth Third Gallery, Sinton Gallery, and Collection Galleries

Sporting Fashion: Outdoor Girls 1800 to 1960 explores women’s ongoing negotiation of the demands of fashion, function, and feminine decorum. Featuring over 60 fully accessorized ensembles, it is the first exhibition to consider the evolution of women’s sporting and leisure attire, revealing how clothing was designed to accommodate a variety of activities ranging from horseback riding to golfing to motorcycling. As both athletes and spectators, women—and the innovative and stylish attire they wore—helped break down the barriers that had isolated them from the then male-dominated sporting world. Sporting Fashion is co-organized by the American Federation of Arts and the FIDM Museum at the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising, Los Angeles.

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Charles François Daubigny, The Cabin Boy Fishing, 1861, published 1862 by Alfred Codart, Paris, etching. Collection of the Estate of Sallie Robinson Wadsworth.

The Boat Trip: Etchings by Charles François Daubigny

June 17–September 10, 2023 | Sinton Gallery

In 1857, French landscape painter Charles François Daubigny (1817–1878) purchased a 27-foot ferryboat and converted it into a floating studio from which he could observe and paint at all times of day. Rivers often take center stage in Daubigny’s paintings—three of which are in the Taft collection—with innovative, water-level perspectives that influenced younger generations of artists, including the Impressionist Claude Monet, who built a studio boat of his own. The Boat Trip documents Daubigny’s first studio boat voyages on the river Seine north of Paris. During these trips, Daubigny created a visual diary of 47 ink drawings, from which he selected 15 as the basis for the etching series Voyage en Bateau (The Boat Trip). The artist’s sense of humor and whimsy—as well as his endearing relationship with his 12-year-old son and “cabin boy” Charlot—emerge throughout scenes of eating, sleeping, fishing, and painting aboard the rustic boat nicknamed the Botin (little box).

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Sandy Skoglund (American, born 1946), Revenge of the Goldfish, detail, 1981, Cibachrome print; artist’s print 7/30. Bank of America Collection. Courtesy of the artist

Modern Women/Modern Vision: Photography from the Bank of America Collection

June 3–September 10, 2023 | Fifth Third Gallery

Ever since photography’s inception in the mid-1800s, women have forged pioneering paths for the medium. Come trace the influential role of women photographers over the past century through the work of artists such as pictorialist Gertrude Käsebier; modernists Margaret Bourke-White and Imogen Cunningham; Depression-era documentary photographers Dorothea Lange and Esther Bubley; post–World War II innovators Diane Arbus, Cindy Sherman, and Barbara Kruger; and contemporary photographers Carrie Mae Weems and Rineke Dijkstra. The approximately 100 photographic prints in Modern Women / Modern Vision honor women’s accomplishments in creating radically inventive images at each phase of modern history. This exhibition has been loaned through the Bank of America Art in our Communities® program.

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Terence Hammonds (American, born 1976), Hope, 2022, HD print on aluminum, 24 x 18 in. Photo by the artist

Universal Magnetic: New Works by Terence Hammonds

February 16–June 4, 2023 | Sinton Gallery

Discover prints and ceramics by Terence Hammonds that encourage positive change. Several of Hammonds’s ceramics also will be on display in the permanent collection galleries, allowing for conversations about historical and contemporary works of art.

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Sedrick Huckaby, She Wore Her Family’s Quilt, detail, 2015, oil on canvas. Photo by Gregory Staley, © Sedrick Huckaby

Memories & Inspiration: The Kerry and C. Betty Davis Collection of African American Art

February 4–May 14, 2023 | Fifth Third Gallery

Memories & Inspiration features selections from the private collection of Kerry and C. Betty Davis. For over 35 years, Mr. Davis, a retired postal worker, and Mrs. Davis, a former television news producer, have collected with a focus on diverse 20th- and 21st-century approaches to the Black image. According to Mr. Davis, “Our goal is to preserve cultural memories and provide the community with a source of inspiration.” The exhibition features approximately 60 works of art, including paintings, prints, drawings, photographs, sculptures, and mixed media by well-known African American artists Romare Bearden, Elizabeth Catlett, Sam Gilliam, Loïs Mailou Jones, Jacob Lawrence, Gordon Parks, Alma Thomas, and others.

Organized and toured by International Art & Artists, Washington, DC, Memories & Inspiration provides an example of a private collection formed by a singular vision. The Davis residence has been called “a museum in a home,” offering an enlightening comparison to Charles and Anna Taft’s own collection. The Davises’ collection reveals their hopes and passions, infusing Memories & Inspiration with a tremendous personal power.

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Imitator of Rembrandt van Rijn (Dutch, 1606–1669), Man Leaning on a Windowsill, probably early 1700s, oil on canvas. Taft Museum of Art, Bequest of Louise Taft Semple, 1962.1

Fakes, Forgeries, and Followers in the Taft Collection

October 22, 2022–February 5, 2023 | Sinton Gallery

Fakes and forgeries provide some of the most compelling stories in the art world. Did you know that the Taft collection contains some of its own attribution mysteries, some solved and others still in question? This small exhibition will reveal the fascinating histories of selected paintings and works of decorative art normally kept in storage. Among them, portraits originally thought to be by Rembrandt van Rijn demonstrate how authenticating the great Dutch master’s paintings has evolved in the century since Charles and Anna Taft built their collection. Paintings previously believed to have been created by Spanish artist Francisco de Goya and English landscapist John Constable were later discovered to be works by their followers. Nineteenth-century carved stone plaques once masqueraded as Renaissance portraits of royalty. A pair of porcelain vases was made in France in the late 1800s rather than, as the Tafts believed, in China a century earlier. Follow along as we trace the detective work that uncovered the true identities of these works of art, many of which have not been seen by the public in more than 30 years.

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Nancy Ford Cones (American, 1869–1962),The Abode of the Gnomes, about 1921, kallitype tissue print. Collection of W. Roger and Patricia K. Fry

Craft and Camera: The Art of Nancy Ford Cones

October 1, 2022–January 15, 2023 | Fifth Third Gallery

On a small riverside farm in Loveland, Ohio, Nancy Ford Cones created photographs that earned her a national reputation during a time when female artists continued to struggle for recognition. Despite the praise they received during her lifetime, Cones’s imaginative and exquisitely crafted works were largely forgotten after her death. This exhibition resurrects the gifted artist’s career and contributions to the field of photography. Between about 1900 and 1939, Cones made thousands of photographs that featured country life, fantastical visions, and literary characters, employing the help of neighbors, friends, and family who posed in costume around the farm and its environs. Working in partnership with her husband, James, who printed her work using a variety of techniques and papers, Cones conceived evocative subjects that emulated 19th-century European paintings.

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Vuelo Sin Fronteras / Flight Without Borders

November 12, 2022–January 8, 2023 | Collection Galleries

This year, the Taft invited three local artists— Gabriela Falconi-Piedra, Pedro Moreno, and Fabiola Rodríguez Ornelas—to decorate a six-foot holiday tree in the museum’s Duncanson Foyer. The artists were born in Ecuador, Bolivia, and Mexico, respectively. Their installation features a fantastic array of paper and fabric birds, butterflies, and flowers, and a paper nest to explore the concepts of migration, belonging, and diversity.

The Taft collaborated on this project with Wave Pool Art Center’s Welcome Project, which seeks to empower Cincinnati’s refugee and immigrant population while connecting, assisting, and inspiring all through art and food.

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John Rocque, surveyor (France, active 1734–62) and John Pine, engraver (England, 1690–1756), A Plan of the Cities of London and Westminster, and Borough of Southwark; with the Contiguous Buildings, 1737–46, engraving on 24 sheets of rag paper, mounted on cotton muslin. Lent by the Estate of Sallie Robinson Wadsworth

Jane Austen in London: A Wall-Sized Map

June 11–October 9, 2022 | Sinton Gallery

Measuring 7 by 13 feet, this map was made in the mid-1700s, about fifty years before Jane Austen began writing her celebrated novels. While Austen’s stories take place mostly in the English countryside, this exhibition will illustrate London locations from both her fiction and her life. Journey past the Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, and St. Paul’s Cathedral—as well as through cow pastures, timber yards, and waterworks—as you trace your way through the metropolis and its environs. This massive work on paper represents a monumental achievement in cartography, or mapmaking. It also offers a rare opportunity to experience the history of one of the world’s great cities and its connections to one of the world’s great authors. Lent by the Estate of Sallie Robinson Wadsworth.

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Wedding Dress, Sense and Sensibility, 1995, Ang Lee, director. Worn by Kate Winslet as Marianne Dashwood. Jenny Beavan and John Bright, costume designers

Jane Austen: Fashion & Sensibility

June 11–September 4, 2022 | Fifth Third Gallery and Collection Galleries

Jane Austen’s novels have been cherished by millions of readers for two hundred years. Her classic stories have reached many others as adaptations for the screen. Jane Austen: Fashion & Sensibility features approximately forty costumes and accessories worn in popular film and television productions. Drawn from the collection of award-winning British costume house Cosprop Ltd., these meticulously tailored ensembles will transport you to the Regency era through ball gowns, wedding dresses, day dresses, hats, jackets, waistcoats, riding habits, and other middle- and upper-class clothing. Fashion & Sensibility provides an unforgettable opportunity to see, up close, costumes worn by Hollywood celebrities including Kate Winslet, Emma Thompson, Gwyneth Paltrow, Judi Dench, Colin Firth, and Hugh Grant. The exhibition brings to life beloved characters from Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Emma, and Mansfield Park, while revealing powerful themes of class, gender, and social dynamics in Austen’s world.  

Presented by Exhibits Development Group, USA, in cooperation with Cosprop Ltd., London, England 

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“J. Baum” inscribed inside the roof of the Taft Museum of Art’s portico

Love This House: Preserving a National Historic Landmark

June 11–September 4, 2022 | Outside Fifth Third Gallery

In 2021–22, the Taft Museum of Art partnered with GBBN Architects and HGC Construction to preserve the exterior of the Baum-Longworth-Sinton-Taft house, a National Historic Landmark. The house was built around 1820, making it downtown Cincinnati’s oldest wooden residence in its original location. Investigation prior to the project revealed significant water damage to the wooden siding and the structure beneath. In this small display, learn more about how the house has been preserved for future generations, and how the project will also help protect the art collection within.

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In a New Light | Treasures from the Taft

July 3, 2021–May 1, 2022 | Fifth Third Gallery

In a New Light explores a broad range of eras, cultures, and art forms through their historical context, subject matter, materials, and makers. European decorative arts and Chinese porcelains dazzle the eye with their intricate designs and brilliant colors. Nineteenth-century American furniture impresses us with its stately elegance. European and American portraits and landscape paintings show off the mastery of some of the greatest artists of the past. Through select works, the exhibition reveals centuries-old social concerns such as the distribution of wealth, environmental destruction, and gender and racial inequality.

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Thomas Gainsborough (English, 1727–1788), Maria Walpole, Duchess of Gloucester, about 1779, oil on canvas. Taft Museum of Art, 1931.406

Borrowed Gems from the Taft Museum of Art

July 23, 2021–February 21, 2022 | Cincinnati Museum Center

The Taft Museum of Art shares more than 40 works of art with audiences at the Cincinnati Museum Center. Borrowed Gems tells the story of the Tafts’ collection and its impact on the Cincinnati community. Portraits, landscape paintings and decorative art reveal how the collection inspired Cincinnati artisans to create beautiful objects of their own. Through their vision as art collectors and philanthropists, Charles and Anna Taft left a legacy that continues to inspire each generation anew.

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Built to Last: The Taft Historic House at 200

July 10, 2020–June 6, 2021 |  Sinton Gallery

Explore the history of downtown Cincinnati’s oldest surviving wooden residence still in its original location. The Baum-Longworth-Sinton-Taft historic house turns 200 this year! Constructed around 1820 by entrepreneur Martin Baum, the National Historic Landmark became a public museum in 1932 to house the exceptional art collection of its final residents, Charles Phelps Taft and Anna Sinton Taft.

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Walk This Way: Footwear from the Stuart Weitzman Collection of Historic Shoes

February 27–June 6, 2021 |  Fifth Third Gallery

From silk boudoir shoes created for the 1867 Paris Exposition to leather spectator pumps signed by the 1941 New York Yankees, Walk This Way features more than 100 striking pairs of shoes. Organized by the New-York Historical Society, this exhibition presents footwear—spanning nearly 200 years—from the collection of high-fashion shoe designer Stuart Weitzman. Weitzman’s wife, businesswoman and philanthropist Jane Gershon Weitzman, formed and added to the collection as a gift to her husband over their 50 years of marriage.

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Joyful Expressions

November 27, 2020 – January 3, 2021 | Music Room

Every year, audiences look forward to creatively inspired holiday decorations at the Taft with ties to heritage and traditions. This year award-winning fiber artist, Cynthia Lockhart, is helping ensure this tradition lives on while embracing the creation of new ways to spark holiday joy in a difficult year. 

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N. C. Wyeth: New Perspectives

February 8–May 3, 2020  |  Fifth Third Gallery

This exhibition showcases the work of N. C. Wyeth (1882–1945), the patriarch of one of America’s most prominent artistic families. Co-organized by the Brandywine River Museum of Art in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania and the Portland Museum of Art in Maine, this exhibition brings together approximately 50 large-scale paintings spanning several decades. Many of Wyeth’s grand images bring to life stories in Treasure Island, The Last of the Mohicans, The Boy’s King Arthur, and Rip Van Winkle. However, Wyeth deserves much greater appreciation for his little-known fine art paintings. New Perspectives revises his reputation by also highlighting his private work.

Journey to Freedom: Art Quilts by Cynthia Lockhart

December 13, 2019–March 15, 2020  |  Sinton Gallery

Cynthia Lockhart’s textile creations invite viewers to embark on a journey of discovery. Composed of colorful fabrics arranged in dynamic patterns, her fiber art tells a story—one that encourages people to more deeply understand the diversity of people, cultures, and beauty in the world around them. Lockhart’s exhibition, Journey to Freedom, tells heroic and joyful stories of her ancestors, celebrating a strong people who endured many injustices. The works in the show also pose questions about the perceptions of freedom in America. Lockhart hopes that her art serves as a catalyst for individuals to continue to be inspired to dream, dance, sing, and shout their way forward to unbounded possibilities of freedom.

The Poetry of Nature: Hudson River School Landscapes from the New-York Historical Society

October 5, 2019–January 12, 2020  |  Fifth Third Gallery

The paintings in The Poetry of Nature reveal the natural wonders that sparked the first artistic movement in the United States. Sketching outdoors and composing their ideal visions of the landscape in their studios, these artists filled their canvases with majestic mountains, tranquil valleys, enchanting forests, shimmering lakes, and luminous skies. Works by well-known artists including Thomas Cole, Asher B. Durand, Jasper Francis Cropsey, and Sanford Robinson Gifford join lesser-known gems by Louisa Davis Minot and William Louis Sonntag—who began his career in Cincinnati—to paint a picture of America’s promise embodied in landscape.

Antique Christmas

November 8, 2019–January 5, 2020  |  Baum-Longworth-Sinton-Taft House

Enjoy a glimpse of Christmas past at the Taft Museum of Art’s annual exhibition of holiday treasures. Visitors will find beautiful decorations throughout the historic house, thanks to generous collectors from Cincinnati and beyond. This year, guests can expect a number of new and exciting displays, including several feather trees with decorations ranging from vintage Disney ornaments to characters from German fairy tales. Figures of the jolly old elf will also be on view under a large tree adorned with antique paper, chenille, and glass ornaments.

Fearful Symmetry: A Multimedia Installation by Alice Pixley Young

August 30–December 1, 2019  |  Sinton Gallery

Multimedia artist Alice Pixley Young’s immersive installations bring together a wide range of materials including cut paper, cast glass, ash, and salt, intermingled with video projections, sound, light, and shadow. Her work invokes 19th-century landscape traditions while examining environmental change in today’s natural world.

L’Affichomania: The Passion for French Posters

June 8, 2019–September 15, 2019  |  Fifth Third Gallery

Meant to stop people in their tracks with bold colors and seductive imagery, French advertising posters of the turn of the 20th century ultimately became highly collectible works of art. L’Affichomania: The Passion for French Posters presents the work of five innovative artists: Jules Chéret, Eugène Grasset, Théophile-Alexandre Steinlen, Alphonse Mucha, and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.

Magic & Melodrama: Cincinnati Posters from the Gilded Age

May 3–August 18, 2019  |  Sinton Gallery

At the turn of the 20th century, traveling actors, illusionists, and theatrical producers promoted live performances with brilliantly colored printed outdoor advertisements. This exhibition features seven theater posters from the collection of the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County.

Winslow Homer to Georgia O’Keeffe: American Paintings from The Phillips Collection

February 9–May 19, 2019  |  Fifth Third Gallery

Winslow Homer to Georgia O’Keeffe traces a century of the modern creative spirit in the United States, ranging from realistic landscapes to bold abstract forms. Fifty-five works by American masters—including Thomas Eakins, Winslow Homer, Edward Hopper, Georgia O’Keeffe, and Helen Frankenthaler—span the 1860s through the 1960s.

Travels with Turner: Watercolors from the Taft Collection

January 18–April 14, 2019  |  Sinton Gallery

Follow nineteenth-century British painter J. M. W. Turner on his travels throughout the United Kingdom and Europe—through his watercolors and an interactive digital map. This exhibition of the Taft Museum of Art’s ten watercolors by Turner focuses on the places he painted, including dramatic landscapes from Switzerland, Germany, France, England, Scotland, and Italy.

Paris to New York: Photographs by Berenice Abbott and Eugène Atget

October 6, 2018–January 20, 2019  |  Fifth Third Gallery

In Paris in the 1920s, the young American photographer Berenice Abbott (1898–1991) encountered the elderly French photographer Eugène Atget (1857–1927). Their contact would have profound and lasting effects on the careers and legacies of both artists. Through a sequence of riveting and often iconic images, the exhibition elaborates the relationship between Abbott’s and Atget’s photography.

vanessa german: running with freedom

July 13–October 21, 2018  |  Sinton Gallery and Longworth Foyer

Vanessa German empowers people through visual art and performance. German’s mixed-media sculptures and reliefs will be featured as part of the Duncanson Artist-in-Residence Program. Constructed from found objects including doll parts, antique tins, beads, household items, and other cast-off relics, her “power figures” evoke folk art traditions, religious icons, and African nkisi nkondi—ritual figures carved from wood to embody mystical forces.