The High Museum of Arts has scheduled exhibits for 2021 that pay tribute to female creators and outsider artists. The museum will place side by side the work of two masters. It will offer comprehensive retrospectives of two Georgia artists.
This year’s programming will also showcase the High’s deep photography collection, including its 25-year project of commissioning photographers to capture images of the South.
The upcoming shows will include:
“Our Good Earth: Rural Life and American Art,” April 17-Aug. 1, 2021
Through prints, drawings and photographs from the High’s collection, the exhibition explores rural life and the mythic figure of the farmer, featuring works from Winslow Homer, Rhonda Nicholls, Thomas Hart Benton, Marion Greenwood, Clarence John Laughlin, Lewis Hine and Andrew Wyeth.
Credit: High Museum of Art
Credit: High Museum of Art
“Underexposed: Women Photographers from the Collection” April 17-Aug. 1, 2021
More than 100 photographs from the High’s collection chart the history of photography from its beginnings to the present, as interpreted by the work of women photographers. This show will highlight pioneers such as Anna Atkins and recent experimentations from Betty Hahn, Barbara Kasten and Meghann Riepenhoff.
“Calder-Picasso” June 26-Sept. 19, 2021
Though Alexander Calder and Pablo Picasso barely met, one can find parallels in their work. This show includes more than 100 paintings, sculptures and works on paper from all phases of Calder’s and Picasso’s careers.
“Electrifying Design: A Century of Lighting” July 2-Sept. 26, 2021
Visitors will see rare lighting examples by designers including Achille Castiglioni, Christian Dell, Greta Magnusson Grossman, Poul Henningsen, Ingo Maurer, Verner Panton, Gino Sarfatti, Ettore Sottsass and Wilhelm Wagenfeld, among others.
“Gatecrashers: The Rise of the Self-Taught Artist in America” Aug. 20-Dec. 11, 2021
Artists without formal training “crashed the gates” of major museums after World War I. “Gatecrashers” will highlight three painters who became the most widely celebrated self-taught artists of that time — John Kane, Horace Pippin and Anna Mary Robertson “Grandma” Moses — and will present their work alongside paintings by others, including Morris Hirshfield, Lawrence Lebduska and Josephine Joy.
“Really Free: The Radical Art of Nellie Mae Rowe” Sept. 3, 2021-Jan. 9, 2022
During the last 15 years of her life, Nellie Mae Rowe (1900-1982) welcomed visitors to her Vinings “Playhouse,” which she decorated with found-object installations, handmade dolls, chewing-gum sculptures and hundreds of drawings.
“Picturing the South: 25 Years” Nov. 5, 2021-Feb. 6, 2022
In 1996 the High began commissioning photographers for a project called “Picturing the South,” building a collection of more than 250 photographs that capture the region. This exhibit brings together all the commissions for the first time, including photographs from Sally Mann’s “Motherland” series; Dawoud Bey’s over-life-size portraits of Atlanta high school students; Richard Misrach’s “Cancer Alley” industrial landscapes; and new commissions by An-My Lê, Sheila Pree Bright and Jim Goldberg.
“KAWS PRINTS” December 2021-March 2022
The work of artist Brian Donnelly (known as KAWS) fuses the worlds of design, popular culture and fine art. KAWS’s editioned prints in the High’s collection include the portfolios “UPS AND DOWNS” (2013), “BLAME GAME” (2014), “NO REPLY” (2015), “MAN’S BEST FRIEND” (2015), “THE NEWS” (2017) and “TENSION” (2019).
Currently on view at the High Museum:
Credit: High Museum of Art
Credit: High Museum of Art
“Bestowing Beauty: Masterpieces from Persian Lands” Through April 18, 2021
The show highlights the artistic and cultural heritage of Iranian civilization from the 6th to the 19th century, including carpets, textiles, manuscripts, paintings, ceramics, lacquer, metalwork and jeweled objects.
Credit: High Museum of Art
Credit: High Museum of Art
“David Driskell: Icons of Nature and History” Through May 9, 2021
David Driskell of Eastonton was known for his painting and printmaking, often characterized by his use of collage. The exhibit presents highlights of his career and is the first major survey of his work since his death in April 2020 at the age of 88. The exhibit spans seven decades of his output from the 1950s to the 2000s.
“Ragnar Kjartansson: The Visitors” Through May 9, 2021
In this video installation by Icelandic artist Ragnar Kjartansson, performers and musicians play in unison, though each occupies a separate rooms within a historic 43-room mansion on Rokeby Farm, an estate located in upstate New York.
“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.
The High Museum of Art is at 1280 Peachtree Street. Information: 404-733-4400; high.org
