Upcoming Exhibitions

John Storrs: Machine-Age Modernist

May 12 – September 3, 2010

One of America’s most important modernists, John Storrs (1885 - 1956) produced a remarkable body of sculpture that helped invigorate a largely academic medium with dynamism previously unknown in the United States. As a figure situated at the forefront of both European and American avant-garde movements, Storrs became part of a vibrant, early twentieth-century culture enthralled with invention and stretching the visual parameters of art. During the early 1920s, he studied with Auguste Rodin in Paris and then became acquainted with many members of Katherine Dreier’s Société Anonyme, a circle of artists that included Marcel Duchamp, Man Ray, Charles Demuth, Joseph Stella, and Morton Schamberg, among others.

This, the first exhibition of Storrs’s work in over twenty years, will be comprised of approximately forty sculptures and drawings gathered from various national collections such as those of the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Indianapolis Museum of Art, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Des Moines Art Center, Munson-Williams-Proctor Art Institute, and St. Louis Art Museum, among other institutions and private lenders. After its debut at the Boston Athenæum, the exhibition will travel to the Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, Florida, and the Grey Art Gallery, New York University. It will be accompanied by a fully illustrated publication of approximately one hundred and fifty pages.

This exhibition is guest curated by Debra Bricker Balken and organized at the Boston Athenæum by David B. Dearinger, Susan Morse Hilles Curator of Paintings & Sculpture.

Major funding for this project has been provided by the Henry Luce Foundation, the Florence Gould Foundation, Furthermore: a program of the J. M. Kaplan Fund, and Cushing Academy. Additional support has been provided by the Susan Morse Hilles Bicentennial Fund for Exhibitions, Donors to the Richard Wendorf Bicentennial Fund for Exhibitions, and the following generous patrons: Elizabeth and Robert Owens, Anne and Joseph P. Pellegrino, Sandy and Jim Righter, and two anonymous donors.  

Elegant Enigmas: The Art of Edward Gorey

February 9 - June 3, 2011

Carnivorous plants, falling masonry, and uninvited guests fill the imaginary world of artist and author Edward Gorey. His stories and accompanying illustrations maintain a delicate balance between the hilarious and the horrific. 

Gorey’s voracious consumption of literature, his love of the ballet, and his off beat and wry view of the world resulted in a sardonic and witty oeuvre. This exhibition explores the diversity of Gorey’s art through original pen and ink illustrations, preparatory sketches, unpublished drawings, and ephemera. Drawn from the holdings of the Gorey Charitable Trust, the exhibition includes approximately 180 objects, including selections from The Gashlycrumb Tinies, The Unstrung Harp, The Gilded Bat, and other well-known Gorey publications. 

Edward St. John Gorey (1925-2000) was born in Chicago, educated at Harvard, and lived in New York. He wrote over 100 books, including The Gashlycrumb Tinies, The Doubtful Guest, and The Wuggly Ump; created prize-winning set and costume designs for productions for theaters from Cape Cod to Broadway; and published illustrations in publications such as the New Yorker and the New York Times and for books by authors such as Charles Dickens, Edward Lear, Samuel Beckett, John Updike, Virginia Woolf, and H.G. Wells. His animated credits for the PBS series Mystery introduced him to millions of television viewers. His masterful pen and ink illustrations and his ironic, offbeat humor have brought him critical acclaim and an avid following throughout the world. 

This exhibition is organized by the Brandywine River Museum, Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, and is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue by curator and critic Karen Wilkin. The exhibition is organized at the Boston Athenæum by David B. Dearinger, Susan Morse Hilles Curator of Paintings & Sculpture.