Category: Our Collection
-
Baltimore and World War II’s Impact on Artist Matsumi Kanemitsu
One of the first Japanese American servicemen detained in the wake of Pearl Harbor drew on personal experience to develop his work outside of formal training Few people are aware that West Coast abstract artist and influential college educator Matsumi Kanemitsu (1922-1992), or Mike as he was known to his friends, spent his formative years […]
| 09.20.2023 -
Bark Cloth Defies Categorization
As much of a textile as it is a painted canvas or a work on paper, barkcloth—made from the inner bark of trees—confounds Western notions of art. By not fitting neatly into the artistic genres taught in predominantly Euro-American institutions, bark cloth prompts us to question and challenge the structures that shape our surroundings, said […]
Irene Bantigue | 07.28.2023 -
16 New Acquisitions on View This Summer
The BMA has a history of collecting art that responds to the present moment, including pivotal gifts from Baltimore’s Cone sisters, whose acquisitions from living artists encouraged the Museum’s commitment to contemporary art. Our curatorial team continues this longstanding tradition, creating new ways to interpret art history and acquiring artworks that tell the rich and […]
Staff | 06.29.2023 -
Recently Retired Senior Registrar Melanie Harwood Reflects on Five Decades at the BMA
When Melanie Harwood began volunteering at the BMA in 1972, she had no idea that she was embarking on a 50-year career at the Museum. She had just graduated with an art history degree from Wellesley College and had some experience working in an art gallery in Boston when she moved to Baltimore with her […]
Anne Brown | 02.27.2023 -
Five Most Loved Artworks at the BMA
Hearts for Art returned this past Valentine’s Day weekend, and votes for the favorite artworks of 2023 have officially been counted. During this annual celebration, now in its tenth year at the BMA, visitors are invited to wander the galleries and leave paper hearts in front of the works they love the most. This year’s […]
Staff | 02.23.2023 -
From the Ground Up
New Interpretation for the Antioch Floor Mosaics Reflect Many Cultural Influences Situated near the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in present-day Türkiye, the ancient cities of Antioch and Daphne were thriving cultural, business, and political centers between the 1st and 6th centuries. Since the 1940s, fragments of floor mosaics from the homes of cosmopolitan elites […]
Staff | 02.10.2023 -
Woodlawn Vase: The Prize of Preakness
Proudly standing just under three feet tall, the Maryland Jockey Club’s lavishly ornate Woodlawn Vase is perhaps the most famous trophy in American sports history and certainly one of the most important pieces of presentation silver in the United States. Visitors to the Baltimore Museum of Art can see the original Woodlawn Vase year-round, except […]
Anne Brown | 05.20.2022 -
Baltimore History Figures Prominently in New Center for Prints, Drawings, and Photographs
This winter, as you step into the Nancy Dorman and Stanley Mazaroff Center for the Study of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs, look up at the stone archway to see figures of the past welcoming a new present. Sculpted by Giuseppe Franzoni (b. Italy, 1775–1815), the stone archway features the Roman deities Mercury and Ceres and […]
Staff | 11.30.2021 -
Win a Gee’s Bend-Inspired Community Quilt
The foundation of quilt-making is love—it is this love that allows quilts to reflect a range of humanity. Historian and artist Suzanne Coley’s words were met with nods of agreement and smiles from more than 200 faces in gallery view during a virtual quilting bee held this past March. One year into the pandemic, the […]
Anne Brown | 08.19.2021 -
A Fierce Education
I first met Sharon Lockhart in Israel in 2011. I’d been invited to contribute an essay to the catalog for Lockhart’s project on choreographer Noa Eshkol, soon to premiere at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem and the Center for Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv. 1 Lockhart and I talked about her recent time in Poland, where […]
Eva Díaz | 03.24.2021
